Since the Daily Iowan brought it up...

...abortion.

I am a person with many ideas on how things should be done. What I think sets me apart, though, is that I am constantly trying to find new information on particularly touchy subjects. Recently, I've been pretty vocal about same-sex marriage, which is something I care passionately about.

I come into the abortion debate from a strange background. I was baptized Irish Catholic, went to Catholic church and Catholic school, had and still have Catholic friends. Then around the age of five I realized that I disagreed with the Catholic church, as an institution, about pretty much everything. (Yes, five. The issue was "dressing up on Sundays". It was for, I was vehemently against.)

Fast forward. I grow up. Suddenly I'm a woman, and I have to deal with all the crap that comes with that. Objectification, commodification, unfair representation. With that, in a big way, comes the issue of abortion. So instead of five, I'm sixteen. I write a research paper on the medical risks and benefits of an abortion, from both physical and psychological aspects. I'm not dumb. I do my research, taking into account the "agenda" of every source I cite. I spent a week laboriously studying for a three-page paper (I'm a nerd). The conclusion of my paper: "From a psychological perspective, abortion can have both positive and negative effects. It's true that some women feel remorse after their operations, but it is more common to feel relief - either the woman was raped, or could not afford a pregnancy, let alone a child. Abortions can be performed well or poorly. In a majority of cases, a woman walks away from an abortion operation with no lasting physical damage; in certain instances, however, an abortion can be botched. In extreme situations, an abortion may be performed in order to save the life of the mother. Statistics show that women who do not need abortions, do not have abortions, and the practice is most commonly used as an absolute last resort. Because the physical and psychological effects of abortion must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, but can clearly benefit some women and harm others, no general determination can be made as to whether abortion is 'bad'."

This, I believe to be the truth. Because no one can know what a pregnant woman has gone through, is going through, and what personal beliefs she brings to the table, she must DECIDE FOR HERSELF. This means that we as a society have to work to inform all women of all their choices. It shouldn't require a week of intensive research. As a woman, I should be able to easily access unbiased information about all my options.

Skip ahead a little more in my life. I go off to college. I experience sexual assault. My kid sister enters middle school.

1. I have never been more terrified in my life than when I went in to get STD- and pregnancy tested after I was raped. I remember sitting in the waiting room, waiting for my urine sample to be analyzed, and thinking to myself that the monster who attacked me wouldn't get the chance to mess up my life more than he already had. And here I'm not talking about the baby - which, fortunately, never existed - but about myself. I would rather have killed MYSELF than give birth to that rapist's child. So I can personally attest to the psychological trauma aspect.

But enough about me. The same people who push the anti-choice (they say "pro-life". Whatever) agenda ALSO insist on abstinence-only sex education. And this is where my baby sister comes in. Because she's been taught that abstinence is the only way to prevent unwanted pregnancy, but she still wants to have sex (actually there's a ton of societal and peer pressure for her to, but that's another rant for another day), she draws on the contraceptive knowledge of her friends - you know, young girls who have also just gone through abstinence-only sex ed. They know nothing.

A girl I was good friends with in elementary school got pregnant last year. She was astounded, because they always "did it" with her on top. PEOPLE ACTUALLY BELIEVE THAT. You can't expect anyone to know any better who IS NOT TAUGHT. I've taken steps to ensure that doesn't happen with my sister, but I can't do the same to her friends, or any other girls her age.

If you haven't already, by now you're DEFINITELY thinking, "Oh hurmf, baby-killing liberals are always pro-choice." Fun Fact: I believe in individual liberties, which is in fact the definition of "conservative". But my political leanings aside, I can't bloody stand hypocrites, and I loathe people who try to pass off their opinions as "fact". Which brings me to my main point.

This morning, I opened my copy of the Daily Iowan and a big, glossy insert - labeled, in tiny print, "Advertising Supplement" - entitled "We know BETTER NOW" (their caps) fell into my lap. My thought: "Better? Huh. Okay, so you're morally superior to me. I beg for enlightenment." I opened it up, and inside it presented me with "facts" - from the same group who thinks evolution is a lie - and testimonials. But the testimonials, which mean more to me than anything since I feel abortion is an issue on which numerical data is completely irrelevant, were entirely biased to one side. A woman talked about how her abortion made her rape even worse. That was not the case for me. I closed up the advertising supplement and tossed it in the bin, where it sits now, peeking out at me, informing me that it is BETTER. Christians in America are amazingly good at defending their own religious freedom at the expense of everyone else's.

I don't read the newspaper to be preached at, outside of the opinion page. I immediately tweeted the Daily Iowan: http://twitter.com/sebhar/status/1518228717 They of course responded very well, that it was an ad, they needed to make money somehow. It's rough for print media these days, and I respect the DI for also permitting organizations like Planned Parenthood to advertise in their paper. However, let's look at it like this: the advertising supplement delivered to my door tried to push its agenda on me. You know who else does that? The Ku Klux Klan. Just saying. Also, Planned Parenthood has actual COMMODITIES - contraceptives, STD testing. I scoured the "Advertising Supplement" for products it might be pushing, and all I could find was a calculator under the slogan "Some things... don't add up." What doesn't add up for me is why the Daily Iowan would allow itself to become a propaganda dump, for either side of the political spectrum.

(I refrained from commenting on the MEN in the anti-choice propaganda. Men, because they possess no female reproductive organs and never have to face shoving a baby out of their nether regions, need to stop acting like they have clout in the abortion discussion. It's not up to you what a woman does with her body.)