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Lately, my mailbox has been deluged with DFL flyers depicting Tyler Kistner as some kind of boogeyman intent on stripping Minnesota women of their ability to have an abortion. While normal Minnesotans are trying to deal with $4-a-gallon gas, skyrocketing interest rates and the aftershocks of lockdowns and mask and vaccine mandates, the DFL obsesses over abortion. I guess it's the only issue it has left.

Kistner is running for Congress — a federal office. The recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions defederalized abortion, meaning that Congress has no power to regulate abortion in Minnesota. Moreover, the Minnesota Supreme Court held in Doe v. Gomez (1995) that the Minnesota Constitution secures a right to abortion. This issue is therefore moot for the foreseeable future.

Minnesotans who want Nancy Pelosi as speaker of the House for another two years should by all means vote to re-elect Angie Craig. Those of us who would like to begin reversing the nightmare of the last two and a half years will be voting a straight Republican ticket Nov. 8.

John Windsor, Apple Valley

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Craig helped write the law that let Medicare negotiate for lower prescription prices, saying no to Big Pharma. The spending bills where she supported President Joe Biden gave us long-needed infrastructure improvements, from bridge repairs to highway safety improvements; kept many people on payrolls during COVID; and improved funding for public safety personnel on our streets.

Her opponent says he will deliver lower prices on everything but offers no ideas on how. Republicans' only answer always seems to be cutting taxes on the wealthy, which always increases our deficits and our national debt. Her opponent has also said he'd reduce crime, but as a Republican, his party always promises this but has yet to even criticize the violent actions of the Jan. 6 insurrectionists or acknowledge how much damage the former president's "big lie" about the 2020 election has done to our democracy.

Craig is the only right choice.

Paul Mandell, Inver Grove Heights

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Jim Kaufmann, Burnsville

Assuming that the fetus is a part of the mother's body like her finger or appendix, pro-choice advocates contend that abortions are justifiable because a woman has the right to sovereignty over her own body.

But this is a false assumption because we all now know that every cell in a person's body has exactly the same DNA. So if the developing child is actually a part of the mother's body, then its DNA would have to be the same as hers. However, the facts of biology inform us that from conception, the DNA of the unborn is never the same as the mother's. Since the DNA does not match the mother's DNA, it cannot be a part of her body. It temporarily resides there, but is not a part of it. (When people ride in a car, do they become a part of the car? Obviously not!)

Therefore, the modern science of DNA disproves the claim that the unborn are a part of the mother's body that may be retained or disposed of at her own discretion. The singular distinctiveness of the unborn's DNA proves that it is a new little human being whom Minnesota lawmakers and courts have every right to protect from anyone — even the mother — who wants to kill it by means of an abortion. To the cry of, "My body, my choice," the scientifically irrefutable response should be, "Your baby is not your body! It's your baby's body!"

Leonard Lang, Ortonville, Minn.

As doctors, we know unequivocally that access to abortion is health care. The cases we see are as varied as the patients we counsel, and far less simplistic than those in sound bites of politicians. We see cases of rape and incest, of patients facing cancer who can't get treated during pregnancy, of patients with other diseases that are stable on medications that can't be taken in pregnancy, of pregnancy abnormalities that risk life-threatening hemorrhage, of lethal conditions of the fetus, and on and on.

Every single patient we have counseled, facing this choice, has done so fully considering all possible options. Many are mothers, choosing abortion to protect their health so that they can be a parent to the children they already have or to protect their ability to have future children. As OB-GYN physicians we counsel and perform abortions, often in affirmation of motherhood. This choice must remain in the hands of the patients we serve, in consultation with a trusted physician.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Jensen says abortion isn't on the ballot. But we know that's not true. Legislatures and governors are acting across the country to break down the privacy of a patient's choice to allow employers, government, the local pharmacy staff and others to weigh in.

Former Gov. Mark Dayton vetoed seven anti-abortion bills during his time in office.

Abortion is very much on the ballot. Our belief in women is very much on the ballot. The threat is real, and we need to understand that.

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Thanks to the letter writer of "Pro-lifers are not like that, sir" (Oct. 24) for her response to Rep. Dean Phillips' commentary ("I'll continue defending abortion rights, families' needs," Opinion Exchange, Oct. 20). I agree with her on every issue she mentioned except the first one.

As I see it, if I vote for a candidate who opposes abortion rights, I am almost inevitably voting for someone who is anti-gun control and pro-capital punishment; someone who denies the reality of climate change and supports the oil, gas and coal industries; and someone who opposes the Affordable Care Act, believes that corporations are people and thinks that trickle-down economics will solve the problems of unemployment, hunger and homelessness.

Likewise, if I vote for a candidate who supports abortion rights, I am almost inevitably voting for someone who is on the opposite side of each of those issues. Which side is killing more people?

David Carpenter, Minneapolis

I'm a 56-year-old white, female professional. The letter to the editor "Pro-lifers are not like that, sir" (Oct. 24) resonated with me. I, too, support life, oppose the death penalty and support gun legislation. I, too, grow weary of being labeled as someone who only cares about life before birth. I, along with many others I know, consistently volunteer with and donate to food shelves, diaper drives, educational opportunities, literacy causes, etc.

The older I get, the more I respect the quiet, consistent workers and advocates who are not the loudest or the best at grabbing the headlines but who keep showing up to try to help one person at a time. Help more, stereotype less.