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Letters to the editor: Advertisement misconstrues Planned Parenthood

To the editor: In an advertisement in Tuesday’s edition of The Daily Cougar, the Houston Coalition for Life called into question the quality of health care provided by Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas. While an open dialogue about Planned Parenthood’s quality of service is productive, buying advertisements that deliberately mislead students in order to promote an agenda is not. This kind of propaganda is egregious because it comes from an organization that does nothing to address the lack of access to health care and adequate sex education in our community. Planned Parenthood has provided high quality healthcare to its clients for nearly three-quarters of a century and has been a great resource for those who seek health care presented in an unbiased, nonjudgmental manner by trained medical professionals. This is probably why women, men and teens made 102,808 health care visits to PPHSET in 2007. Planned Parenthood does more to prevent unintended pregnancies, the transmission of sexually transmitted infections, protect the reproductive rights of individuals and reduce the need for abortions than any other organization. The numbers speak for themselves, and it is clear such deceptive, misleading attacks are not going to fool anyone willing to take a second look at them.
Diane Aguirre
political science sophomore
To the editor: I was sorry to see a full-page advertisement in The Daily Cougar on Tuesday that sought to discredit Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas. As director of the Women’s Resource Center on campus, many young women come to me in crisis about their sexual and reproductive health.† Most often I refer them to our own very excellent women’s clinic in the Student Health Center, but in some instances Planned Parenthood is the appropriate referral. Our female students have always reported back that they received professional and skilled services provided in a respectful and friendly environment. I cannot speak for the University of Houston, but Planned Parenthood is an expert and caring health-service provider giving first-rate care to our students and the greater Houston community.
Beverly McPhail, Ph.D.
Women’s Resource Center

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