Planned Parenthood

I just finished reading my colleagues post titled "Planned Parenthood," and I want to start off immediately by saying that I completely agree with her position. Since Texas is currently a Republican state, it is no surprise that "we" are against abortions and Planned Parenthood clinics. I'm not entirely sure as to why we are against Planned Parenthood clinics, because they do offer so much more in the field of protecting women's health than just abortions, but that is seemingly the way it is. 


My colleague gives great examples of how we need Planned Parenthood clinics for the reasons that they help women if they have contracted an sexually transmitted disease, they provide low or no cost cervical cancer exams to patients who cannot afford them, and another reason, which I personally don't believe was stressed enough, Planned Parenthood also provides low or no cost breast cancer screenings to patients. Breast cancer has been such a huge problem for women and one of the main things that Planned Parenthood does is protect women by giving them these screenings; they are completely vital.


I understand that some people (Republicans) want to put Planned Parenthood out of business because they associate them with abortions, but what I think that many people fail to realize is that Planned Parenthood does so much more for women that just give abortions. My colleague gives great examples of why abortions should not be banned and I tend to agree with her and the Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade that abortions should be legal; however, I tend to agree with President Clinton more in stating that "abortions should be safe, legal, and rare." 


My colleague does a great job in describing why women might need to get an abortion in their current place in life and I personally don't think that I, or anyone else has the right to tell a woman what she can and can't do with her own body. All in all, I can't state enough how strongly I agree with my colleagues article; it was written very well and I agree that the state of Texas should take the hands out of the matter and leave the Planned Parenthood clinics alone.

We All Have Our Poison

The University of Texas at Austin has officially banned smoking on all their campuses. Now I am not a smoker myself but I do have a problem with them banning smoking from campuses all together. It's no surprise to me that the underlying reason for banning smoking was not out of concern for students health but out of concern for their bank account. Of course it has to do with money, and lots of it. Apparently The University of Texas at Austin receives about 30 million a year from The Cancer Research Prevention Institute of Texas, and now after banning smoking all together they can apply to receive 88 million from the CRPIT. Not bad if you ask me, but what about the students who smoke? The university created temporary smoking areas for the first year of the ban and is offering "quit support" to those who would like to stop smoking. Lets be honest, this might be a great deal for The University of Texas but for the students who smoke it sucks!

 Majority of smokers that I have seen keep to themselves and smoke where there’s not a lot of people around. Now there is occasionally a rude person who seems to be determined to give us all lung cancer through second hand smoke but the majority of people who smoke are quite considerate. We all have our poison, mine happens to be coffee and I cant imagine being told where I can and can not drink my coffee. I need it especially in the mornings. It would be awful to have to walk off campus to drink my coffee and then walk back. This is exactly what someone who smokes is going to have to do. I think some compromise should be made. They should keep the smoking areas and make them far enough away from the buildings but close enough so that students can stay on campus and smoke without having to leave. And as far as the “quit support,” I see no point in it. If someone is a smoker and is upset about UT banning smoking, chances are good they're not planning on quitting anytime soon. This is just UT trying to make themselves look as if they care about their students well being but the reality is that all they care about making money and prestige. Sadly money talks and even though it looks like the UT smoker is going to lose this in this fight, it's never too late to at least try for your cause.