Letter: Odd coupling

“Thank the Lord for Planned Parenthood.”

To some that may seem a dichotomy.

My experience: 1973-75 EMT/ambulance, Steubenville, Ohio; Gainesville Police Department, 1976-1984; rape crisis volunteer/Project HELP, five years, Naples.

My job with Project HELP was to meet and assist the victims. Initially, we met our victims at hospital emergency rooms. Our ERs have wonderful personnel but were naturally extremely busy. At times we waited three to four hours or more for an examination and a “rape kit” to be completed.

Planned Parenthood opened their arms to these victims by having their nurses meet us at their office — most times in the middle of the night. They gave comfort, compassion and medical aid (providing there weren’t major physical injuries), in a much-needed private and calm atmosphere.

In almost 15 years, I can’t begin to imagine how many times I had to look into the eyes of women who were the victims of incest, rape and spouse abuse. Thirty percent of rape victims are also incest victims and do not tell their families for that very reason.

I won’t argue that abstinence may be the best form of birth control, but maybe your letter writer from the Abstinence Council should be preaching abstinence to the rapists in our prisons. Due to revolving-door justice, they will surely be returning to society and bringing with them one of the highest rates of recidivism.

Don’t disparage Planned Parenthood to further your own views.

E.J. LoPresti/Naples