Each January, Georgetown University students walk underneath a sizable banner in Red Square advertising the Cardinal O’Connor Conference on Life (OCC). 

As an event drawing over 600 attendees annually for the past 27 years, the OCC plays a role in campus conversation. As seen through the many students who proudly help organize the conference and the large number of protestors who line up each year to oppose it, this event is deeply divisive. 

In its current form, the Editorial Board believes Georgetown’s hosting of the conference promotes harmful and divisive ideology. Accordingly, we ask the university to reconsider hosting the event altogether. 

However, we recognize the conference will likely continue to be held on our campus due to its Jesuit roots. If this is the inevitable reality, we strongly urge the university to substantially reform the conference to ensure it both aligns with the Georgetown community’s shared values and does not alienate a significant portion of the student body.

Georgetown frequently emphasizes its commitment to supporting diversity of thought, bringing in guests from across the ideological spectrum to speak on campus. In this context, the OCC is sometimes framed as simply highlighting the anti-abortion perspective. However, Georgetown simultaneously refuses to formally recognize H*yas for Choice, an abortion-rights student advocacy organization working toward reproductive justice for all students on campus. No matter the reasoning, the failure to recognize or fund this organization makes the university’s claim of supporting diverse views ring hollow.

We acknowledge the Catholic Church prevents the university from officially recognizing pro-abortion rights student groups. Yet beyond simply recognizing sides of a debate, Georgetown actively promotes the anti-abortion voice on a national stage by hosting the largest anti-abortion conference in the country. This is what we, the Editorial Board, take issue with. 

Shae McInnis (CAS ’28), a sophomore involved with the development of this year’s conference, said the conference elevates the perspective against abortion rights.

“The purpose of the conference is to facilitate discourse regarding the sanctity of human life, helping to educate and enrich people’s perspectives and change hearts and minds on pro-life issues,” McInnis wrote to The Hoya.

A university spokesperson said Georgetown is dedicated to upholding Jesuit values through the OCC. 

“Georgetown is firmly committed to the Catholic Church’s teachings and values, including those about the sanctity and dignity of life, and we strongly support a climate that continues to provide students with new and deeper contexts for engaging with our Catholic tradition and Jesuit identity,” the spokesperson wrote to The Hoya.

While Jesuit values undoubtedly guide the university’s decision-making, this identity does not compel Georgetown to hold a national conference that highlights a single, divisive perspective. This choice to host the OCC is ultimately one made autonomously. There are several other ways for our university to embrace our Jesuit values in ways that uplift the whole community rather than alienating a substantial proportion of the student body. 

If the university is committed to embodying “cura personalis,” or care for the whole person, then hosting this conference contradicts this mission. Hosting a conference whose past speakers have been blatantly anti-LGBTQ+ and hostile to the lived experiences of students does not embody caring for the whole person. In fact, the university should not glorify Cardinal O’Connor, the conference’s namesake, who historically opposed the advancement of LGBTQ+ rights and AIDS education and compared abortion to the Holocaust. 

Importantly, there is a difference between allowing the OCC to take place on campus and actively endorsing it. 

Currently, the university goes far beyond merely hosting the event — it elevates the conference’s significance. Several Georgetown administrative offices promote the event, including the Institute of Politics and Public Service, the office of the provost and the office of student affairs. This university-wide support of the OCC implies support for its teachings, which can alienate members of the student body who may fear the campus will not advocate for their sexual health. 

These fears are fairly well-founded. Beyond university organizations that explicitly support the OCC, MedStar Georgetown University Hospital forbids procedures that directly cause the termination of a pregnancy, meaning the hospital is not permitted to perform abortion procedures unless there is a danger to the physical health of the parent. In addition, university employees cannot refer students to abortion clinics, and the School of Medicine also does not offer abortion training in its curriculum. 

These reasons lead the Editorial Board to call on Georgetown to stop hosting the OCC. Recognizing that this is unlikely to happen, there are ways the university can reform the conference to better align it with the university’s Jesuit values. The conference should bring the campus together, not divide it

The conference can establish clear guidelines that prevent the platforming of hate speech or discrimination. It can create opportunities not just for dialogue, but for rebuttal to further understanding. It can ensure marginalized community voices are centered in any discussions that directly impact them. It can choose not to name itself after a cardinal who perpetuated hate. Rather, the conference should center on a mission of health advocacy for all. 

Recognizing the controversial nature of the OCC, we decided to create an Opinion special edition dedicated to the discourse surrounding the conference. We are grateful for the nuanced viewpoints we received, which provided us with a spectrum of perspectives to reiterate our call for encouraging dialogue.