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The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

H*yas for Choice Condom Delivery Service Launched

Pro-abortion rights group H*yas for Choice announced the Condom Fairy Delivery Service on Jan. 29, a new service designed to provide students with greater access to condoms and other forms of contraception.

The new program allows students living in on-campus housing to request up to 10 condoms or dental dams to be delivered to their door on any Friday. Students may choose whether or not to include their name on the form.

Though only launched on the HFC Facebook page this week, the Condom Fairy Delivery Service has already seen at least 45 requests for condom deliveries. The first batch of deliveries is scheduled to go out today.

H*yas for Choice, which is unrecognized by the university, is currently the only provider of contraception on campus, primarily through daily tabling in both Red Square and Sellinger Lounge. Because they receive no funding from the university, all condoms are delivered by volunteer members of the HFC general body.

The idea for the delivery service came from H*yas for Choice leadership team member Mika Skibinksky (COL ’19) when she noticed the difficulty some students have approaching the HFC table and asking for contraception.

“I was tabling for HFC one day and this awkward, yet brave freshman came up to the table and asked if they could take some condoms. I could tell that they really worked up the courage to approach the table, especially after seeing them accidentally dropping condoms as they left,” Skibinsky wrote in an email to The Hoya. “So shout out to that freshman and all those shy people out there. This program was made for you.”

HFC President Emily Stephens (SFS ’17) said while the group is invested in making contraception more accessible, the group also wants to destigmatize the usage of contraception.

“We recognize some students require anonymity to feel comfortable accessing our condoms, and in the short-term we want to reduce those barriers as much as possible,” Stephens wrote in an email to The Hoya. “However, part of our programming around sexual health also attempts to destigmatize sex, sexual health, and healthy relationships, so that ultimately members of the Georgetown community won’t feel any awkwardness acquiring or discussing sex and contraception.”

Some student groups oppose the service, saying it has the potential to undermine certain values Georgetown is responsible for upholding as a Jesuit institution. According to Grand Knight of the Knights of Columbus Hunter Estes (SFS ’19), who is also a member of anti-abortion rights group GU Right to Life, Georgetown has a duty to maintain a culture of life, which invariably necessitates promoting an anti-abortion message.

“I find this new program to be yet another link in the chain of destructive actions that devalue the culture of life that Georgetown is meant to uphold,” Estes wrote in an email to The Hoya.

Estes also said he sees the potential for abuse with this program, stating that he has already heard of instances in which individuals have ordered condoms to be sent to members of the anti-abortion community, as a form of harassment.

“This new program gives people the ability to anonymously harass and abuse the pro-life minority of students,” Estes wrote. “To me, the program serves to further undermine the Catholic values on which Georgetown was founded, and promote a reckless culture that disregards the consequences of one’s actions.”

Despite this backlash, members of H*yas for Choice are optimistic about the future of the service. Skibinksky said she is hopeful about the program’s success.

“I’d say that the response has been good so far,” Skibinsky wrote in. “We just started, but hopefully things will run smoothly.”

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  • J

    Jonny WeissFeb 8, 2017 at 12:12 am

    Apologies. Mr* Robert. I was on the exercise bike when I wrote the earlier comment.

    Reply
  • J

    Jonny WeissFeb 7, 2017 at 11:17 pm

    I believe Ms. Roberts here just violated the first bullet of the Hoya’s official comments policy.
    “1. Comments may not include inappropriate content. The Hoya deems a comment to be inappropriate if it:

    degrades others on the basis of gender, race, class, ethnicity, national origin, religion, SEXUAL ORIENTATION, disability or other classification”

    LGBTQ members of society are not unnatural or immoral. I’m sorry you are uncomfortable with decisions made by consenting adults.

    Great job h*yas for choice! I think it is very brave of you all to gather behind a cause in an environment as unsupportive as Georgetown’s. Hopefully they will pull through soon!

    Reply
    • S

      Sherman RobertsFeb 8, 2017 at 5:18 pm

      A very important, friendly response to Mr. Weiss’ comments above needs truthful clarification, for the benefit of all concerned, especially at a Catholic university.

      No offense or violation of Hoya comments policy was intended, only the truth! It is important to realize that the TRUTH is not concerned with how many it persuades.

      ‘Sexual orientation’ used in my comments implies illicit sexual behavior at GU in the eyes of God, Who is Truth. My intent was not to degrade anyone with homosexual inclinations. It is very important to understand the following, because there is hope.

      The Catechism of the Catholic Church, which speaks with the authority of Jesus Christ, does not degrade those who have homosexual inclinations.

