Your Turn Letters to the Editor

Planned defense

After reading Derek Rinaldo’s Oct. 13 article attacking Planned Parenthood, I was outraged by the blatant inaccuracies he tried to pass off as factual information. As an intern for the Virginia League of Planned Parenthood and a social work student in the BSW program here at VCU, I found it necessary to write The Commonwealth Times to call Rinaldo on his lack of research.

Planned Parenthood is a 501(c)3, or nonprofit, organization. This means that all money coming into the organization goes toward keeping it running. At Planned Parenthood health centers, abortions are not seen as a profitable “consumer good” as Rinaldo describes them. Under Title X of U.S. code, organizations that provide abortions are not given taxpayer money from the government to fund any clinical procedures. The overwhelming majority of Planned Parenthood’s services focus on prevention, and the only money granted at the state level is for preventative HIV/STD programs provided through the Department of Education.

I seriously doubt that the anti-choice groups are in support of “pro-informed choice.” If this were true, how would “abstinence-only until marriage” education programs in public school systems, which operate under a “Don’t ask, don’t tell” basis, claim efficacy?

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Young people need to be given accurate information about the dangers regarding sex and options that are available for them to protect themselves. People should be given all of the facts so they can make their own decisions about their bodies. Rinaldo cites afterabortion.com when discussing the emotions women experience after having an abortion as “depression, post-traumatic stress disorder – and even suicide.” Yet studies have shown that the emotion most women experience after an abortion is relief.

As a student learning from the counselors, I know that it is of the utmost importance to make sure that women are not being coerced by family or friends to have an abortion. The counselors do not coerce the patients to have an abortion; they only listen. The only “coercion” we have here is to urge women to get annual checkups, use condoms to prevent STDs and to use a reliable method of birth control in order to avoid unintended pregnancies.

Planned Parenthood clinics are not uncaring money-making machines motivated by greed and profit. They are a nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide non-judgmental support for women seeking information and access to reproductive health services, as well as advocating public policies that allow for women – not the government – to decide what to do with their own bodies and reproductive health.

Spreading the misinformation of a biased opinion to the readers of The Commonwealth Times is one thing; listing off slanted lies as facts is another. It is up to the readers to be the judge, but I’d hate to think Rinaldo’s tirade would discourage women from accessing services that some may not be able to afford anywhere else. Planned Parenthood offers annual exams, STD screenings and treatment, free pregnancy tests, low-cost birth control, adoption counseling, as well as an upcoming prenatal healthcare program for low-income women without insurance. Polarizing the issue of abortion services at Planned Parenthood is a disservice to women seeking adequate, affordable healthcare.

– Amanda Covington

Kaine response

To the Editor:

As a liberal, I was saddened and frustrated by Tim Kaine’s speech in the VCU commons on Sunday, October 30, 2005. The speech was nothing more than meaningless rhetoric.

Kaine pushed aside education, jobs, health care and other issues needed to “move Virginia forward.” Although, Kaine repeatedly used the phrase to rally supporters.

Kaine was also unable to demonstrate that he could run a “positive campaign” when he made passive remarks about his opponent sweating in an earlier debate.

As much as I would like to support a Democratic governor, I cannot vote for someone who clearly demonstrates the problems within American politics.

– Benjamin Cohen