Free condoms and information about birth control were splayed across tables in Houston Hall earlier this week to mark the beginning of Choice Week.
Today concludes Penn for Choice's annual week of events aimed at better informing students about reproductive rights and the importance of this issue in the upcoming presidential election.
PFC currently has 567 members, according to PFC President and College junior Niva Kramek. She added that, beyond the official PFC members, she believes that a majority of Penn students are in favor of abortion rights.
"The atmosphere on campus is generally pro-choice and definitely embraces the view that reproductive freedom is a good thing," Kramek said.
With a strong base of supporters on campus, PFC had an eventful week.
On Monday, activities dedicated to informing students about different techniques of contraception began.
"Our contraception fair in Houston was huge," Kramek said. "Lots of passersby asked questions and got some information about sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy and contraception."
The overall hit, though, Kramek says, was the dental dams. She thinks they were such a success "because they were available in new flavors."
On Tuesday, the events centered around the past and future of the U.S. Supreme Court case upholding abortion rights, Roe v. Wade.
A panel discussion was held in the ARCH Building, where students watched Motherless, a documentary interviewing children of women who died from illegal abortions. The panel then discussed what could happen to reproductive freedom policies if President George W. Bush is re-elected.
"Today, as the current administration attempts to chip away at these key rulings that were meant to safeguard a woman's personal choice to contraception and abortion access, Penn ACLU ... urge[s] the Penn campus to be active in this fight," Penn American Civil Liberties Union President and College senior Mike Patterson said.
While PFC does not actively campaign for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, Kramek said that the group does encourage Penn students to become more aware of the political issues surrounding reproductive freedom.
Currently, the PFC Web site offers an array of statistics concerning both unintended pregnancy and abortion. PFC hopes to better educate students about their right to control their own reproductive futures.
By Wednesday night, Choice Week was in full gear. A screening of a documentary on the March for Women's Lives was held at Stiteler Hall.
The film "got a lot of cheers from the crowd when we saw the places we had been and certain counter-protesters that stuck out in our mind," Kramek said, referring to PFC's participation in the march.
Yesterday, activities switched from film viewing to an international food fair, where students gathered to enjoy the foods of countries currently impacted by today's foreign policy dilemmas.
Today, Choice Week will come to a close with an abortion rights rally on campus.
As the election approaches, PFC and the Penn ACLU hope that this week of events will allow students to become more knowledgeable about politics and learn, according to Patterson, that the United States should "never manipulate the law or the Constitution to stand in the way of someone else's choices."
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