© 2011 Planned Parenthood Affiliates of Ohio
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Write a Letter to the Editor
Why write letters to the editor?
Letters to the editor are some of the most heavily read parts of a daily newspaper. Readers regularly seek out the opinions of their neighbors to help sort out complicated issues that affect their lives.Your personal opinion can be a valuable addition to the public discourse about prevention legislation. Your contribution can gain attention from policy makers and become valuable "earned media" in the fight for family planning.Ohio Newspapers
Akron Beacon Journal
44 E. Exchange Street
P.O. Box 640
Akron, OH 44309
The Athens Messenger
9300 Johnson Road
Athens, OH 45701
Limit 250 words
The Athens News
(prefer e-mail submission in
Microsoft Word attachment)
Limit 400 words
Canton Repository
500 Market Avenue S.
Canton, OH 44702
Limit 300 words
Cincinnati Enquirer
312 Elm St.
Cincinnati, OH 45202
Limit 100 words
Cleveland Plain Dealer
1801 Superior Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44114
Limit 200 words
Columbus Dispatch
34 South 3rd Street
Columbus, OH 43215
Limit 200 words
Columbus Free Press
1021 E. Broad St.
Columbus, OH 43205
Columbus Post
770 East Main Street
Columbus, Ohio 43205
Dayton Daily News
1611 S. Main Street
Dayton, OH 45409
Limit 250 words
Independent Collegian
University of Toledo
2132 Middlesex Drive
Toledo, OH 43606
Limit 500 words
The Lantern
The Ohio State University
242 W. 18th Ave.
Columbus, Ohio 43210
La Prensa
616 Adams Street
Toledo, Ohio 43604
Limit 300 words
Mansfield News Journal
70 W. Fourth Street
Mansfield, OH 44903
The Other Paper
Limit 250 words
The Post
Ohio University
325 Baker University Center
Athens, Ohio 45701
Limit 200 words
Springfield News-Sun
202 N. Limestone St.
Springfield, OH, 45503
Limit 250 words
Suburban News Publications
Limit 300 words
This Week Community News
7801 N. Central Drive
Lewis Center, Ohio 43035
The Vindicator
107 Vindicator Square
Youngstown, OH 44503
Tips on successful letter to the editor writing:
1. Keep it short! Letters under 200 words are more likely to get printed. Some papers have specific length requirements.
2. Write about one subject at a time. Pick your most important point and make it the focus of your whole letter.
3. Be clear about your reason for writing. Reference any legislation or any article you are responding to in the first couple sentences.
4. It doesn't have to be perfect. Writing ten good letters a year beats crafting that one perfect letter that might not get published.
5. Use your own words...or ours. The best letters come from the heart in the author's own words. However, not everyone knows what to say. Feel free to use our talking points in your letter.
6. Have a freind read your letter for errorrs before subbmitting. ;-)
Published letters to the editor about the Ohio Prevention First Act
July 11, 2011
In response to the July 5 letter by Gary Dougherty of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of Ohio, I have to say I agree. I am a big supporter of Planned Parenthood and all of the reproductive health-care services it offers to women.
As for our anti-choice legislators, I am disgusted with the sexist policies they are trying to pass. Make no mistake, if you oppose abortion rights for women, you are sexist.
If women can’t make decisions about their own bodies, then we have no rights as women at all, and I will oppose any legislation that opposes women’s reproductive rights.
Nancy Dollard
Lake Township
July 4, 2011
Earlier this year, seven bills were introduced in Ohio to regulate abortion access. Hearings took on a circus atmosphere as live ultrasounds were performed, and opponent witnesses were ridiculed. Recently, without public input or clamor, language to further restrict access to abortion services was sneaked into the state budget bill.
Noticeably absent has been any discussion about how to prevent unintended pregnancies in the first place. Planned Parenthood sees prevention as the key to reducing the number of unintended pregnancies, reducing the spread of sexually transmitted infections and reducing the need for abortion.
State Rep. Nickie Antonio, D-Lakewood, and Senate Minority Leader Capri Cafaro, D-Hubbard, recently introduced the Ohio Prevention First Act.
Among other provisions, the bill seeks to make emergency contraception available to sexual assault survivors in hospital emergency rooms, offer comprehensive sexual health education with a foundation in abstinence and create a teen pregnancy prevention task force.
Rather than engaging in divisive politics, it is now time to focus energy on effective strategies to reduce Ohio’s unintended pregnancy rate and make our state a healthier place for women and their families.
Gary Dougherty
State legislative director
Planned Parenthood Affiliates of Ohio
July 3, 2011
Earlier this year, seven bills were introduced in Ohio to regulate abortion access. Hearings took on a circus atmosphere as live ultrasounds were performed, women were encouraged to triumph over their rapists and opponent witnesses were ridiculed.
Recently, without public input or clamor, language to further restrict access to abortion services was sneaked into the state budget bill.
Noticeably absent has been any discussion about how to prevent unintended pregnancies in the first place.
Planned Parenthood sees prevention as the key to reducing the number of unintended pregnancies, reducing the spread of sexually transmitted infections and reducing the need for abortion.
State Rep. Nickie Antonio, D-Lakewood, and Senate Minority Leader Capri S. Cafaro, D-Hubbard, recently introduced the Ohio Prevention First Act. Among other provisions, the bill seeks to make emergency contraception available to sexual-assault survivors in hospital emergency rooms, offer comprehensive sexual-health education with a foundation in abstinence, and create a teen-pregnancy-prevention task force.
