SB Students Care, Too

To:  Stony Brook University newspaper, The Statesman

Recently The Statesman published an “advertising supplement” printed by the Human Life Alliance (Issue 10, Thursday Oct 8 2009). The supplement is a magazine-like booklet promoting their anti-choice, abstinence-only-until-marriage agenda. The Statesman has acknowledged some of the campus outrage prompted by the advertising staff’s decision to run the booklet. However, we the undersigned feel that further action is necessary. Upon examination, it is clear that a large portion of the information presented is false, sensational or misleading, and that the articles are almost completely void of scientific or medical facts. In addition, many of the statistics provided are skewed, misreported, and taken out of context. Not only is it dishonorable to disseminate such biased and sensational information, but it is potentially harmful to the health of its readers. It is particularly abhorrent to find a student newspaper promoting junk science as reliable at Stony Brook, a highly regarded research university. For this, and other reasons, the undersigned – as members of the campus community which funds The Statesman – request that The Statesman agree to discontinue further printing of sensational, misleading, and potentially harmful advertisements that fly in the face of scientific research.

The Human Life Alliance is similar to a local organization—Life Center of Long Island—whose ads are also printed on a weekly basis in The Statesman. Life Center is one of a vast network of crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) which are largely funded through the heterosexist, unrealistic abstinence-only funding authorized by Congress in 2000 through the Community-Based Abstinence Education program. Life Center provides “counseling” based on the same biased and misleading information provided in the “I Care” pamphlet. Recognizing the harm of these programs, New York State has rejected abstinence-only federal funding for its public schools.

In addition, all of the services offered by CPCs are offered already on our campus – and on campus they are available without religious proselytizing. Life Center advertises weekly that it offers “pregnancy testing, information, counseling and assistance.” Within our campus community, we as students and faculty have access to a range of health and counseling services. As part of the comprehensive medical care offered at the Student Health Center, the Women’s Center offers a range of women’s health services including pregnancy testing and counseling. Both the University Counseling Center and the Center for Prevention and Outreach provide an open and free counseling resource for a variety of issues including sexual health, pregnancy and relationships. The Interfaith Center provides a spiritual resource for campus, representing the major religious perspectives in our community, and students can receive religious counseling from clergy representing the faith of their choice, as opposed to the volunteers that staff CPCs.

As members of the campus community, we reject propaganda masquerading as evidence-based research and respectfully request that as our campus newspaper, The Statesman refuse to run potentially harmful advertisements that don’t stand up to the rigors of scientific standards in the future. If you have any questions or would like to meet with us, please feel free to contacts us at sbstudentscaretoo@gmail.com.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The SB Students Care, Too Petition to Stony Brook University newspaper, The Statesman was created by Stony Brook students and written by Meghan Shalvoy (sbstudentscaretoo@gmail.com).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.