Dear Editor:

For all of you on this campus who are opposed to our university health insurance coverage of surgical abortion, I have some interesting numbers for you from the 2005 National Crime Victimization Survey put out by the U.S. Department of Justice. These numbers do not include the victims who are under the age of 12.

Every two and a half minutes, someone in the United States someone is sexually assaulted; yet 59 percent of these assaults go unreported. Being raped is a traumatic event – having to go to the authorities and tell them what happened makes you have to relive the horror that you’ve already gone through.

Many women do not find themselves strong enough to speak about their rape to others, but that doesn’t make what happened any less real. Did you know around 4.7 percent of rapes result in the victim becoming pregnant?

I fully support our university’s health insurance coverage of surgical abortion. I know not every abortion performed for students at this university is the result of rape, but I would hate for a woman who has been victimized to be forced to carry that financial burden on her own, when most likely she is already carrying the emotional and psychological burden on her own.

For those of you who plan to ask the university for a refund because you don’t want your money going to fund surgical abortions, I say good luck getting a refund from them.

I would also suggest you attempt to get a refund from the federal government on your tax dollars as well if you really don’t want any of your money going to fund surgical abortions, because our tax dollars help fund them too.

Amy Nelson

graduate student studying exercise physiology