March 9, 2015 (CardinalNewmanSociety.org) — An unofficial student group at Georgetown University, H*yas for Choice, recently held a sexual health panel on campus featuring representatives from Planned Parenthood Metropolitan Washington, Advocates for Youth, and a University nursing professor, according to The Hoya. Catholic teaching was apparently not presented at the panel. On the contrary, the event provided advice opposed to Church teaching, including information on how to obtain contraceptives.
According to the event page on Facebook, students were invited to attend the February 23 event in Maguire 102 “for a discussion on what sexual health resources are available to students on campus and in the greater DC area.”
“Reproductive rights, bodily autonomy, bodily integrity—all those things are rolled into one very important narrative, and that is [that] we get to do what we want with our bodies,” reportedly said Amanda Keifer, international policy analyst for Advocates for Youth—an organization that works to fund and provide contraceptive access to adolescents and young adults.
According to the Hoya, Keifer conveyed to students that “although there are differences between the pro-choice and the pro-LGBTQ rights movement, the two should join forces to advocate for sexual rights.”
The director of Georgetown Health Education Services, Carol Day, was also on the panel and “discussed the flaws” in the student health clinic, which included “Georgetown’s religious affiliation affecting its type of care,” reported the Hoya. Day, who is also an adjunct nursing professor at Georgetown, was apparently the only official University representative present at the panel.
The article reported:
“Student Health will even prescribe birth control pills, but not primarily only for contraception,” Day said. “Under the Affordable Care Act you have a right to have these services anywhere, including under Georgetown. But our hospital, because they’re Catholic, some people will do it, some people won’t.”
Grace brought up the concern of students who feel the need to misrepresent their medical requirements in order to obtain birth control. “If you’re not honest then they can’t really help you as much as they could help you if you were totally honest,” Day said. “You’re not going to surprise them with anything … they’re not making judgments like you think they are.”
Nevertheless, the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that contraception “leads not only to a positive refusal to be open to life but also to a falsification of the inner truth of conjugal love, which is called upon to give itself in personal totality.”
The Planned Parenthood Metropolitan Washington representatives who reportedly attended the meeting were legislative affairs organizer Michelle Woods and sexual health educator Blanca Torres.
The article reported the following advice from Torres for students seeking birth control:
“I can understand being afraid of feeling judged when they might not prescribe you birth control because you want it for preventing pregnancy,” Torres said. “However if you’re going to a doctor, and you’re having those feelings, find another doctor, don’t be intimidated by the insurance process.”
Woods spoke about the Hobby Lobby Supreme Court case and how “corporations have religious freedom to disregard the contraceptive mandate,” apparently presenting this matter in a negative light. “[H]ow do we access women’s rights and women’s health … if corporations and companies have more rights than women?” she reportedly asked.
The Hoya also referenced “parental consent laws, mandatory ultrasound laws, and a 24-hour waiting period with counseling before an abortion” as “anti-choice legislation” and “[t]he biggest barriers to access of sexual health resources” —safeguards and protections which Woods reportedly referred to as “crazy laws.”
The Cardinal Newman Society contacted Georgetown University’s Student Life office and inquired why the panel was allowed to be held on campus space, despite the speakers’ clear opposition to Church teaching, but no response was received by time of publication.
Reprinted with permission from The Cardinal Newman Society.