Georgetown to Have Pro-Abortion Sebelius Give a Commencement Talk

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   May 7, 2012   |   11:27AM   |   Washington, DC

Georgetown University is coming under heavy criticism from pro-life Catholics for having pro-abortion Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius giving one of its commencement-related addresses this year.

Sebelius has an extensive pro-abortion record, including presiding over the implementation of Obamacare, her administration shredding documents in Kansas while she was governor that resulted in the dismissal of a criminal case against Planned Parenthood, and her close relationship to abortion practitioner George Tiller.

The Cardinal Newman Society is leading a campaign to get students, staff, alumni and other concerned people to contact Georgetown. It has also alerted Washington Cardinal Donald Wuerl and sent a letter to Georgetown President John DeGioia urging him to immediately withdraw the invitation.

“The nation’s oldest Catholic and Jesuit university has chosen to honor Sebelius by granting her a prestigious platform at its Public Policy Institute commencement ceremony, despite her role as the lead architect of a healthcare mandate that will force Catholic institutions to pay for contraception, abortifacients and sterilization against their religious beliefs,” CNS said.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has termed the mandate “an unwarranted government definition of religion” that is “alien both to our Catholic tradition and to federal law,” “a violation of personal civil rights” and “a mandate to act against our teachings.”

CNS added, “But Secretary Sebelius’ record on abortion is at least as troubling as the mandate. When Governor of Kansas, Sebelius supported abortion rights and vetoed pro-life legislation.  In 2008, Archbishop Joseph Naumann of Kansas City reportedly told Sebelius, a Roman Catholic, to stop receiving the Eucharist until she publicly recants her position on abortion and makes a ‘worthy sacramental confession.'”

Members of The Society for Truth and Justice, a pro-life group, plan to protest the commencement address. Missy Reilly Smith talked more about the plans.

“I was arrested at Notre Dame for protesting Obama’s speech at the commencement; I am even more enraged that Georgetown has invited Sebelius to speak, who has a long history of supporting late-term child slaughter,” she said. “You can bet my friends and I will be at Georgetown…and probably end up in jail.”

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“Sebelius has been asked to stop receiving communion by her bishop, until she makes a ‘worthy sacramental confession.’ Georgetown President John DeGioia should be denied communion as well, and he should be asked to leave the Knights of Malta immediately,” Smith added. “I can picture the skulls of Obama, Sebelius, and DeGioia paving the way to hell if they don’t repent.”

Recently, in the wake of wake of Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute sponsoring a Sandra Fluke speaking engagement yesterday, President DeGioia received an open letter signed by over 100 concerned current students and alumni.

The event–billed as “A Conversation with Sandra Fluke on Contraception Access”–was closed to “outside press” and to the public.

The conversation was sponsored by the “nonpartisan” student-supported Lecture Fund. In the invitation, Fluke was advertised as a “former co-president of Georgetown Law Students for Reproductive Justice and a Public Interest Law Scholar at Georgetown’s Law Center…She is former Vice President of Georgetown Law’s Women’s Legal Alliance and Career Chair for Outlaw, the Law Center’s LGBT student group. She is also the Development Editor of the Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law.”