Editor:
On Dec. 30, 1994, my friend Shannon Lowney was killed as she worked at a Boston suburb abortion clinic. She was a beautiful, giving person and very committed to the reproductive rights battle. Her death is a great loss. I asked her brother if the fact that her death was part of a large national debate made it easier or more difficult to deal with. He said that if Shannon's death can help secure reproductive rights, then at least their family's loss will improve the lives of millions of other women. As I struggle to make sense of the deaths of Shannon and other reproductive rights workers. I think of what he said. If, as a result of these losses, we take action to realize and protect women's reproductive rights, as Shannon was committed to doing, then she will have affected change. Something positive can come of the madness and absurdity that resulted in her death. It never should have happened, but sadly, we can't go back in time. We can only go forward. Now let's see that her work is completed.
Tracy Jalbuena
Graduate Student