CONFERENCE ON LIFE Conference Explores Abortion Rights Issues By Rebecca Regan-Sachs Hoya Staff Writer
Daily Orange /The Hoya Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) urges students to voice their opposition to abortion at the third annual Cardinal O’Connor Conference on Life Monday.
Preceding the annual Rally and March for Life in downtown Washington, the Georgetown chapter of the Knights of Columbus, Georgetown Right to Life and University Faculty for Life sponsored the third annual Cardinal O’Connor Conference on Life Monday in the Healy Building. Drawing about 150 college students from all over the country, the event featured guest speakers Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) and President of the National Right to Life Committee Wanda Franz.
Held the day before the 29th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s 1973 landmark Roe v. Wade decision that prevented states from banning abortion, the conference focused on fighting abortion in a post-Sept. 11 climate.
“We come together today with a heightened sense of the fragility of human life,” the program booklet said. “We reaffirm our devotion to the cause of protecting all human life, from the moment of conception to natural death.”
The keynote address, delivered by Franz, drew parallels between the Sept. 11 tragedy and the practice of abortion. “We have a Sept. 11 every single day in America,” she said, referring to the number of daily aborted fetuses. “You just don’t see it on TV.”
Franz also contested the constitutionality of the Roe v. Wade decision, which allows women to get abortions without interference from the state in the first trimester of pregnancy, with limited state restrictions in the last six months.
“Tomorrow it will be 29 years since an arrogant and overreaching Supreme Court . handed pro-abortionists a victory through a constitutional back door,” she began. “The court resolved nothing in Roe v. Wade. [It] created a constitutional crisis that won’t go away until the court overturns its unconstitutional ruling.” She said that the NRLC would not give in to the court’s “demand to shut up and go away.”
Smith objected to the Clinton administration’s efforts to “promote abortion in the most aggressive means possible.” He particularly took issue with former President Bill Clinton’s (SFS ’68) support of the U.N. Population Fund, which encourages abortion in certain cases as a means of population control. He urged students to voice their opposition to continued funding to their congressional representatives.
Small discussion groups, entitled “Pro-Life Feminism,”Tips for a Successful College Right to Life Club” and “Building a Culture of Life on Catholic College Campuses” were held in between the speeches.
For most students present, the conference served to confirm already strongly held beliefs.
“Everyone here has the same opinion,” Nicholas Quinonez (COL ’03) said. “This conference pulls people from different age groups and parts of the country together.”
“This is a great way to reinforce what people already faithfully believe,” former Grand Knight of the Knights of Columbus Kevin Manz (MSB ’03) said. He said one of the organization’s main goals is to educate people. “Part of our mission on campus is to expose the Jesuit point of view on these issues,” he said.
The conference drew large numbers of students from other Catholic universities, such as Notre Dame and Boston College, as well as secular schools such as Harvard and George Washington University.
Lisa Credo, a freshman from St. Mary’s College, came to Georgetown because she hoped to send a message to policymakers on Capitol Hill. “The only way to change what’s wrong with the government is to show support for this issue,” she said.
H*yas for Choice, the campusabortion rights advocacy group, did not participate in the conference. Betsie Illingworth (SFS ’02), a board member of the organization, said H*yas for Choice did not want to make a public reaction to the conference. “Basically, we have no comment on it,” she said.
The organization posted coat hangers in classrooms across campus. The flyers attached to the hangers read: “We wouldn’t want things to go back to the old way, would we? Celebrate Roe v. Wade.” Illingsworth said H*yas for Choice had organized the exhibits in response to the anniversary of Roe v. Wade and that it was not an action in response to the conference.
