Voices
Give me birth control or give me death: A Hoya woman’s plight
Did you know that we are living among fornicators? With no regard for the Lord’s wrath, Georgetown students are doing the dirty on the daily. Even some of those harmless-looking, be-lanyarded freshmen are lusting after each other in the bowels of Darnall. They might be thinking to themselves, “Wouldn’t it be nice if Georgetown supplied us with prophylactics?” Or, “I wonder what my birth control options are.”
Most likely, those sinners just want to get laid. They will buy condoms off campus. They will purchase the morning-after pill on their parents’ insurance. And another class of students will be unaffected by Georgetown’s quaint inability to move into the modern age. Georgetown, with your cobblestone streets, your beautiful buildings, and your rejection of the Common App, usually your idiosyncrasies are cute. But if my history requirement served me well, sometimes Catholic institutions need to be nudged onto the correct course. I am a Hoya, and I am asking you to stop embarrassing us.
When I entered the Student Health Center last fall, I did not ask for a birth control prescription. I already had a birth control prescription. I needed a check up, but after inquiring about my medical history, the nurse practitioner volunteered to give me one.
“You get cramps, right?” she inquired.
“No, I don’t.”
“Yes, you do.”
“No, I really don’t,” I responded again, confused.
She sighed, “I have to write something down.”
Something about a medical professional forging my medical history to circumnavigate the rules of a religion not my own didn’t feel quite right. This little story also proves Georgetown’s decision not to cover birth control in its insurance policy is about as effective as a pro-life protester screaming in my face—visible, but very easy to walk around.
I’m not interested in abstinence. I’m not interested in marriage. I am a 20-year-old college student interested in the process of development and the Chinese language. I attend classes in the School of Foreign Service, learning about the sorry state of women’s rights all over the world, while my own school sends the message that we should be using the “Keep Your Legs Shut, Slut!” method of birth control—which doesn’t have a high success rate (see: 16 and Pregnant).
On a campus of affluent, resourceful students, it’s unclear whom this policy actually affects. Not the students covered on their parents’ insurance. Not the students who can afford to pay full price for contraceptives. As such, Georgetown is forcing its beliefs on the only people it can: less affluent young women. The Catholic Church is not known for championing women’s rights, but for an American university to pass bigotry off as religion in the 21st century is a far worse offense.
Georgetown pays professors to teach subject matter beyond the official doctrines of the Catholic Church. Georgetown provides support to non-Catholic religious clubs. Why, then, can’t Georgetown give equal University support to a pro-choice club?
There are religious freedoms, and then there are our freedoms. Georgetown’s puritanical refusal to provide us with proper access to contraceptive methods is a violation of our right to adequate health care. I think it’s time Georgetown came to terms with reality, and I bet many of my fellow Hoyas do, too.
If consuming illegal substances is part of your religion, you don’t get a get-out-of-jail-free card when police find it in your pockets. Religious institutions don’t get to rewrite the law. Abortions and birth control are legal, and Georgetown has no right to tell us they aren’t.
If Georgetown wants to ask me for donations after I graduate, it will need to start providing coverage for the procedures that serve basic reproductive rights. It needs to relieve young women of the financial burden of paying out-of-pocket for birth control (after all, it’s cheaper than prenatal care). Let H*yas for Choice drop the asterisk, and give them the funding accorded other legitimate student organizations. Let the Corp sell condoms. After that, I would be honored to give back to the school that taught me to stand up for my beliefs in the first place.
I’m sorry to hear you feel embarrassed by Georgetown University and it sounds like you are not comfortable attending a university with religious affiliation–or at least one that will not overtly finance activity that contravenes the doctrines of that religion. However, Georgetown is not denying you access to anything or infringing on any freedom you have in this country. Georgetown won’t stop you from buying birth control on your own, from having premarital sex in your dormitory room, or from advocating your abortion rights on campus. The only thing Georgetown refuses to do is overtly pay for these activities. If it is important for you to attend a university that earmarks funds for activities contrary to Catholic doctrine, why did you choose to attend a Catholic university? Georgetown is not standing in your way of applying to another university. If you earned admission to SFS, there are surely a lot of outstanding secular universities to which you can be admitted, including ones with strong programs in international studies and the Chinese language.
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Kara, were you aware Georgetown was Catholic when you applied? (Seriously?)
Kara’s post is most welcome. She shows how the University is basically dishonest when it claims to follow these catholic rules but then simply turns around and falsifies the reason for the prescription. It is time for women such as Kara to speak up. Thank you Kara.
I’m not a Catholic. I’m an atheist. I’m not necessarily opposed to premarital sex, although I do think it should be had only in the context of an exclusive relationship aimed at marriage.
But all that is irrelevant, because what I don’t understand is why *I* should pay for *you* to have sex. Explain that to me, please. And don’t try to argue that it costs less to pay for birth control than for giving birth and raising a child. Because then you had better explain why *I* should pay to deliver *your* baby, or to raise *your* child. All of those things are *your* problem, not *mine*, unless I voluntarily choose to make them my problem.
And this applies not only to Georgetown, but to all insurance. It’s exactly why the government should allow insurers to decide for *themselves* what they want to cover, and people to decide *if* they want to buy insurance and *which* insurance company they want to buy from. And then they probably would not choose to pay higher premiums for ridiculous BS like birth control coverage that they could afford perfectly well on their own.
Well, *Daniel*, I think it’s safe to say after reading your ridiculous comment that you have no idea how health care, birth control, or sex works. Do you want to explain to me how birth control is “perfectly” affordable? I’m assuming that you are in an exclusive relationship aimed at marriage and are therefore really experienced in purchasing birth control.
Also, “Box,” I’m pretty sure that Kara is aware that she applied to a Catholic university. The fact that Georgetown is a Catholic institution isn’t the problem. The greater issue is the fact that the Catholic Church and other religious institutions are refusing to cover birth control costs on the basis that they have a monopoly on morality. What is problematic is the fact that any dialogue questioning the validity of religious doctrine is taboo. Are we ever going to discuss the fact that there is no logic behind the anti-contraception argument? Allowing religious universities like Georgetown the “right” to deny its students birth control coverage just because it goes against supposedly incontrovertible religious teachings is absurd.
Kara is basically saying that she is a slut and wants the university to subsidize her personal lifestyle choice. What’s next? How about schools should subsidize hospital fees whenever I get checked in after drinking too much?
Ella, no one forced Kara to attend Georgetown. We have our own values, and providing free birth control means we endorse sluts.