Catholic U. Won’t Recognize NAACP Chapter Because of Abortion
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
June 7, 2004
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Because its parent organization adopted a position in support of abortion earlier this year, Catholic University officials have decided against approving an NAACP campus chapter’s application to become an officially recognized student group.
In February, for the first time in the 95-year history of the nation’s largest civil rights group, the NAACP officially announced a position in favor of keeping abortions legal.
That decision and the existence of two other groups that represent black students on campus, prompted Catholic University official to deny the request for official status to the NAACP campus chapter.
"It is outright discrimination and intolerance all rolled into one,” NAACP President Kweisi Mfume said Friday, while on the college’s campus.
He said it was the first time in decades that a college had not allowed a group of students to establish an NAACP affiliate.
Spokesman Victor Nakas said the school is not guilty of discrimination because two groups already exist that promote the interests of African-American students on campus: the Black Organization of Students at Catholic University of America and Minority Voices, an umbrella group for minority organizations.
"He did not demonstrate in the view of university officials … that this chapter of the NAACP would fill a need that isn’t already being met by organizations in existence,” Nakas told the Associated Press.
Nakas also pointed to the NAACP’s endorsement of an April rally in Washington for abortion.
The rally, sponsored by leading abortion advocacy groups such as Planned Parenthood and NARAL, drew almost 500,000 people — under half of the more than one million attendees organizers predicted.
Mfume, a former Maryland congressman who built up a solid pro-abortion voting record during his tenure, has threatened to sue if Catholic U. officials don’t relent.
Nakas said Rev. David M. O’Connell, president of the university, hopes to meet with Mfume next week, according to en AP report.
NAACP Board Chair Julian Bond said, upon adoption of the pro-abortion position, "This is an issue of equal rights, and we are pleased to join those insisting on a woman’s right to control her own body."
But Janine Simpson, director of Urban Center Development for Care Net, a network of 750 pregnancy resource centers, condemned the NAACP’s decision.
"The NAACP’s decision to endorse abortion rights is irresponsible," said Simpson. "This organization should be concerned that one in three African American pregnancies end in abortion."
In their statement endorsing abortion, the NAACP says "public opinion surveys indicate that women of color seek abortions at rates higher than their percentage in the population."
But Simpson says that’s because abortion businesses target black women and "an estimated 70 percent of abortion providers are in minority neighborhoods."
ACTION: Make your views known. Contact the NAACP about their decision to endorse abortion at NAACP, 4805 Mt. Hope Drive, Baltimore, MD 21215 or call (877) NAACP-98. Email [email protected].
