By JAN PATH | Wilton

I’m disappointed. Nowhere did I see a headline, “Dan Kelly wins Monroe County by large margin.” Which is exactly what happened: Kelly 6,369, Protasiewicz 4,970. If the opposite had happened, I think it would have been big news. Monroe County voters showed they DO value all life from conception to death. 

At the moment of conception, a new life has been created. I don’t understand how anyone can deny that. When a women has a miscarriage, folks say, “She lost her baby” ­­­— not that she lost her blob of cells. When abortion was approved, the mantra was “Safe, legal, and RARE.” What happened to that? 60 million lives lost is not rare. Minnesota has just passed a law that will legalize abortions up to BIRTH. Wonderful. Only six nations in the world allow that. We are in good company with the likes of North Korea and China, which respect no life. The Women’s Health Protection Act has been introduced again, which would do the same thing. Despite failing multiple times, it keeps getting introduced in spite of polls showing most Americans do not support late-term abortions. 

When will people wake up and realize this is about money? Abortion is a multi-million industry. Women’s lives are lost when we mix money with civil policy. Risks are more common with the abortion drug Mifepristone than realized. A new study from the University of Toronto found that one in 10 women who took the pill had to go the emergency room. The FDA has linked the drug with 28 women’s deaths and 4,000 serious complications. However, under President Obama, the FDA stopped requiring non-fatal complications be reported. WHY? Why wouldn’t you want to know what it was doing to women if you cared so much about them? 

Dan Kelly also stood for a legal system that was not soft on crime. Seattle, which passed a bill not to prosecute minor drug and theft offenses, is now paying the price. Five Starbucks, a drugstore, and many other businesses have had to close their doors due to the crime. I saw a news piece a few weeks ago showing city bus drivers worried about the amount of fentanyl smoke on their buses. You cannot smoke tobacco on the bus, but fentanyl is okay. They interviewed a health commissioner who stated public drug use was good — if an overdose occurred, there was a better chance of help. If I had not seen it with my own eyes, I would not have believed it. 

Common sense. What Midwesterners are known for. Monroe County proved they still have it.