Students Rally Against Roe

Anti-abortion advocates urged hundreds of supporters to fight against the “tragic decision” of Roe v. Wade during the eighth annual Cardinal O’Connor Conference on Life in Gaston Hall last weekend, while students who support abortion rights programmed events to voice opposition to the conference’s agenda.

The annual event, named in honor of the late John Cardinal O’Connor, brought together about 600 attendees one day before the March for Life, a giant rally on the National Mall, which several dozen Georgetown students attended. A special luau after the event raised nearly $2,000 for the Northwest Pregnancy Center, which counsels women not to have abortions.

“Tomorrow we march to protest that horrible, infamous, tragic decision of Roe v. Wade,” said Carl Anderson, supreme knight of the Knights of Columbus, during one of the conference’s two keynote addresses. “[This] is a march that will come to an end.”

“Being pro-life is one of the great patriotic acts you can do for your country,” Anderson said. “Because of your pro-life activity … you will save a child’s life.”

Bridget Bowes (COL ’07), who helped organize this year’s conference, said that the conference is a way for students to show the strength of the anti-abortion movement.

“I hope the conference showed Georgetown that the pro-life movement is filled with young, enthusiastic, intelligent and peaceful people who are committed to protecting the most vulnerable and voiceless members of society — the unborn,” she said.

Feminism was another leading topic at the conference. Helen Alvare, a professor at the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law and the conference’s other keynote speaker, criticized those who support abortion rights, who she said try to discourage motherhood.

“Their underlying message is that being the fertile half of the human race is a curse,” Alvare said. “We are the true feminists.”

The conference drew a cross-section of college-age abortion opponents from across the country.

Brianna Yale, a DePaul University freshman, said that although she attends a Catholic university, she often feels like an outsider on a liberal campus.

“I personally am for the unborn babies,” Yale said. “If you are raped and you do get pregnant, then there is a reason that that happens,” Yale said.

Yale said that being a single mother “might be difficult and hard,” but is always the right course of action.

Members of H*yas for Choice and several other campus groups that support abortion rights gathered in Red Square to protest the conference.

Becca Greene (COL ’07), a H*yas for Choice board member said that 5,000 pregnant women died each year before Roe v. Wade trying to get illegal abortions.

“We don’t feel like they’re telling the other side of the story,” Greene said. “We’re just trying to get out information that’s true.”

Approximately 20 Georgetown students followed up the conference by joining tens of thousands of anti-abortion activists on Capitol Hill yesterday in the annual march. This year’s rally featured a speech by President Bush.

“We are motivated year-in and year-out by the need to protect the inherent dignity and innocence of every human life — young or old, born or unborn,” said Steven Picciano (COL ’09), president of Georgetown University Right to Life, who attended the march.