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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 7, 2002)
Sports RASKa The Battalion Page 1B • Thursday, November 7, 2002 heCU mauling ahoma Sooner* u in Huskerland f "Injuries" to succeed. Cm. > I ay book iscnrajl uarterback. i STATE :he first r. Increased fra® tat this yearfc: heir way up RN Soccer team begins run in Big 12 Tournament By Troy Miller THE BATTALION The No. 3 Texas A&M women’s soc- at certeam (15-3-1, 9-0-1) is looking to defend its 2001 Tournament title and its regular season championship this week in San Antonio at the Big 12 Championship Tournament. The last time the Aggies won a regular season was in 1997, when they went on to win their first-ever tournament crown. The 2002 season has been full of ups and downs. The Aggies have a 14-game unbeaten streak, which is a team record for consecutive games without a loss. The streak started after dropping three matches in a row, which is the team record for most consecutive losses. With the Aggies 2-1 win against No. 5Texas Friday, giving them the regular season title, the Aggies secured the first end of the Big 12 Championship dou ble-dip. Now that the first goal has been met, the Aggies are moving on to :next step in their quest. “We’re reassessing our goals for the rest of the way,” said head coach G. Guenieri. “We consider (the Big 12 Tournament) to be a season unto itself.” The Aggies enter the tournament as the number one seed by virtue of their first place finish in the regular season. They begin by facing off against the eighth-seeded Oklahoma State Cowgirls who are making their program’s first Big 12 Tournament appearance. The Cowgirls are coming off a 3-2 win against archrival Oklahoma. OSU sophomore Jeni Jackson scored a hat trick, or three goals, in the last six min utes to overcome a 2-0 deficit and give the Cowgirls their first Big 12 Tournament birth. “(OSU) is going to be a hungry team,” said Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week Emma Smith. “It’s going to be a good game for us to go in and play first. It’ll be a good hard game.” Smith has picked up her game as she has scored six goals in the last six games and is on a current six-game point streak. Coupled with sophomore Linsey Woodard, whose 13 goals lead the Big 12, the Aggie offense is running on all cylinders. “(Our midfielders) have been unbe lievable at getting behind people and sending in crosses,” Smith said. Freshman Kati Jo Spisak, the Big 12 Newcomer of the Week and First-Team All-Big 12 selection, has continued to improve her aggressiveness in the net. Spisak made six saves against Texas, including a save on a penalty shot. The rest of the defense, anchored by First-Team All-Big 12 selection Jessica Martin, has forced opponents away from their strategies. “All over the field everybody, throughout the season, has stepped up,” said senior midfielder Heather Ragsdale. “As a team we have started to play a lot better overall.” The competition in the Big 12 Tournament should be fierce. Texas, the No. 2 seed, did not lose a game until it faced the Aggies. No. 3 Nebraska won the Big 12 Tournament in 1996, 1998, 1999, and 2000 and No. 4 Missouri has netted 13.9 percent of its shots. “We should be nothing but confi dent,” Guerrieri said. “The players should have experienced the satisfac tion of what hard work brings, and they’ve worked hard.” The Aggies begin play at 1 1 a.m. on Thursday against Oklahoma State at Blossom Field in San Antonio. The winner of that game will take on the winner of Missouri vs. Colorado in Friday’s semifinal. JOHN C. L1VAS • THE BATTALION A&M sophomore Linsey Woodard battles for the ball against Texas last week. Texas baseball team given probation for coach’s violations Paid Advertisment still be there ) escape the r helped. First Ip' post-abortion ibie! It did so ni^ morning. A ure containing f »duled to have® k the next day. noming. Latent »had decided a?* certainty that ^ : to save sonieo^ rrible mistake. 1 ^ ;tt y human se that you f (,r " 1 ' * r,ha ;S? ncrcv f imn you :o be ,y and happ ine> _ ^ Clearing the Air About the Psychological Effects of Abortion Why do women hove abortions? At least 70 percent of women having abortions say they believe it is immoral. But they choose against their conscience because of pressure from others and their circumstances. Most women choose abortion out of fear—fear of not being able to raise a child, fear of losing their partner if they do not have an abortion, fear of losing control over their lives, etc. Some polls show that more than 80 per cent say they would have completed their pregnancies under better circumstances or with more support from the People they love. It is precisely because so many women who abort are acting against their consciences and maternal instincts that the psychological impact of abortion