Mailbag: W. 19th Street is prone to accidents

Screech, bang! I look out my window and see that yet another car has crashed into the guard rail at the west end of West 19th Street.

It’s broad daylight on a clear, sunny day — dry pavement, all normal conditions. In a few days a crew will come out to repair the guard rail. I have observed at least a dozen such incidents and, as long as the car drives away, I don’t even bother reporting them any more.

Ample signs warn of a curve, but drivers evidently don’t realize how sharp the turn is, and they don’t slow down enough to round it safely. The last posted speed they see is 35 mph., much too fast for that curve.

Wouldn’t it be a good idea to post a sign showing a safe speed, say 15 mph.? It would be cheaper than having to continually repair the guard rail, and it may prevent injuries as well as property damage.

Eleanor Egan

Costa Mesa

Women have constitutional right

As a resident of Newport Coast, I am terribly disappointed by Hoag Hospital’s decision to cease providing elective abortion services.

Abortion is a constitutional right of women. The decision by Hoag, one of Orange County’s largest community hospitals, to curtail this medical service for religious and or political reasons is an injustice and for all practical purposes a limitation of women’s constitutional rights.

Hoag, as a full-service hospital, has an obligation to continue to offer this medical service for women.

Harry Sauberman

Newport Coast

Well, the truth is finally out and it confirms what everyone knew: Hoag Hospital discontinued providing legal, elective abortions for women as a condition of its so-called affiliation with St. Joseph Health System. Earlier this spring, Hoag officials provided an emphatic denial, which was all the confirmation any observer would need.

Thomas J. Peterson

Newport Beach

Hospital needs new leadership

Hoag’s Hospital’s affiliation with St. Joseph Health has huge implications.

Every patient using Hoag needs to be concerned that well-thought-out decisions between you and your doctors will not be honored. For that reason alone, we need to request the removal of the current leaders, who have placed us all at risk.

Rhea Dorn

Costa Mesa

Statement of values revealed

Thanks to Daily Pilot reporter Jill Cowan and Los Angeles Times reporter Anna Gorman for confirming what we skeptics felt all along: that St. Joseph Health System required Hoag Hospital to follow the sacrosanct abortion ban included in St. Joseph’s “statement of common values.”

Religion and politics should stay out of medical decisions.

James R. Percival

Newport Beach