As leading scientists in women’s health care, we know that many women rely on lay literature for their medical information. It is disconcerting that a university publication would include such an embarrassing misinterpretation of scientific facts as circulated by the Daily Bruin in a lengthy ad insert on Feb. 24.
By publishing only one side of the conversation, your paper exposed vulnerable women to a real possibility of misinformed health care decisions.
If you wish to accomplish your goal of “reporting the truth in an informed, responsible and ethical way to inform and enlighten members of our community” as in the Daily Bruin mission statement, then we urge you to improve the assessment of the material that you accept. Your distribution of the misleading 12-page, full-color Human Life Alliance advertisement would be grounds to think that the UCLA campus paper is pandering to the cause of any group willing to pay.
Well-established scientific and epidemiologic data contradict many of the claims made in this advertisement, including the incidence of depression and breast cancer after abortion and the blatant misrepresentations regarding the facts of contraception. Contraceptives do not cause harm to an established pregnancy, but rather work to prevent pregnancy by inhibiting ovulation.
The National Cancer Institute convened the world’s experts into a study panel and concluded with strong evidence that neither induced nor spontaneous abortion is correlated with breast cancer. Systematic reviews of the literature demonstrate no correlation between abortion and long-term mental or physical health. Only the most poorly conducted studies with weak methodologies assert such a correlation ““ studies like those cited in the Human Life Alliance advertisement.
As doctors and scientists, we believe that a woman’s health is best facilitated when she is able to make decisions one-on-one with her personal physician. These choices should be made without pressure or imposition of others’ values or opinions. Each woman has her own unique life situation, which must be respected and supported. We have a responsibility to ensure that all women are given complete, medically accurate information on all pregnancy options so they can make the best decisions for their lives.
Becoming a parent is one of the most important decisions a person will make in his or her lifetime. Unsubstantiated claims about medical facts of abortion and contraception only serve to eliminate women from the very decisions that so profoundly affect themselves and their families. The Daily Bruin certainly served itself by collecting advertisement money but failed its own mission to serve the readers, due to the negative impact of fallacious and scientifically inaccurate declarations in the Human Life Alliance advertisement.
UCLA is an institution that prides itself on science, learning and cutting-edge medical practice. It is laughable to find more journalistic integrity and medically accurate information in fashion magazine Glamour’s abortion expose than in our own university’s paper. The Daily Bruin’s Human Life Alliance advertising insert was poor form ““ bad for journalism, bad for women’s health and bad for the university.