In an effort to inform the student body of the wide range of contraceptive and sexual health resources available to them, H*yas for Choice put up 700 “Know Your Options” stickers in campus bathrooms this week that direct students to their informational blog.
Unlike the university-sponsored stickers in bathrooms that lead students to Student Health Services, the H*yas for Choice stickers provide more comprehensive options.
“Obviously, [the university is] not going to tell you about contraception. They’re not going to tell you where abortion clinics are,” H*yas for Choice President Abby Grace (SFS ’16) said. “They’re only going to tell you one side of the story.”
While Grace conceded that the university does make “genuine efforts” to help pregnant students, she said that students are not given the full range of options.
The H*yas for Choice website lists birth control methods, abortion resources in the D.C. area and sexual assault resources on and off Georgetown’s campus. It also lists place that test for sexually transmitted infections testing in D.C.. Students are able to see the price of each of these resources on the website.
The blog also warns students of Crisis Pregnancy Centers. Anti-abortion advocates operate these clinics, found in cities across the country. They are not legitimate medical establishments, and these centers have come under fire for providing false information and misleading pregnant women in an effort to prevent them from having an abortion.
The pamphlet includes information on how to contact Georgetown Health Services, but Grace said that it is dangerous for the university to assume that all students adhere to Catholic beliefs on these issues.
“If you’re putting up stickers that only direct you to one side of the story, then you should simultaneously have information on the full picture,” Grace said. “That’s where the ‘Know Your Options’ tagline comes from.”
H*yas for Choice Vice President Vincent DeLaurentis (SFS ’17) elaborated on the mission behind the stickers.
“We found that it was necessary to put these up because we know that Student Health is limited in the types of resources they can provide to students,” DeLaurentis said. “More so, many of our friends said they feel uncomfortable and have even had to lie when they approach Student Health for sexual health resources.”
DeLaurentis further said this is just one part of a H*yas for Choice effort to expand their focus beyond free speech and condom distribution and become a group that provides students with services that the university fails to provide.
Administration has not yet commented on the hundreds of stickers that H*yas for Choice has put up, but DeLaurentis said that some stickers have already been taken down by unknown perpetrators.
Grace said that web traffic on the blog has dramatically increased to five times its normal rate and that student response has been positive.
Emma Konopka (COL ’18) said that it is important for students to understand that H*yas for Choice does more than hand out condoms.
“It’s really about reproductive justice and letting people know that there are these options available to them,” Konopka said. “People don’t really know you can get pregnancy tests at the Women’s Center and have all these different options.”
Another student, Lydia Bubniak (SFS ’18), said that the information provided by H*yas for Choice gives women choices that the university may not.
“The stickers are much better because they give women actual options as to what to do with their life, rather than just ‘you should keep the baby,’” Bubniak said. “How am I supposed to finish school? What am I going to do now? How will I get back into my career?”
