The Boston College student government rejected a measure on Sunday that would have recognized pro-life efforts as “legitimate advocacy.”
Students introduced the measure at a time when pro-life college students often have to fight to form a club, begin a project or host a speaker on campus. Many pro-life college clubs also experience discrimination and sometimes vandalism and other forms of hostility.
The resolution, introduced by student Michael Proietta, asked the student government to recognize “pro-life activism” as a “legitimate and important form of advocacy,” according to The Heights, the student newspaper. Proietta said the resolution would affirm “the diverse interests of students.” Boston College is a Jesuit Catholic institution.
The student government rejected the measure in a 13-5 vote Sunday, according to the report. Several students who opposed the measure said it should have recognize “pro-choice” abortion activism as well as pro-life; however, others said they voted against it because they believe there needs to be more discussion first, the report states.
Here’s more from the report:
Proietta also stressed that recognition is not the same as affirmation, and that passing this resolution is not the same as declaring UGBC as pro-life. During the debate and questioning periods, various SA members expressed concern about how the other side of the issue, pro-choice activism, was not recognized by the resolution. Proietta was unwilling to amend the resolution to include recognition of pro-choice activism.
A number of students spoke up in support of the measure, including several from the Pro-Life Club of BC.
The report continued:
“I think that women deserve more than abortion,” [club member Natasha] Bednarz said. “The social and cultural currents that push abortions as the ultimate liberating choice and an easy, sensible, ‘no-strings-attached’ way out do not actually have women’s best interests in mind.”
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Bednarz said that “unrestricted abortion” has created an idea that there is an “easy way” to deal with pregnancy and “make it go away.” She said that there is a stigma against being pregnant on college campuses, and many pregnant women may feel pressured to get an abortion to avoid this stigma.
“[A pregnant woman] would be alone because everyone would know that she had this way out, but she chose differently,” she said. “But it feels like this choice has become an expectation.”
Data consistently shows that college-age women are the age group most likely to have abortions. Many pro-life college clubs offer resources and encouragement so that pregnant and parenting students don’t feel like abortion is their only option. They create scholarships for pregnant and parenting students, offer free babysitting, run diaper drives, advocate for diaper changing tables in college restrooms and more.
Many student clubs also focus on educating their peers about abortion, its risks and alternatives, the humanity of the unborn child and more. But college campuses, which tout themselves as institutions of learning, diversity and free thought and ideas, have become increasingly hostile toward the pro-life perspective.
Pro-life displays often are vandalized. In October, pro-abortion feminists vandalized a college pro-life display at Marquette University in Wisconsin and then received praise from the university’s student Democrats club, Hypeline reported.
Then, last April, pro-abortion students vandalized a similar display at Southern Methodist University in Texas. Almost 3,000 crosses memorializing unborn victims of abortion were kicked down. In another case, a pro-life club at the University of California Davis was targeted when its members set up a poll table asking about late-term abortions. One abortion activist allegedly harassed the pro-life students and threw their materials on the ground.
Last year, LifeNews also reported about a Purdue University staffer who posted comments online allegedly threatening to rape pro-lifers. He later resigned.
High school students face similar struggles. A pro-life student named Angelique Clark also had to sue her high school in Las Vegas, Nevada after it refused to approve her pro-life club. In November 2015, almost a year after she submitted her club application, she and her lawyers reached a settlement with the school that allowed her to begin the pro-life club.
Another pro-life student club in Indiana also recently won a legal victory after their high school administrators threw away their poster promoting adoption over abortion.
