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An article praising H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, appeared in Monday’s opinion section of The Collegian. The headline read, “Stumping the Stupak” and celebrated the Democratic victory for the removal of federal covered abortions in health care plans.
However, the article merely scratched the surface of the issue at hand. I find it offensive that a male staff writer who dubs his column, “The Right Tone” tackled and condemned a women’s right issue in such a naive manner. California State University, Fresno’s institutional research, assessment and planning records state that 13,297 women attend Fresno state as of the fall 2008 semester, which is approximately 58.8 percent of the student body. According to Planned Parenthood Marmonte, one out of three women in the United States have an abortion by the time they are 45 years old.
A survey conducted by The Collegian last semester, indicated that 70 percent of readers are female. Therefore, coverage of the so-called “gruesome” topic lacked any, if not all, sensitivity with its lead audience.
A wide range of issues associated with voluntary termination of a pregnancy could make abortion the most disputed subject in history — pro-choice, pro-life, the degree of intervention. Since political parties both support and oppose the issue, why shouldn’t The Collegian?
I am not advocating for the abortion of potential life. I am opposing the abortion of women’s rights. That’s right, I said it, you read it, women’s rights. Not a Democrat from Michigan’s right or a conservative from Fresno’s right, but a woman’s right.
Although it takes a quick swimmer, one egg and two to tango, for some odd reason it takes approximately 435 votes to determine whose choice an abortion actually is. Last time I checked, my body was mine, not a body of the House of Representatives.
I do agree with my colleague that Federal funds should not be used to pay for an abortion. Federal funds should be used to pay for the education of safe sex — abstinence, condoms, birth control, the morning after pill, etc. Several abortions are conducted as a form of birth control. However, the case of some does not account for the 85 percent of private-insurance plans that cover abortion services or those who privately pay the $350 to $650 fee for removal of an unintended pregnancy.
Criticizing a process one could never physically understand, will “suck the brains out” of the tone, the reporter’s credibility and solutions brought forth to the Senate.
While some might find the method murderous, the authors of “Freakonomics,” Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt, found evidence that legalized abortion has contributed significantly to recent crime reductions.
“Crime began to fall roughly eighteen years after abortion legalization. The five states that allowed abortion in 1970 experienced decline earlier than the rest of the nation, which legalized abortion in 1973 with Roe v. Wade. States with high abortion rates in the 1970s and 1980s experienced greater crime reductions in the 1990s. In high abortion states, only arrests of those born after abortion legalization fall relative to low abortion states. Legalized abortion appears to account for as much as 50 percent of the recent drop in crime.”
Whichever choice(s) you support — anti, bi, pro or no choice — a little abortion 101 is in order.