Abortion facts were not accurate in letter
Regarding 'Letters to the Editor' (Tuesday, Feb. 6, 2007):
In his letter, Tom Haine cited a study by Janet Daling in 1994 positing a linkage between abortions and a higher incidence of breast cancer. A quick search on said study provided this information:
"An epidemiological study by Mads Melbye, et al. in 1997, with data from two national registries in Denmark, reported the correlation to be negligible to nonexistent after statistical adjustment." The National Cancer Institute conducted an official workshop with numerous experts on the issue in February 2003, which concluded, using its highest-strength rating for the selected evidence it considered, that "induced abortion is not associated with an increase in breast cancer risk." In 2004, Beral, et al. published a collaborative reanalysis of 53 epidemiological studies and concluded that abortion does "not increase a woman's risk of developing breast cancer."
This information came, with numerous external citations to the studies themselves, from Wikipedia — perhaps Haine has heard of it?
Haine is either being disingenuous or ignorant by citing findings which have been refuted many times over, and he is emblematic of the manner in which the American right wing carries on the abortion debate.
David Mesrobian '05
Connection between abortion and breast cancer was inaccurate
Regarding 'Letters to the Editor' (Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2007):
For more than a decade, no reputable scientist has alleged a connection between abortion and breast cancer. In 2003, the National Cancer Institute definitively stated that having an abortion does not increase a woman's chances of developing breast cancer.
It is troubling that Tom Haine would continue to perpetuate this myth in his ongoing efforts to win followers.
Anne Twitty GS Co-Chairwoman, Princeton Pro-Choice Vox
The New York Times should not report on Princeton Bicker
Regarding 'Purported Times reporter follows pickups' (Monday, Feb. 12, 2007):
With all of the pressing issues in higher education (rising costs of tuition, Harvard's first female president), not to mention issues of global importance (the proposed troop surge in Iraq, Iran's nuclear program, genocide in Darfur, elections in Turkmenistan), it is great that the New York Times is finally about to break the big story on Princeton Bicker. It has only been around for over a hundred years. Watch out fellas, you might get scooped by Walter Winchell on this one, or one of those muckrakers President Roosevelt has mentioned. I think the original Times reporter doing this story gave up to cover the Spanish-American War. Remember the Maine! Glad to see you have picked up where he left off.
The Times needs to get over its obsession with unmasking what goes on socially at Princeton and other top universities and maybe report some news. Why don't they send this reporter to take photos of the schools refugees have to attend in Chad? Or the schools we have rebuilt since Katrina?
Or we can make it easier for you, New York Times: take your curiosity about Bicker and channel it into real reporting. Imagine headlines like "John Bolton hosed from U.N. Ambassadorship, vows to bicker again in the fall" or "Jubilant celebrations surround pickups for new Appeals Court judges." Those are great! And some big photos of judges in black robes chanting things like "Second Circuit!" (clap clap clap clap clap).
Who says you can't have it both ways? Go for it, New York Times.
Zachary Goldstein '05
Bicker articles are all the same
Please stop printing platitudes about the bicker system. We all know how it works: it includes some people, excludes others, some people are happy with it, others are not. For the past five years, without fail, I have read the same inane column alongside the same inane article. This isn't journalism — it's plagiarism. I'd rather read about the weather.
Jacob Savage '06
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The income that students earn from employment is not “miscellaneous.” So Princeton must decide: Does it want its students — all of them, not only those who can afford it — to be able to work on the important research happening at Princeton, or be forced to go home?