Rather than continuing to engage in divisive politics, it is time to focus energy on effective strategies to reduce Ohio's unintended-pregnancy rate and make our state a healthier place for women and their families.
GARY DOUGHERTY
State legislative director
Planned Parenthood Affiliates of Ohio
July 03, 2011
As a young man, and as the brother of two sisters, I am scared for the women of Ohio. With the Ohio House of Representatives' recent passage of three anti-choice pieces of legislation, including the "heartbeat" bill, the scope of availability for safe and legal reproductive care has been drastically reduced. If the heartbeat bill passes the Ohio Senate, and is signed by Gov. John Kasich, Ohio's women will be banned from getting an abortion before many of them even know that they are pregnant.
What is most striking about this debate is the absence of any discussion regarding prevention. Simply outlawing abortion does not, and will not, prevent them. In fact, it only makes accessing reproductive care harder and leaves women more vulnerable to risky, back-alley abortions.
The only way we can prevent abortion, which should be our main objective, is by reducing the number of unplanned pregnancies. Instead of focusing on making things harder to access, why can't the Ohio General Assembly work to make comprehensive sexual-health education the standard in Ohio?
I cannot help but feel a sense of hypocrisy as the male-dominated Ohio legislature works to take away women's rights while doing nothing to prevent abortion in the first place. Perhaps they should move as quickly on passing the Ohio Prevention First Act as they did the heartbeat bill.
Daniel Sparks, Parma
Representatives Hear from Emergency Contraception Advocates
Columbus Dispatch
Thursday, April 29th, 2010
Recently I attended a Lobby Day in Columbus on the behalf of Planned Parenthood of Northeast Ohio to discuss the Ohio Prevention First Act with my state legislators. The day was very successful and informative, and I was proud to voice the need for this landmark legislation for Ohio women. The act encompasses a number of important subjects, including providing comprehensive sex education curriculum in Ohio schools to better prepare teens to reduce unintended pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases, to equalize access to contraception by pharmacies and insurance companies, and to ensure access to emergency contraception for sexual assault survivors in Ohio’s emergency rooms (The CARE Act). I would like to focus on this last aspect of the act, due to the misinformation many people receive about emergency contraception.
Emergency contraception is not the abortion pill. It will not terminate or affect an existing pregnancy. Emergency contraception, also known as Plan B or the Morning After Pill, is a concentrated dose of regular birth control and is used to prevent a pregnancy from occurring. It will prevent an egg from being fertilized, but will not destroy an already fertilized egg. Emergency contraception can be effective for up to 72 hours, so the sooner the pill is taken the more effective it is in preventing an unintended pregnancy. Ohio
Prevention First is working to get emergency contraception information and access placed in Ohio emergency rooms for the victims of rape. A woman who just survived this violent attack should not be victimized all over again by either not receiving the medication she needs to prevent a pregnancy, or by having to drive to a pharmacy to pick up the drug. Ohio’s Emergency rooms should show compassion for these survivors and provide them with the safe and effective option.
Lobby Day was a very exciting experience for me to participate in as a college student. I realized that I could make a difference for Ohio women by voicing the need to my representatives for this legislation and the benefits it will provide to the states’ women and families to my representatives.
Sincerely,
Amy Sondles
The Columbus Dispatch
November 16, 2009
I am grateful the Ohio House Health Committee finally held a hearing for the Prevention First Act. The Prevention First Act would help reduce costly unwanted pregnancies by promoting improved access to contraceptives and comprehensive sex education. This act has bipartisan support because it focuses on prevention.
Many Ohioans do not know that a woman who is sexually assaulted in our state may not have access to emergency contraception when she goes to the hospital.
I cannot imagine what it would feel like to experience such a trauma and then be revictimized by a hospital that is unwilling to provide fully for my care.
According to the Guttmacher Institute, Ohio ranks 48th among the states and the District of Columbia for access to contraceptives. Emergency contraception is an effective way to reduce unwanted pregnancies. A 2002 study found that the use of emergency contraceptives was most likely responsible for nearly half of the decline in unwanted pregnancies between 1994 and 2000.
Half of unwanted pregnancies end in abortion, so reducing unwanted pregnancies directly reduces abortions.
Abstinence-only sex (mis)-education programs are a waste of time and money. They do not prepare students to make informed decisions about sex and do nothing to reduce unwanted pregnancies.
According to the Sexuality Information and Education Counsel of the United States, Ohio ranks 28th in teen pregnancies.
I urge readers to contact their legislators in support of the Prevention First Act.
Amanda E. Stevens
Columbus
The Canton Repository
March 20, 2009
Regarding Charita Goshay’s March 18 column (“Palin baby poses problem for critics of sex education”): Thankfully, we have an opportunity to respond to the critics of sex education with the Ohio Prevention First Act.
OPFA requires that sex education classes provide students with medically accurate health information about abstinence, contraception and sexually transmitted disease, including HIV/AIDS.
Abstinence should be included in comprehensive sexuality education curricula. Sadly, abstinence-only education has contained medical inaccuracies harmful to our youth.
According to Case Western Reserve Dr. Scott Frank’s “Report on Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Programs in Ohio,” these programs contain “misleading and false information, scientific errors, and substantial inaccuracies.”
Is it any wonder that teens signing virginity pledges are one-third less likely to use contraception when they do become sexually active?
Additionally, after years of abstinence-only education, the Centers for Disease Control reports not only that one in four teenage girls has a sexually transmitted disease but also that the teen birth rate has increased for the second year in a row.
Indeed, it truly is our job as responsible adults to help teens understand the truth and the consequences.
Elizabeth Bowen
North Canton
