Dear CDC, I think you're missing a few steps

Dear Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),

While I appreciate your concern about preventing fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) and other related health issues associated with drinking while pregnant, I and other women think you might have missed a few steps in your most recent monthly Vital Signs report concerning the adverse effects of women imbibing. Because based on the included infographic (which associates “drinking” of any kind with violence, cancer, STDs, fertility problems and unintended pregnancy among other ailments), apparently only one of us has a clear understanding about how a woman gets pregnant. Thank you, I guess, for warning me and other female students that drinking a bottle of wine alone in my dorm room could place me at so much risk. I must have slept through that portion of sixth grade health class.

For those who haven’t yet seen it, the CDC released a report last week on the risks of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders and how to avoid it. A noble intent. It warns that women who are pregnant (or are trying to become so) should avoid any and all alcohol because of the possible birth defects that could affect the developing child. Within that same report, however, the agency urges all fertile women who are not on birth control to abstain from drinking, and the report also includes a now-controversial infographic warning all women, not just pregnant or would-be pregnant ones, about the risks of drinking too much alcohol.

Let me lay out a few complaints concerning this report. For one, it is condescending and perpetuates the motherhood mandate, suggesting that women exist for the sole purpose of having kids. Moreover, the infographic text is misleading and inaccurate. Finally, conflations like this one substantiate incorrect and harmful blame-the-victim rape myths.

When, as a Washington Post column highlighted, the report leads to headlines with quotes accurate to the article like “CDC: Young women should avoid alcohol unless using birth control,” there’s a real problem. The agency appears to suggest that the most important quality about young women is not that they are autonomous human beings but instead that they are baby-making factories that will most likely give birth one day. Pushing this traditional narrative constricts the freedom for women to live the life they want for themselves. If, as many women do, they choose to give birth to a baby in the future, that’s great. But what about women who are lesbian or who have decided for their own individual reasons that they do not want to conceive a child? Should these women also abstain from drinking? A federal public health agency should not be pushing any single agenda to control women’s bodies and choices.

The infographic is perhaps the more offensive statement. Indeed, the information contained there is not only misleading but quite frankly inaccurate in its excluding intermediate steps. Shockingly, that bottle of wine isn’t going to impregnate me; it won’t give me herpes either, and it won’t cause violence to be perpetrated against me. I understand that the CDC didn’t purposefully intend to convey such claims; they know their facts. But that doesn’t change the reality that the infographic is indeed easily misinterpreted and that it comes across in a decidedly demeaning manner.

And it isn’t just a problem of misleading information. The missed steps in the infographic and the resulting message communicates that those “risks of drinking too much” are the woman’s fault. Apparently I can get an STD or become pregnant completely by myself— magic! As a Washington Post response column says perfectly, “one of the unexpected costs of being female is that people keep holding you accountable for other people’s behavior. You thought you were just a person, but it turns out that you are a wizard. Youcontrol the actions of others by the way you choose to dress and walk and talk and live your life.” This mentality is a product of and feeds into a broader rape culture in which few people think twice about this blame-the-victim mentality, even though it is a false rape myth.

Look, I realize that the CDC’s intent was virtuous. Many women who are trying to become pregnant should be informed that drinking any alcohol at all has significant risks. Preventing FASD is a laudable goal. It is also useful for the CDC to caution that alcohol lowers inhibitions and reduces judgment. And so drinking too much isn’t great for a wide range of factors. But it is another issue altogether to convey that information in the way the CDC did and then refuse to apologize for the way they communicated said message. Claiming that the negative media coverage was “a big misunderstanding of our attitude” and defending the advice, the CDC has still failed to acknowledge that the way it portrayed its worthwhile recommendations was highly problematic.

Perhaps in the orange bubble we tend to simply ignore the CDC. I don’t expect to see any reduction in alcohol consumption among women on campus because of the admonitions of this report. Indeed, because of the impracticality of its recommendations, the report’s more targeted warning to women who are trying to become pregnant has unfortunately gotten lost. While the CDC’s intent might be good, the ideas this warning actually conveys are highly problematic for women both on and beyond campus. And we shouldn’t just accept these misstatements without challenges simply because they emanate from a source of authority.

Marni Morse is a politics major from Washington, D.C. She can be reached at mlmorse@princeton.edu.