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Tuesday, March 30, 1993
OPINION
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
IN OUR OPINION
Norplant not racist, but effective contraceptive
In December of 1990, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Norplant, the most revolutionary female contraceptive since the pill was introduced in the 1960s. After its approval, an editorial by the Philadelphia Inquirer suggested that mothers on public assistance receive inducements for using Norplant to help avoid unwanted pregnancies. The recommendation has now stigmatized Norplant as a racist genocidal weapon, aimed at lower-class women.
Norplant's six thin capsules release the hormone progestin which may obstruct ovulation for a maximum of five years. In approximately 10 minutes, the capsules are surgically implanted under the skin of the upper arm. Moreover, the capsules must be surgically removed in order to cease treatment. Effectiveness has been considered to be 99 percent.
Since Norplant must be inserted and removed by a medical practitioner, the contraceptive has been linked to involuntary sterilization methods of lower-class women that were practiced earlier in this century. Paralleling those actions today is the fact that 13 states have already considered Norplant as a prerequisite for public assistance, in exchange for financial inducements to not become pregnant. However, no legislature has passed.
Suggesting inducements of any kind for lower-class women is not sufficient proof that Norplant is genocidal. Norplant is a voluntary contraceptive. The client decides whether this contraceptive is right for her. If the client chooses Norplant and is dissatisfied with the device, it is then promptly removed. In addition, Norplant is available to middle and upper-class women of all creeds to facilitate preventing unwanted pregnancies. So long as Norplant remains a voluntary contraceptive method to all women, the device cannot be stigmatized as a racist genocidal weapon.
T. M. KNIGHT FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
Voters must give up pork for real deficit reduction
Communities' struggle to save their military bases from closure shows the plight of communities dependent on government dollars for economic sustenance, which is to say, all communities.
In sum, communities stand ready to move heaven and earth to keep their military bases.
It also underscores the plight of Bill Clinton and everyone who shares his struggle to balance the federal budget. There is always a constituency prepared to oppose federal spending cuts and rarely one prepared to fight for them. Not when it comes to specifics, anyway.
The point, however, is that Defense Secretary Les Aspin's job is to determine how much defense the United States needs, how much it can afford, and how best to deploy it — not how to save domestic jobs or strengthen local economies.
The irony, of course, is that among those willing to tax or public in-debt themselves to ensure that the government keeps funding a local installation are probably a good many people who also want Clinton to balance the federal budget.
Many probably agree that among the ways Clinton should do that is by closing unneeded government facilities, and many probably would prefer federal spending cuts to federal tax increases.
Doubtless there's such a project in every congressional district in America.
We can't help wondering, however, how anyone in Washington could ever end deficit spending so long as the people who send them there keep asking them to perpetuate it.
The American Hattiesburg, Miss.
Kansan editorial board:
Kris Belden, Greg Farmer, Vered Hankin, Jeff Hays, Val Huber, T.M. Knight, Kyle Kickhaefer, Stephen Martino, Jolinda Mathews, Colleen McCain, Chris Moeser, Simon Naldoza, David Olson, Jeff Reynolds, Chris Ronan, and Michael Taylor.
People tested for HIV can receive counseling
Last week Cecile Julian wrote a column about anonymous HIV testing, and how she could not grasp how someone could cope with being told they were positive. Julian's empathy is notable. I wonder how many people have ever tried to understand the experience if they have not lived through it.
But Julian is not informed. In all of the testing sites I am aware of, a trained test counselor interviews each person being tested, anonymous test or not, about past and current risk behaviors and preventative steps. The test's limitations and implications are explained. And the person is advised to think about how his/her life will change, and how he/she will behave, after learning the results. He/she is advised to think of support systems, of treatment needs, of insurance, of whom to tell and whom not to tell. And, when the results are given, that counselor is there to reinforce the education, re-examine the behaviors and attitudes of the person, and, if necessary, provide for immediate counseling and next-step planning.
GUEST COLUMNIST
Julian asks what goes through someone's mind between being tested and obtaining the results. Fear, no matter what risk behaviors were involved. Hope, that the time you weren't cautious would not result in testing HIV-positive. Fear, of losing your friends, your job, your apartment, your life. Hope, that you're just paranoid. Fear, that you're not just paranoid. That's the thought most
people come back to: fear.
Julian mistakenly believes that the difference between an anonymous HIV test (where you use a fake name) and a confidential one (where the results are listed in your medical records) is that professional help is only available if a confidential test was administered. Professionals are there for either anonymous or confidential testing recipients. The difference is that anonymous tests allow only you to know the results of your test. Confidential tests record that information forever.
Julian refers to a proposed law in Kansas that would limit the number of anonymous test sites (between one and five for the entire state). She thinks this would be a good thing. It would not.
The law would require almost all tests to be reported to state health agencies. Julian believes that this would not be a problem, since "every one understands the value of privacy, and no medical record can be released without the owner's sigma-
ture." This, too, is wrong. Insurance companies routinely deny or drastically lower benefits to people who are HIV-positive. Landlords routinely throw tenants out in the street. Employers routinely try to fire employees. This is illegal, but it happens. Breaching confidential records is illegal, but it happens.
What if someone in Hays tested positive? His doctor would record it. Then, it would be reported. How long would that person have until his condition were known around town? Think about the abenation, the loneliness, the fear that he would live with, in addition to being HIV-positive. It should be his decision whom he tells, how he tells and when he tells — not the state's.
People choose the anonymous test not because they fear that they cannot cope with the result, as Julian suggests. People choose anonymous tests because they fear how others will treat them if they don't "carry around that terrifying knowledge by themselves because they couldn't trust anyone else."
Legislators and health officials want Kansas to enact this law because passage of the law would qualify them for more federal funds for AIDS treatment. A great goal, but not at the expense of personal liberty and the determent of getting tested.
Patrick Dilley is a Lawrence graduate student majoring in higher education — student affairs and co-director for the Center for Sexual Health Education.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Pro-life can mean
As anti-abortion feminists, we would like to thank Ann Jurcyk for her series of illuminating articles about abortion. We are incensed at how "feminists" say we cannot be pro-life and pro-woman concurrently, for abortion is clearly not prowoman, for abortion was the most woman was to break free from the status quo and promote freedom of thought, not to hide the truth and stigmatize those with different ideas. Thank you again, Ann,
for taking a stand for what is right,
for is a rare thing to see these days.
Rebecca L Rogers
Salina freshman
Erin Baumgartner
Andover freshman
pro-woman also
Story on Phelps portrayed truth
Perhaps I misinterpreted the feature story "Children on the Line for God," but I thought this detailed look at Fred Phelps' grandchildren, namely Nathan Phelps-Poer, was covered objectively. It demonstrateu the disgusting way that Fred Phelps gets his message across — exploitation.
I did not think that by printing this story the *Kansan* was expressing an anti-homosexual message. True enough, it probably didn't offend the Phelps, but how could the reporter have gotten the interview by offending Fred? Furthermore, the people who wrote letters to the editor protesting the article should have know this is the sick truth, not a flowery tale about the Phelps clan.
Karmel Addis Harveyville sophomore
Karmel Addis
Kelli Oliver Religion is wrong focus in coverage of Muslims
Muneera Naseer
The recent explosion at the World Trade Center in New York City has brought several issues to light. As Muslims, this event was just as unsettling to us as it was to non-Muslims. We fear that the arrest of the Muslims in connection with the bombing may perpetuate the myth that Islam encourages violence. Our religion teaches us that peace and compromise are the best ways to solve problems. It is an injustice that Islam has been equated with violence in the past. We also fear that this may widen the gap between Muslims and non-Muslims in the United States and that it may characterize Muslims as terrorists. We would like to emphasize that there is a large, ethnically diverse Muslim population living right here in the United States. Many are U.S. citizens who vote, pay taxes and are active members of their communities.
Too many times, Muslims are portrayed as gun-slinging, stone-throwing, violent extremists. These are usually the images that we see of Palestinians, Libyans and Iranians, among others. We hardly ever see these people in times of peace. The Muslim world is brought to our attention mainly in times of war or conflict. For example, rarely do we hear of the peaceful coexistence of Muslims and Jews, yet these situations do occur worldwide. Also, the Muslim efforts toward peace and their acts of generosity often are overlooked.
We also are concerned about the emphasis of the suspected bomber's religion. Often, when a Muslim commits a violent crime, religion is highlighted. This is not the case with non-Muslims. When a non-Muslim commits a crime we never know if that person is a Catholic, Protestant or Jew, nor is it pertinent for us to know. This should be the case for people of all religions. We need to stress that nowhere in our Holy Quran does it state "thou shalt commit terrorist acts." Our religion stresses peace and compassion just as Christianity and Judaism, among others, do. When judging a religion, one should look to the teachings of that faith, not to its followers. People are not perfect.
We are in no position to decide whether the suspects are responsible for the bombing; that is for the courts to decide. People are innocent until proven guilty. The media has a responsibility to the public to let suspects stand trial in the U.S. court system, not in the media itself.
Muslims want to live in peace just as much as anyone else. We want a better future for our children and a better society in which everyone has the right to express his or her beliefs. Muslims are striving for the same goals as non-Muslims are.
One of the great things about the U.S. is the freedom of religion, but what use is this freedom to anyone, if they are being stereotyped?
Munera Naseer is a Karachi, Pakistan senior majoring in journalism.
KANSAN STAFF
GREG FARMER
Editor
Kell Oliver is a Tonganoxie senior majoring in business administration and accounting.
GARET FANNER
Editor
GAYLE OSTERBERG
Managing editor
TOM EBLEN
General manager, news adviser
BILK SHEET, Technology coord
STEVE PERRY
Asst Managing ... Justin Knopp
News ... Monique Guisalain
... David Mitchell
Editorial ... Stephen Martino
Campus ... NC Trauner
Sports ... David Mitchell
Photo ... Mark Rowlands
Features ... Lynne McAdoo
Graphics ... Dan Schauer
BILL SKEET, Technology coordinator
SUPERVEW DND
Business manager
MELISSA TERLIP
Retail sales manager
JEANNE HINES
Sales and marketing adviser
GUEST COLUMNISTS
Business Staff
Business star
Campus sales mgr...Brad Steen
Regional sales mgr...Wade Baxter
National sales mgr...Jennifer Pierer
Co-op sales mgr...Ashley Hessel
Production mgr...Ashley Langford
Marketing director...Angela Clevergon
Creative director...Holly Parry
Counselor...David Cohen
Art Director...Dave Habler
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Mystery Strip
By David Rosenfield