Letters to the Editor
Morning after pill article biased
Dear Editor,
It’s a great thing that GCSU now offers the so-called “morning after” pill through Student Health Services. However, I don’t really appreciate the biased tone the author of the article uses in reporting about this progressive step in our school’s health services. For instance, saying something like “GCSU students getting caught up in the heat of the moment and failing to use birth control or condoms now have the option of receiving more extreme contraceptives the next day” really bothers me. This language is condescending and blaming. For one thing, it isn’t just a lack of use of birth control that leads women to seek out emergency contraception; it’s also birth control failure, which the author forgets to mention. Yes, condoms do break and no, other birth control methods, such as the pill, are not 100 percent effective. And to label emergency contraceptives as “extreme” is also inflammatory and misleading. They are simply higher doses of birth control pills many women are already taking.
Other things I found inflammatory and biased were the author’s statement that “the medication may erase the mistake of a promiscuous night.” Once again, many women who seek out EC do not do so because they are going out having wild, promiscuous sex with every man they happen across. Birth control methods can fail, and then there is the haunting fact that 1 in 4 women are sexually assaulted during their college careers.
Also, I really dislike the fact that every single quote in this article paints a negative view on the fact that EC is offered at this school or that it exists at all. I find it hard to believe that the author could not find one single person in favor of the fact women on our campus now have EC readily available to them. For instance, some of the quotes in this article include: “If you are old enough to have unsafe sex then you should be old enough to have the responsibility to do the right thing.” What does that even mean? I thought taking responsibility for your actions by seeking out EC was doing the right thing. But apparently having a child after “the mistake of a promiscuous night” is the doing right thing according to this article.
And finally, I don’t like the fact that while health services will give women EC, the contraception apparently also comes with a crash-course in birth control methods according to this article. Because, you know, every woman coming in for EC is seeking it because she is ignorant of proper birth control. You know us women, we just don’t know a thing about sex and we need others to tell us how to effectively manage our reproductive lives.
Thanks for writing such an enlightening article.
Leigh Allen,
junior,
international business
More to morning after article
Dear Editor,
I’m appalled at the way the article for the introduction of the morning after Pill on our campus was carried out. It had the potential to be an insightful and informative piece but lost that immediately with its introduction. Instead of providing the GCSU population with important and helpful information, it only turned the morning after pill into a shameful method. The morning after pill may “erase the mistake of a promiscuous night” however it failed to mention the benefits for rape victims or even monogamous couples whose birth control methods may have failed on accident. Even the most safe and responsible couples can make mistakes. Instead of chastising the GCSU students, let’s instead provide them with accurate, non-judgmental information.
Anna Carey,
freshman,
nursing
Corrections & Clarifications
Dear Editor,
I’m writing to express my dismay at the way my comments were misrepresented in the article, “African Issues a Concern for Everyone,” in the Feb. 29 edition of The Colonnade. I would never say that I thought a U.S. military presence in Africa would aid the CONTINENT, or even any specific country, in its expansion. What I said was that I think it is important for students to hear the various reactions from African nations to the prospect of establishing U.S. military bases in Africa. As Ms. Ali presented it, some nations see this prospect as potentially beneficial in terms of expanding political and economic stability while others feels that it may initiate struggles for power in Africa between a few nations of great wealth.
These are the ideas to which those two (obviously contradictory) statements, which were attributed to me, refer. Additionally, the way that my comment on students’ tendency to be interested in an issue only if they see it as related to them is represented in a way that makes it sound like I endorse this unfortunate attitude. I do not endorse this attitude but, because I recognize that it exists, I think Ms. Ali’s comments on this topic were of immense value in presenting students with more information about the decisions being undertaken by their own government. I hope that you will present these clarifications in your next edition.
Thank You,
Beauty Bragg,
professor of English
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Mar 7 2008. Filed under Letters to the Editor, Opinion.
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