The toll of poverty and war.

While I certainly respect the concern for the issue of abortion expressed by John Puffer in his letter ("Abortion is Key," Letters, January 2005), I am puzzled by the reasoning of his concluding sentence: "I agree that poverty and war are worthwhile issues, but certainly they don't hold a candle to murdering millions of his children."

War and poverty are, in fact, responsible for the deaths of millions of God's children, most of them innocent of responsibility for these conditions. Millions more find their hope to be dead because of the dehumanizing conditions brought on by both poverty and war. The toll of poverty and war far exceeds that of abortion.

Most of us understand that we cannot eliminate poverty and war simply by making them illegal. We must work long and hard to eradicate the root causes. Why is it so hard to think that the same may be true of abortion?

Bruce Lindgren

Independence, Missouri