To the Editor,

In response to Mr. Liddle's Letter to the Editor, I must acknowledge his accuracy in noting how enormously proud I am of my family.  However, I am greatly disappointed in his lack of accuracy in his evaluation of my position on abortion and the content of the Reproductive Privacy Act. 

Leave it to Mr. Liddle to turn my family holiday card into an opportunity to discuss abortion in the local paper. His editorial falsely asserted that I supported legislation that permits abortion at any stage of pregnancy and for any reason. This is false and had Mr. Liddle read the Reproductive Privacy Act, he would have seen that the law expressly prohibits abortion after fetal viability except where necessary to preserve the life or health of the mother.

I am not “Pro-Abortion.” I am in support of allowing women to make their own choices about their reproductive health. Just because I support the right of a woman to make the most difficult choice imaginable, it does not mean that I think that an abortion is anything but tragic. I am proud of and grateful for my wife’s decision to carry and deliver our beautiful children, and I am proud that she lives in a state where the Government doesn’t dictate what goes on inside her own body.

Representative Evan Patrick Shanley

District 24: Greenwood Manor, Cowesett, Potowomut & East Greenwich.”