An Open Letter to Woman's Day Magazine

I wanted to write and let you know why I have decided to let my subscription, which ends this August, run out rather than renewing your magazine, to which I have been a longtime subscriber and reader. In fact, I've read the magazine since I was about 10 years old, because my mother is also a longtime subscriber and reader. Now I have a daughter who is 10 years old, but I do not feel that I can leave your magazine on my coffee table for her to browse through.

Recently I have noticed some changes in the tone and substance of Woman's Day, changes that, in my opinion, are not for the better. I don't appreciate the "celebrity" articles, for example. If I wanted to read about how Nicole Kidman decorates her kitchen or raises her children, I'll read People or Good Housekeeping or Redbook. I always respected your magazine for steering clear of the celebrity subject and focusing more on people whose lives are lived farther away from the red-carpet lifestyle.

Your May 9, 2006 issue contained a section on "Your Reproductive Health." I found the information contained in the article to be both biased and incomplete. For example, for 2 of the 4 cancers profiled (uterine and ovarian) you recommend that a woman use Birth Control Pills as a preventative measure. You do not mention that the use of Birth Control Pills has been implicated in the increase in breast cancer that has been recorded in the past 30 years. You also fail to mention the abortion-breast cancer connection, which has been the subject of many studies lately.

Worse, you have a quote by Dr. Douglas Laube, chair of the ACOG, in large type and circled in pink at the top of a page, expressing his wish that women "had an increased awareness of and access to emergency contraception (EC). EC is one of the best-kept secrets in medicine today; it's sad that more women either don't know about it or can't get it." Highlighting an opinion such as this in the way that you have indicates to me that your magazine is taking a direction that I choose not to follow.

As a Roman Catholic wife and mother, I do not believe that women should be fed Birth Control Pills as a means of fighting off cancer. Birth Control Pills have an abortifacient effect, changing the uterine lining so that it will not accept the implantation of an already-fertilized egg. In this respect, they act in the same way that EC does. They kill an innocent baby.

I will not subscribe to a magazine that highlights the use of artificial hormones for the purposes of taking innocent life. The celebrity-lifestyle articles are something I could flip past and ignore, but your pieces on "reproductive health" are actually more along the lines of "reproductive selfishness" and I do not wish to bring such articles into my home. I deserve better and so does my daughter.