Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here.

Here in liberal Santa Cruz, Wayne Shaffer is not your prototypical agent of change.

He is, in fact, the type who often flies well beneath the radar in this secular Berkeley-by-the-Sea — a county with a populace that claims one of the lowest rates of religious affiliation in this bluest-of-blue state and by far the lowest in the Central Coast region.

The 24-acre “park” he crafted out of a plot of redwoods he owns, dubbed Wayne’s World, hosted 120 friends and family this week for his annual Fourth of July party and is no shy creation.

But even though Shaffer clearly embraces the limelight, he also seems to understand these are tricky times for a devoutly pious person with conservative convictions — for someone who has devoted much of his life to the protection of unborn babies.

“I do worry about being a target,” he admits.

But it’s not his biggest worry.

“I lose sleep over this,” he says. “Over people pushing this abortion.”

Shaffer punctuates the words “this abortion” as if it’s an abstract construct, like a taboo subject matter he doesn’t dare think too closely about. Shaffer was never going to be among those who needed to parse the scientific details, or break down gestational stages, to form a stance.

“These are human beings — you don’t have a choice really in my mind,” he says. “You’ve gotta do the right thing.”

Wayne Shaffer sits at the nexus of today’s most controversial topic, a woman’s right to choose, because few have devoted more of their life to protecting unborn babies. As Santa Cruz, and the entire country, awaits what is next in the post-Roe v. Wade era, Shaffer will keep supporting the causes and organizations he helped launch decades ago.

The creator of the Siena House, the Central Coast’s only maternity ward of its kind, devoted to helping troubled women — often homeless — bring their babies to term, is one of the most prominent local voices on the anti-abortion side of the issue, and that’s why Lookout sought him out for his perspective.

We’ve heard the outrage…