Letters are posted as we receive them during the week, and before they are printed in the paper, so check back frequently to see new letters. If you'd like to send a letter to the editor, use this postmarks submission form, or email your letter directly to [email protected]. Thanks for your patience.

Dear Editor,
    As the Hays County water wars ["Hays County Water War," News, April 3] continue, my 25-year certified Organic farm is under attack from the possible development of rerouting Hwy. 150 within 100 feet of my farm. The massive amounts of vehicle emissions will pollute my soil, edible crops, and my rainwater collection system. Having just won the 2015 Blue Legacy Award Producer for Water Conservation for all my years of promoting water conservation, I am proud of the fact that I, as a local grower, have never pumped any aquifer water for production.
    With the development of this road, as we all know, it will only lead to more massive pumping of the aquifer which is unsustainable at present rates now for future speculative developments.

Dear Editor,
    In reading "Millions for Propaganda … Nothing for Women's Health," [News, April 17], I have a sick feeling that people just do not remember WHY abortion clinics came about in the first place.
    In the Sixties there were no choices in all of Texas, and wealthy parents would take their young ladies somewhere out of state to have clean abortions performed in hospitals. I heard two of my college girl friends recall their stories of their local “coat hanger” abortions that their Christian parents forced them to have. Taken to some shabby, dirty hotel room, they endured the exploration of a long wire inserted into the vagina searching for the opening to get into the uterus and stab the embryo. One sustained such wounding she would never have a child. The other received a puncture wound which later was operated on and so she was able to have a son later on. Just one, though. Their Christian parents were afraid of shame and judgments from their community. So we go back to that once the last clinic is closed.
    With our health care system supporting healthy options and able to help people in the right way, why does anyone send women back to the dirty hotels and backroom operations where they wave wires at your womb?
    For closing clinic doors will never stop abortions. Education stops them. Teach young people about how to completely take care of their sexuality, before they are active sexually. Puberty begins at 10, 11 years of age, so that is the time to be honest and intelligent.

Dear Editor,
    How do you write an article about Pregnancy Resource Centers [“Millions for Propaganda … Nothing for Women's Health,” News, April 17] without mentioning the thousands of babies’ lives that have been saved? Without mentioning the thousands of women whose lives were improved because they came to a Pregnancy Resource Center? How do you not talk to the women that felt like they had no other alternative but to abort their baby until they came to a Pregnancy Resource Center? There they found volunteers that were interested in improving the women’s lives and the lives of their babies. Not only do women get support throughout the pregnancy but many times for years afterward. This support is sometimes materials, including diapers, clothes for their babies, playpens, car seats, and much more. It also includes emotional and spiritual support.
    It is obvious that the author of the original article in your newspaper was blinded by her own agenda, as opposed to taking the time to find out the very human side of the Pregnancy Resource Centers. I would hope that the paper could find a fair and impartial reporter that might be willing to take some tours of the different Pregnancy Resource Centers in Austin and actually talk to the people so the paper could do an article about all the good that is accomplished. By the way, most PRCs also offer post-abortion help. For volunteers at Pregnancy Resource Centers it’s not about stopping an abortion, it’s about understanding that all people are deserving of human dignity no matter how small, no matter what their situation is, no matter what their race, no matter what their religious beliefs are. The volunteers want all people to feel the love that the volunteers have in their hearts and that all people can be forgiven for mistakes they’ve made. It’s about showing people there’s a better way, there’s a better future.

Dear Editor,
    This article ["Millions for Propaganda ... Nothing for Women's Health," News, April 17] was fantastic and long overdue. I'm a pro-choice activist new to Texas. I've been absolutely shocked at how women are treated in this state. A pregnant girl or woman will walk, unknowingly, into one of these CPCs and be in immediate danger. They are not staffed with any qualified medical personnel. These people can't even take her blood pressure. Yet they will sit and dispense erroneous information, paid for by taxpayers. I have heard them tell women abortion causes breast cancer, infertility, and birth defects in subsequent pregnancies. That abortion is a sin against God and they will burn in hell. They are given only Christian-based literature, which also contains lies. All paid for by raping our low-income housing funds.
    Isn't it bad enough we are already leading the country in repeat, teenage births? Or that women are buying bootleg abortifacients on the street, at our colleges, and even at flea markets? And I defy anyone to tell me these women aren't ending up in our emergency rooms, because we know they are. All of this abortion nonsense has only resulted in punishing low-income women who can't get to any of our clinics or go out of state. New York has seen a spike in abortion tourism from Texas. This state hasn't curbed abortion, only made it harder to obtain and far more dangerous. And Texas taxpayers are footing the bill for emergency room visits and dangerous CPCs.
    I do not feel Texas taxpayers should be paying for religious organizations to force their beliefs on women. At the very least, these non-medical personnel should be made to refer women who ask to safe, available abortion resources. Just in Austin, we have Planned Parenthood clinics and funding assistance from the Bridge Collective and the Lilith Fund. Isn't it preferable to provide this information rather than have a woman obtain illegal, bootleg abortifacients? Or, even worse, search out an illegal surgical abortion? And why are we paying these centers to tell women lies? To preach religion to them? Is that truly where taxpayer funding should be going? These centers are not doctors and they're not churches. So why are we paying them to pretend they are?

Dear Editor,
    How ironic to see your cover article, "Millions for propaganda ... Nothing for Women's Health" [News, April 17] within a few pages of your "Greg Abbott Death Watch"(formerly "Rick Perry Death Watch").
    You do believe in capital punishment. Your problems are just a matter of timing and who the executioner should be: The Texas Department of Corrections or Planned Parenthood.