by The Cowl Editor on October 19, 2017
Opinion
Birth Control Prevents More Than Just Pregnancy
If President Trump intends to prevent “risky sexual behavior,” rolling back birth control coverage is scientifically proven to be one of the worst ways to approach the issue. Regardless of religious views on abortion, forbidding usage of birth control is no better than hindering one’s access to other medications.
The common misunderstanding with birth control is that women use it solely for contraceptive purposes. But the pill has a variety medical purposes that many are unaware of.
When we think of birth control we think of preventing pregnancy, yet the truth is its medicinal abilities extend beyond that of the reproductive cycle.
A study from the National Survey of Family Growth found that while 86 percent of birth control consumers use the pill for pregnancy prevention, 31 percent use it for menstrual pain relief, 28 percent use it for other pain relief such as migraines, 14 percent use it for acne treatment, and four percent use it for endometriosis treatment.
If Trump’s plan is to reduce abortion rates, cutting back on free birth control is not an effective way to do so. Another study in 2012 found that when women received free birth control, the rate of abortion and unplanned pregnancy decreased by a range of 62 to 78 percent.
Not only is the president perpetuating the issue of abortion, but he is robbing millions of women of their right to medical treatment.
-Hannah Paxton ’19
Late Night Madness is Maddening
Late Night Madness has become an event defined by clichés and repetition. Year after year, the same trio of occurrences goes down in Mulaney Gymnasium: dance groups dance, basketball teams play basketball, and rappers rap (and Coach Cooley wears a track suit).
This year, however, the decision of event regulators to separate the traditional concert from the dances and teams’ introductions badly hurt attendance for the pre-concert portion of the night. If the Providence College sports marketing team does not return the event to its previous format, the appeal and enticement of the basketball season kick-off could be lost.
The plethora of empty seats inside the gym during the dancing and introductions of the basketball team demonstrates the significance of the rapper for the fans. In years past, students have packed the arena in the hopes of being able to snag a good spot on the floor to take in a performance from rappers like Big Sean and Ludacris.
This year, however, with the obligation to attend the dances and the basketball portion of the event eliminated, many students decided to skip the festivities many of them might see as less entertaining when compared with a top-name rapper coming to campus.
Indeed, the sports marketing team might have missed the forest for the trees: students just might enjoy a huge concert more than members of their own campus community performing. It would be a big mistake not to change Late Night Madness back to its original arrangement.
-Kevin Copp ’18
Millions Suffer Without Subsidies
Has the horror of Friday the 13th come a day early this year? Last Thursday night, President Donald Trump announced his plan to terminate an essential set of subsidies of the Affordable Care Act. These subsidies, created to help lower-income enrollees pay for their health care, are estimated at $1 billion, and play a critical role in ensuring Americans’ access to essential health care that they would otherwise be unable to afford.
Not only is President Trump disproportionately targeting and jeopardizing the health of some six million of our nation’s most vulnerable citizens, but he is again exemplifying his and the Republican Party’s failure to “repeal and replace” Obamacare.
Picking apart vital elements of the Affordable Care Act, without actually replacing this complex piece of health-care legislation, inserts a virtual ticking time bomb into our health care system.
Without these crucial subsidies, we can expect more health insurers to withdraw from the marketplace for the following year, fewer healthy subscribers enrolling in marketplace plans because of continued premium increases, and consequently older and sicker pools of participants covered under whatever plans remain.
These fatal changes, coupled with Trump’s plan to create less expensive (and less comprehensive) health care plans seem to be a virtual death sentence for the marketplace. Without an actual feasible replacement for the ACA, Trump’s most recent actions are but another example of his unfulfilled political promises, which continue to leave millions of America’s most vulnerable sidelined.
-Sarah Kelley ’18