Monday in The Cavalier Daily was a highly offensive piece — interesting coming from a newspaper, but becoming more and more common. I suppose that if the Wall Street Journal is allowed to berate women for being single, a Cavalier Daily writer is more than allowed to berate women for abortion.
However, while (ashamedly) reading the very idealistic, narrow-minded support of Senator Martin in spite of his decision to describe pregnant women as “hosts” (side note – are women only hosts if they carry a boy?), I couldn’t help but laugh at the lack of understanding of sex. Someone alert the newspapers — yet another Republican WASP is unaware of what actually goes on, preaching abstinence from a high horse of prosperity. The writer seems to brush over the fact that condoms break, abstinence plans fail, not all sex is consensual and the pill has yet to be 100 percent effective.
However, I will agree with her in the sense that prevention is the best step to avoiding this dirty, shameful issue altogether. Yet, allow me another “however,” for I think her idea of prevention is strongly drawn from her own educational experience. It lacks any research of the issue — well, I guess that’s allowed when it comes to personal opinions.
For those who seek more information, I’m bringing anecdotal info instead of statistics. It may be interesting to note that while Republicans are fighting sex-education classes, a teacher told me that she now has to escort her sixth graders into the bathroom. Why? Because they were caught too many times having sex in the stalls. Additionally, I have heard accounts of young women sticking their birth control where babies come from. When looked into, it appears that about 10 percent of women misinterpret or do not read the instructions for oral contraceptives.
It is apparent that a lack of approachable sex education is most definitely a cause of unwanted pregnancies. Nonetheless, ironically the very states that are trying to bring abortion back to the Supreme Court are those that simultaneously fight instating a more thorough sex education for their kids (looking at you, North Dakota).
Sex between preteens and misconceptions of female physiology are but a myth in Berger’s “preventative” opinion column; I’m sure this is because we live in a world in which women can now reject semen from a rape. But the real prevention issues stem from obscure corners that many of us cannot imagine, and then we have to accept that sometimes accidents are truly accidents. While I believe everyone deserves their own opinion — trust me, I have more than enough of my own — I think Berger’s opinion shames and belittles others. “You can keep yourself from getting pregnant in the first place” is no longer an opinion, but a judgment. And one that lacks any form of understanding.
Note: this was written by a Republican WASP
Natasha Mighell is a fourth-year in the Comm School.
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