Letters to the Editor 10/31

To the Editor,

Tracey Hickey’s Oct. 28 column “Abortion bill costly, damaging” is… To the Editor,

Tracey Hickey’s Oct. 28 column “Abortion bill costly, damaging” is disturbing and shocking. There are many things missing from this article, including the fact that the babies are being killed every day by abortion, but they can’t vote, so they don’t matter … right?

Hickey claims that people who support SB 732 aren’t concerned about women’s health. However, if someone who is “pro-abortion” is only concerned with the health of women, why are you fighting against regulations that force abortionists to follow medical standards? “Fact 1” states that “Abortion Providers in Pennsylvania already comply with up to four different sets of guidelines.” However, Dr. Kermit Gosnell obviously wasn’t following these procedures, and if he wasn’t following them, who is to say that other abortion facilities aren’t following these procedures as well?

In “Fact 2,” Hickey compares an abortion to “minor surgeries” such as oral surgery. Abortion is not “minor” in any way, shape or form. Abortion is the deliberate termination of a human pregnancy, the deliberate killing of a human being.

Hickey says that people who support SB 732 shouldn’t claim that they are concerned about women’s health. But if you think abortionists shouldn’t have to follow new medical standards that ensure the safety of their patients, don’t act like you are truly concerned with women’s health. Not to mention that abortion kills future women, which, in our opinion, isn’t healthy either.

Sincerely,

Alexandra Morgan

Vice President of University of Pittsburgh Students for Life

To the Editor,

If I removed every sentence of Courtney Strauss’ Oct. 27 column, “For women, there’s no such thing as casual sex,’ that is offensive to men, women or the discipline of psychology, I would be left with only the byline. Ignoring for the moment the column’s other problematic elements — such as her summary of third-wave feminism as women “asking for all-male attributes” and the description of men as emotion-deniers with “casual desires” to which women must avoid succumbing — she rests her argument on pseudo-science. The role of oxytocin in sexual arousal is currently unknown. It primarily functions in the female body during cervical dilation before birth.

As troubling as the column is as a whole, the conclusion is particularly disturbing. Why is casual sex the cited reason for 39 percent of adults believing that marriage is becoming obsolete? This isn’t 1964. Adults — women especially; it’s amazing what happens when you’ve had the right to vote for over 90 years — don’t have as many societal pressures to marry as they once did. Being unmarried is not a red flag for depression, but rather a representation of the unalienable human right to decide how you want to spend the rest of your life. Some people choose to get married; some choose to “focus [their] energies on a career” to smother their pain at being single and end up winning the Nobel Peace Prize (Jane Addams) or become secretary of state (Condoleezza Rice).

Sincerely,

Bella Salamone

School of Arts & Sciences