A Vote for Peake
To the editor:
I was devastated but not shocked when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. We saw it coming as soon as the last conservative judge was appointed by Trump.
Fortunately, I live in Massachusetts, where we have a state legislature that moved quickly to pass comprehensive reproductive rights legislation to protect women and those who provide reproductive services to them. Thank you, state Rep. Sarah Peake, for your leadership and vote to support the women in our Commonwealth.
But the fight for civil rights has just begun. I fear that gay marriage is the next target of the Supreme Court. We need leaders who understand what’s at stake.
Sarah Peake is that type of leader. She has advocated for the rights of the LGBTQ community for as long as she’s been in office. This includes her fight to ban conversion therapy and to prohibit discrimination against transgendered members of our community. For Sarah, the fight to protect gay marriage is personal.
We need someone with the leadership and experience to protect our rights. Please join me in voting for Sarah Peake on Sept. 6.
Elizabeth Gawron
Provincetown
Peake’s Record on Abortion
To the editor:
State Rep. Sarah Peake of the 4th Barnstable District campaigns as a women’s health-care advocate, yet she accepts donations from those seeking to limit access to abortion services.
Those of us in the 4th Barnstable District live in an abortion desert. The closest abortion provider is in Attleboro, which, for the majority of Peake’s constituents, is over 100 miles away. Cape Cod Healthcare, the dominant local health-care provider, declines to provide abortion services in most cases.
Rep. Peake has claimed credit for passing the recent state legislation to protect abortion providers and to assist women seeking abortion services, which ironically are unavailable in her district.
Peake has received more than $6,000 in campaign contributions from executives at Cape Cod Healthcare in the last two years. Despite her claim of abortion service advocacy and her campaign rhetoric, she has not used her powerful voice as 2nd Assistant Speaker to advocate for abortion services in her own district. She has not urged Cape Cod Healthcare to provide this essential reproductive service.
Evidently, money buys silence.
Lee Chase
Wellfleet
Our Legislators ‘Appear Reticent’
To the editor:
“Abortion Rights Bill Lacks Cape Cod Access Expansion” (Aug. 11, page A4) skillfully laid out the positions of state Sen. Julian Cyr and state Rep. Sarah Peake.
Displaying no sense of urgency, Peake said that abortion access on the Cape is “something that we can and will revisit next session.” Cyr expressed hope that “in the coming months we can identify a path forward.”
Defending Outer Cape Health Services’ no-abortion policy, Cyr asserted, “To identify and recruit a provider who could administer abortions and all the logistics involved in that — that would be a very heavy lift.” Counseling patients and writing prescriptions for medication to induce nonsurgical abortions, however, would require no logistical support beyond that already available at OCHS facilities.
An OCHS spokesperson confirmed that its providers do not write prescriptions for abortion medication but gave no reason why. Similarly, Cape Cod Healthcare has not disclosed what is behind its policy not to provide elective abortions.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists holds that “Abortion is a safe, essential part of comprehensive health care.” The American Medical Association has declared that “health care, including reproductive health services like contraception and abortion, is a human right.”
But health-care organizations on Cape Cod have chosen not to provide abortion services to their patients. And the region’s legislators appear reticent to help their constituents obtain this essential component of health care close to home anytime soon.
Righting this wrong will require focused public pressure. Choose one barrier (or more) and express your outrage.
Ronald A. Gabel, M.D.
Yarmouth Port
Words and Actions
To the editor:
I have known and worked with Chris Dempsey during and since my time serving in the state Senate representing Cape Cod and the Islands. Chris is a person of true integrity, intelligence, creativity, and energy. These traits will make him a great state auditor.
Chris grew up in a union household. As the son of two public school teachers, he learned from an early age that it isn’t enough just to say the right things. You have to put those words into action. As auditor, Chris will hold our government accountable and make sure each state agency is true to its word.
We are in a climate crisis. Chris has a plan to help bring our carbon emissions down by becoming the first state in the nation to include carbon accounting in our state audits. Carbon audits would determine each state agency’s impact on our climate and recommend best practices to help us achieve the state’s climate goals.
Chris will work to make sure that more than $5 billion in federal Covid recovery funds will be spent on the people and places that need it the most across Massachusetts.
Chris doesn’t just have the right plans — he also has the right experience. He has demonstrated throughout his career that he is not afraid to stand up and fight for what’s most important. When corporate interests and high-powered insiders put forward an Olympic bid that required taxpayers to cover 100 percent of cost overruns, Chris co-founded No Boston Olympics. And even though he was outspent 1,500 to one, he won, saving Massachusetts taxpayers billions of dollars.
That’s the type of leadership we need, and that is why I am proud to support Chris Dempsey for our state auditor.
Dan Wolf
Harwich
Mental Health and the Next Election
To the editor:
Many thanks to Brian O’Malley for his insightful and informative piece on the interactions between our criminal justice system and the mental health and addiction challenges some of our fellow citizens face in that system [“Law Enforcement and Our Mental Health Crisis,” July 28, page A3].
Like Dr. O’Malley, I have been following the campaigns of district attorney candidate Rob Galibois (galiboisforda.com) and sheriff candidate Donna Buckley (buckley4sheriff.com), and I have been impressed with their commitment to meeting those challenges. I urge readers to check out their websites to learn about the ways they say they will use their offices to respond to the mental health and addiction needs of those in our criminal justice system and thereby make our communities safer.
Betsy Smith
Brewster
