Dear Editor:

So no one gets the wrong idea, I want to state up front that I congratulate Phi Lambda Psi on stepping up and taking over the duties of the former Women’s Resource Center. I think free pregnancy tests should be available on campus for those who need to use them and Phi Lambda Psi should be applauded for providing this service to Washington University women.

Something about the article “Free pregnancy tests offered on campus” in the Monday, Feb. 5, 2007 issue of Student Life, however, really bothered me. Rebecca Silverman said that “It’s good that the demand [for the free pregnancy tests] was there” and was a need that Phi Lambda Psi could fill. I do not think that it is a good thing that there is a demand for pregnancy tests on campus. It’s a good thing that Phi Lambda Psi was able to fill a need that female students on campus might have, but the fact that there is a need for pregnancy tests (and more so the fact that Silverman seems to think this need is a good thing) tells me that students on campus need to think a bit more about the responsibilities that come along with practicing safe sex. Instead of taking advantage of the free pregnancy tests, perhaps, more students should be taking advantage of the free condoms and other contraceptives on campus. And if these things are not available for students to take advantage of (as easily and freely as the pregnancy tests) perhaps student groups should focus on making them available before making things like pregnancy tests available. In my opinion, pregnancy tests should be a last resort. A demand for contraceptives should be applauded, not a demand for pregnancy tests. If a student takes advantage of the free pregnancy tests available, she obviously either was not responsible enough to seek out the contraceptives available first, or they were not as easily available to her as the pregnancy tests were.

Now, please, don’t get me wrong. I know college students (myself included) are not always as responsible as they should be when it comes to sex. And I also know contraceptives are not always great at doing what they are supposed to do. I am not condemning students who happen to be the victims of bad luck or a momentary lapse of judgment. But I don’t think contraceptives fail so often that “about 20 people” on campus would need pregnancy tests for this reason and I don’t think a momentary lapse of judgment should be more than momentary. I find something wrong with students on campus being content with a need for pregnancy tests. Maybe its just me.

-Luciana Bonifazi

Class of 2007

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