Dear Editor-In-Chief,

I’m writing in response to the article about AAA Life Services and in response to Dr. Thomas Rourke’s letter from last week’s edition of The Call.

After reading his letter, I was not pleased with the implication that the Feminist Majority Foundation is “extremist” just because they opposed the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act. Considering the misleading title of the act, it is easy to paint the opposition as extremists in the same sense that it was easy to pain all opponents of the Patriot Act as extremists.

My understanding of an extremist is somebody whose views are far beyond the norm. The FMF is an organization of people who believe in equal rights and reproductive rights. None of the missions or principles outlined on their website could be described as “extremist.”

The issue with the Born-Alive Infant Protection Act is not about infants born-alive after viability (21-plus weeks). The problem lies in the underhanded way that it seeks to ascribe rights to fetuses at any stage of development, even before viability.

Roe v. Wade clearly states that women have the right to choose an abortion before fetal viability. That is why women take issue with the “infant” protection act, because it directly contradicts the tenets of Roe, which in the future could lead to more laws that attempt to grant “personhood” to a fetus and strip women of their reproductive rights.

Dr. Rourke also claimed that FMF’s “brand” of feminism is “hardly representative of Clarion University’s female students.” Dr. Rourke is clearly not a female student attending Clarion University, and he certainly doesn’t represent me. It isn’t entirely appropriate for him to make claims about what is or isn’t representative of female students and feminists at Clarion.

Dr. Rourke does not think AAA is dishonest or deceptive, but plenty of people do. Like other “crisis pregnancy centers,” AAA Life Services has a political and moral agenda to dissuade women faced with an unwanted pregnancy from obtaining an abortion.

Abortion is a valid, safe, and legal choice for many women. Some examples can be found at www.iamnotsorry.net. The risk of death or danger associated with abortion that Diane Fagley mentions is no worse than the risk of death during childbirth or carrying to term.

As stated in the article about AAA Life Services, the people who work there are not medical professionals. They have no business interpreting the results of anyone’s pregnancy test, and they certainly have no business administering sonograms. The free pregnancy tests that most CPCs offer can be purchased at any drug store for around $10.

Another option is the Keeling Health Center, where a pregnancy test can be charged to your student account later. Planned Parenthood of Western Pennsylvania (www.ppwp.org) also offers counseling on all available options without a political or religious agenda.

AAA believes in ineffective abstinence-only education and it has little to no information about contraceptives on its website. It also lists the “morning after pill” underneath the section on abortion. That is biased at best and deceptive and misleading at worst.

On their website, they write, “there’s no hype, no politics…” and yet they frequently cite information from and link to a website called TroubledWith.com. TroubledWith is funded by Focus on the Family, a conservative Christian organization known for its homophobia, its virulent anti-feminism and its belief in a non-existent “post-abortion syndrome.” One can only assume that AAA holds the same so-called values.

That is why I, and many other people, take issue with crisis pregnancy centers.

Sincerely,
Emily Young

The writer of this letter is a junior majoring in art and French.