In Sarah DeAngelo’s article, “Unifying Decisions,” published Nov. 17 in the Iowa State Daily, DeAngelo discusses the anti-abortion amendment included in the House of Representatives’ recently passed health care reform bill. At the end of her article, DeAngelo praises the amendment as “a comprising goal of the Obama administration … something that recognizes everyone’s values.”

I would first like to express my extreme desire to scream at this assertion. The gross generalization and incorrectness of her statement is astounding. To claim that anti-abortion is an inherent part of everyone’s values is erroneous. A May 2009 Gallup poll posed the question to Americans if they believed abortion should be legal under any circumstance. Contrary to DeAngelo’s statement, 42 percent identified with the “pro-choice” belief, 51 percent with the “pro-life.” I would like to know: When has 42 percent become insignificant and the other 51 percent become “everyone”? Also, the Obama administration has been cited by the Washington Post to favor a woman’s legal right to an abortion.

In addition, throughout DeAngelo’s article, she refers to her and her colleagues’ religious upbringing who believe abortion is immoral. That personal belief is perfectly fine, as long as it is kept personal. However, to limit another woman’s choice, her constitutional right, her own reproductive rights, is wrong. Women are entitled to equal rights just as men are. If you limit a woman’s reproductive rights, then you should also limit a man’s rights, the partner who is equally responsible for a pregnancy. Why must the woman alone suffer the consequences of an unwanted pregnancy?

Additionally, the religious beliefs that seep into the making of the anti-abortion amendment go against the First Amendment in the U.S. Constitution calling upon the separation of church and state. DeAngelo’s reasoning in her article praising the amendment is supported by her Catholic upbringing and not our Constitution, whose role is to guarantee equal rights to both women and men.

– Haema Nilakanta, junior in mathematics and biosystems engineering