It was noted in Sydney Stanton's article describing the ceremony at which Ms. Polls Rothstein was honored as "Woman of the Year" that the honoree was "convinced that the issue of abortion is a religious one and that the opposition is chiefly 'a small minority of the Catholic hierarchy."'

The right to life is not an invention of the Catholic Church or the Catholic hierarchy It is a biological fact. not a religious dogma. that life begins at fertilization.

A modicum of research will reveal that Mormons, Orthodox Jews, and many Protestant groups and individuals concur in the belief that life is the basic right of each individual.

Since Ms. Rothstein is fearful of "the government's role in the individual's abortion decision." one wonders why the county executive was invited to read a ^proclamation lauding the work of an individual whose ambition it is to destroy the county's most helpless constituents.

Ordinarily honors are bestowed on individuals or groups of individuals whose efforts and actions have brought some benefit to mankind. In this ceremony the recipient was honored for her extensive involvement in the ultimate form of child abuse - abortion - a gross inversion of values.

Patrick H. McHugh