      The USCCB, Ministry to Persons with a Homosexual Inclination (2006), p.13, states, “The Church seeks to enable every person to live out the universal call to holiness. Persons with a homosexual inclination ought to receive every aid and encouragement to embrace this call personally and fully. This will unavoidably involve much struggle and self-mastery, for following Jesus always means following the way of the Cross…. The Sacraments of the Eucharist and of Penance are essential sources of consolation and aid on this path.”

      “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your selves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” (Matthew 11:28-30). USCCB quote.

      According to catholic.com, an orthodox Catholic website: “Every human being is called to receive a gift of divine sonship (includes daughtership), to become a child of God by grace. However, to receive this gift, we must reject sin, including homosexual BEHAVIOR–that is, acts intended to arouse or stimulate a sexual response regarding a person of the same sex. The Catholic Church teaches that such acts are always violations of divine and natural law.

      Homosexual desires, however, are not in themselves sinful. People are subject to a wide variety of sinful desires over which they have little direct control, but these do not become sinful until a person acts upon them, either by acting out the desire or by encouraging the desire and deliberately engaging in fantasies about acting it out. People tempted by homosexual desires, like people tempted by improper heterosexual desires, are not sinning until they act upon those desires in some manner.

      Homosexuals who want to live chastely can contact Courage, a national, Church-approved support group for help in deliverance from the homosexual lifestyle.” See Catholic.com/tract/homosexuality.

      If H*yas for Choice is encouraging homosexual behavior, especially at Georgetown University, a supposedly Catholic university, it needs to steer back to what our Catholic Church teaches.

      Sherman Roberts, College class of ’65

      Reply
  • S

    Sherman RobertsFeb 3, 2017 at 4:01 pm

    This is scandalous in the most heinous sense! “Hate the sin, & love the sinner” is what Jesus Christ and His one true Church teaches (with His authority). Becoming slaves to sin deprives one of TRUE human freedom, and jeopardizes one’s eternal salvation.

    Pro-choice (same as pro-abortion) rights groups have no place existing on a FAITHFUL Catholic University’s campus, and GU has created too much scandal over the decades. The Catechism (does the university encourage its reading, or have any GU students ever read parts of it?) defines scandal as an “attitude or behavior that leads another to do evil.”

    TRUTH is the mind’s conformity with reality. It is not difficult to see why people today have difficulty with such a basic concept because all falsehoods, including all forms of relativism, are mental deviations from reality.

    Truth, especially religious truth, makes demands upon us. To say that everything is relative so that we can do whatever we want is a serious violation of our responsibility as persons. Truth’s obligatory nature is an essential aspect of truth. All authentic truth comes from God, who wants us to know and understand His truth, so we can embrace it and live by it.

    Jesus Christ reminds us, “The truth shall make you free” (Jn 8:32). He also said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me” (Jn 146). Truth is a Person!

    The real purpose of the university is not about the free expression of ideas–IT IS ABOUT THE PURSUIT OF TRUTH. Students rights to the free expression of immoral, unrealistic, or eccentric ideas do not belong in a university, but in a public park or a private venue. Georgetown has fallen away from forming its students with a solid, moral and ethical Catholic foundation that prepares students to discern truth later in life, and to evangelize a fallen world, as Christ has commanded us to do.

    Academic freedom must be practiced within the confines of the truth and the common good. A Catholic university’s obligation is to search for and teach truth, which includes the truth of the sacredness of human life, the evils of abortion, contraception, and euthanasia, as well as the unnatural, immoral behavior of LGBTQ

    Considering Georgetown’s moral and ethical hypocrisy over the past few decades, the university may claim to be pro-life, but yet invites the head of Planned Parenthood, or Kathleen Sebelius of HHS, to speak publicly to students to promote abortion. The use of condoms promotes promiscuity, degrades the dignity of the human person, affects the stability of future marriages, and blocks the natural transmission of human life! Do you not know that the Church has condemned the use of artificial contraception? Or, do you not care?

    When people say one should not judge, ‘judge not’ does not mean we ignore evil! Jesus did not tell us we should close our eyes to moral evil in the world. He expects His followers to acknowledge the difference between good and bad conduct in themselves, and others. Although He wants us to be forgiving and merciful to others, He does not want us to ignore, much less approve, immoral behavior. Admonishing the sinner is a spiritual work of mercy much needed in today’s broken world.

    To get an idea of the scope of this overall problem, attached is an article from The Cardinal Newman Society that speaks to GU’s dissenting Catholic “identity”, and the Canon Law case against GU.

    https://cardinalnewmansociety.org/exorcist-authors-canon-law-case-georgetown-continues/

    A concerned alumnus from the College class of ’65.

    Reply