When University President John J. DeGioia committed last semester to establishing a full-fledged resource center for LGBTQ students, he put the need for a safe and accepting university community above the objections raised by some that such a center would be inconsistent with the mission of a Catholic university. Similarly, the Law Center, which allows some students to receive funding for internships at organizations that support abortion rights, has made its own commitment to academic freedom.
Georgetown has proudly upheld its Catholic and Jesuit tradition for 219 years, and in recent years has strived to balance the values of a modern university against the occasionally contradictory demands of the Church. Yet on the issue of public health, which affects everyone in the university community, Georgetown has invoked Church doctrine to deny students a fully safe environment.
While it provides a range of medical and educational resources, the Student Health Center does not offer students any form of birth control as part of its services.
Georgetown University Hospital, although able to prescribe the pill, does not distribute it. The university also bans those businesses who lease space from Georgetown – including all Corp locations and Wisey’s – from selling condoms. The closest place to pick up any form of birth control, whether condoms or the pill, is CVS, which is still several blocks from campus.
Georgetown already denies H*yas for Choice, the student group that supports abortion rights, any access to benefits or right of affiliation with the university to uphold its responsibility to the Church’s opposition to abortion. But such a responsibility should not be extended to the detriment of safe sex.
We believe that the university should provide for the safety and well-being of its students and that it is curtailing its own efforts to do so by expressly banning contraceptives from being sold at the independently owned Corp stores. Other than preventing the contraction of STDs and unwanted pregnancies, condoms also offer protection against HIV, which is of special concern to students in Washington, D.C. We also assert that the Student Health Center should be allowed to prescribe the pill, if only because the pill serves non-sexual, medical purposes.
Georgetown’s Jesuit identity should pose no problem in this situation. If the university allows students and activities on its campus that do not adhere to all the tenets of Catholicism, the same logic applies to allowing independent businesses to sell contraceptives. There is no need for explicit endorsement, if the university does not wish to endorse the use of contraceptives. It is not this Board’s intention to debate Catholic doctrine, but opposition to students seeking ways to protect themselves is a contradiction of the direct duty of this university as an institution which claims to care for the whole person.
We hope that the administration considers the health of students more important than sticky ideological points. Until then, though, make sure you stock up at CVS before V-day.
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