can be so pro found. Didn t former U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop con- dude that there are no psychological consequences from abortion? Actually, no. What Dr. Koop reported to President Reagan was that a h the studies on abortion complications were seriously flawed. As a result, the data was simply inadequate to determine the extent and degree of the psychological unpact of abortion. He made a recommendation for a 8°vemment-funded study to answer this question. Unfortunately, this study was never done. Some extremists have twisted Dr. Koop’s letter to the President to mean, “Koop didn’t find anything, so noth- ,n g exists. ’ Dr. Koop has publicly refuted this misrepre sentation of his views. He has stated that he is personally convinced, even by the existing evidence, that many women do suffer serious post-abortion psychological problems. It is the degree of this problem that has not been measured. Still, don't most experts agree that there is no significant psy chological impact from abortion? While many abortion proponents will discount the psychological costs of abortion, others are more candid. For example. Dr. Julius Fogel has personally performed more than 20,000 abortions. He is unique in that he is both a psychiatrist and an obstetrician, and he insists that “every woman, whatever her background or sexuality, has a trauma at destroying a pregnancy....[I|t is not as harmless and casual an event as many in the pro-abortion crowd insist.” In fact, there are more than 375 studies dealing with the psychological impact of abortion on women. All show that at least a minority of women, typically between 10 and 20 percent, have one or more negative reactions shortly after an abortion. Studies looking at long-term reactions indicate that the longer after an abortion one looks, the more negative reactions will be reported. So what are the psychological aftereffects of abortion? Every woman is different. They each have different responses in different time frames. Some women repress or are unaware of any aftereffects for many years. Commonly reported reactions include: feelings of guilt, shame, anxiety, helplessness, grief and/or remorse; uncontrollable crying; feelings of anger, bitterness, and Martha Shuping, M.D. Supporting citations are posted at www.afterabortion.ofg resentment; feelings of distrust and betrayal; lowered self esteem; avoidance of babies, small children, or anything to do with pregnancy; fear of future pregnancies or, alter natively, a desire to have a “replacement” baby; flash backs to the abortion experience; nightmares or sleeping disorders; depression; sexual dysfunction; eating disor ders; substance abuse; self-destructive behavior; broken or abusive relationships; problems bonding with other children; suicidal thoughts or tendencies; and other problems. Some of the most recently released studies have found that women who have abortions are more likely to become depressed, to abuse drugs or alcohol, or to need treatment for mental disorders. Studies have also shown that compared to women who give birth, women who abort are six times more likely to commit suicide within the next year. A trained post-abortion counselor can be of tremendous help in resolving these problems. You sold that some of these reactions might be delayed or repressed. Are there times or circumstances when negative reactions are more likely to occur? Delayed reactions are often triggered by subsequent life events such as the birth of a child, the death of a loved one, the end of a relationship, a religious conver sion, or even physical changes like menopause. Many women have “anniversary reactions,” such as anxiety attacks, depression, suicidal impulses, or abdomi nal cramping around the anniversary date or month of the abortion or around the time when their babies would have been due. Dr. Martha Shuping, M.D., is a psychiatrist with more than ten years of experience in helping women with past-abortion issues. My name is Amanda 1 My name is Amanda and I am 18 years old. When I told my boyfriend [i was pregnantl he blamed me for eelting pregnant and insisted that I have the abortion. wt mom told me that I either had to have an abortion or get out of her house. No one would support me, not my boyfriend and not my family. I felt alone and trapped. I went through “^he f gumrfKl'te^endous: Everything reminds me of what I did. I am trying very hard to 861 T h he™1v advice lhat was ever offered by my boyfriend and my mom was to just not think about it. They said It i, was the right thing and that I did what 1 had to do. I think that is a joke. I just can’t get over it. jbxas had done with Couch, /e thought we was a viola- understand- at they were lid Texas offi- xplaining the took the job, on him. e case was only with a rs. ames Doyle, t these events Ration.” 0 In the Wa |AY lots IT