Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor,

I want to commend Holli Powitzky and Neal Ungerleider on the article entitled “Politics Invade Temple’s Main Campus: Part Two.”

I know the subject matter they wrote on is very controversial, but I think they managed to get a pretty unbiased and well-written article out of it.

I also wanted to point out one thing that could have added value to the article.

It had mentioned FMF, and TARRA, but neglected to mention Owls for Life.

We are an official Temple group, with over 60 student members.

We were recognized as an official group last Spring.

So thank you for seeing both sides of the issue.

At Owls for Life our motto is “Choice is more than just abortion. Give women real choices.”

This includes information on health risks, and alternatives; as well as fighting for student day care programs, prenatal heath insurance coverage in student health plans, and housing for students with children, because no woman should have to choose between her child and her education.

Kathleen A. Lafferty
Senior, Sport and Recreation Management

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Dear Editor,

The extremist anti-abortion group, the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) has recently left its mark on our campus.

This project, sponsored by the Center for Bioethical Reform (CBR), promotes a dangerous, distorted message: women who have abortions and doctors who provide abortions are comparable to those who commit hate crimes and perpetrate genocide against entire populations.

GAP exploits the horrific experiences and suffering of African Americans, Jews, and ethnic groups from the former Yugoslavia.

While GAP purportedly strives to foster debate and discussion about abortion, their inflammatory tactics prove otherwise.

GAP uses images of lynching and the Holocaust to provoke African American and Jewish students, demean victims of genocide and incite violence against women and abortion providers by likening them to Nazis and members of the Ku Klux Klan.

Furthermore, while GAP claims that its photographs of so-called aborted fetuses are genuine, nearly 90 percent of abortions in this country are performed in the first trimester, when the embryo is smaller than a grain of rice.

Each year, 70,000 women who have control neither over their reproductive systems nor over their lives die from botched, illegal abortions.

These are the people we must remember in any dialogue over abortion, and these are the people GAP systematically refuses to mention in their hateful, misleading rhetoric.

GAP claims that their displays are protected by free speech. This is hate speech, plain and simple.

GAP’s brand of violence and misleading imagery has no place on Temple’s campus.

To find out more about reproductive rights, or to help stop GAP, contact the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance.

Sincerely,
Lydia Keaney
English / Spanish major
Class of 2004
President, Temple Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance