To the Editor, Your front-page article in your Feb. 8 issue by Kory Barnas caught my eye. Unfortunately, I was horrified when I began to read. It was obvious that Mr. Barnas was against abortion and his own bias leaked into the article. While I recognize that many news organizations are slanted, I was surprised to see The Quad following suit. Being completely devoid of any actual evidence, the article came off as purely opinion, which I argue it was. Although he quoted Fox News, the quote did not state any information other than the opinion. While I could not find the exact location of the quote on the Fox News website I did encounter Bill O’reilly speaking on the issue. If your only source comes from a show that does nothing but news commentary than what does that say for the validity of your quotes? The only “interviews” which made it in support her anti-abortion agenda. I believe that the entire thing was taken out of context to push a certain ideology. The validity of that agenda, in my eyes, is irrelevant. While I understand this is a college newspaper, it should still require neutrality from its reporters. Unless this was an Op-Ed piece which I don’t think it was. Check your facts and engage both sides of the argument. The entire controversy with abortion was misrepresented. The reason ads for contraception are aired, lies not in the birth control, but within the idea of safe sex and protecting yourself from sexually transmitted diseases. Birth control does much more than prevent pregnancy. It helps to regulate and lessen the strain from the menstrual cycle. I would like to mention the fact that Pam Tebow was offered a choice as to whether or not she wanted to abort a child while she underwent medical treatments that could have harmed the child. I think also that this case is highlighted because of Tim Tebow’s skill as a football player. While I know or care little about his skill set, I do care when something is being viewed as representative of ideas that it does not exemplify. Pam Tebow took a risk by having the child. Whether or not the risk was justified doesn’t matter. What matters is that she was offered a choice and chose to have the child. Regardless of what her own views are she was not forced to abort the potentially problematic child, likewise she was not forced to have it. All the pro-choice people want is to have that same choice available to others. Abortion is not a form of birth control. It is not a decision to be taken lightly. But it should exist. I am not going to begin to tackle the other key issues within this ad (i.e. the family being one man and one woman with 2.5 children, who are all white church-goers). I will just say that America was a country founded on the ideals of freedom from oppression and the ability to make decisions for you and your family. We stray further and further from those ideals when we begin to set laws in motion which regulate the private lives of Americans. We have several unalienable rights, which more and more are morphing into the rights of some, not the rights of all. More often than not, we hesitate to practice what we preach. Equality, diversity and opportunity don’t exist within a country where people are barred from leading lives of fulfillment based on gender, skin color, or sexuality.
-Robert Trama, West Chester University Student