Back to the May 2003 Newsletter Index

Hostile Goucherites hear abortion truths

Talk about a tough audience.

Pro-life speaker Stephanie Gray faced one tough crowd at her Defend Life-sponsored talk at Goucher College April 9.

Prior to the lecture a dozen Goucher coeds lined the sidewalk in front of Kelly Lecture Hall holding "pro.:choice" signs and passing out "Pro-Choice or No Choice" stickers.

About 70 students, there at the urgings of two "pro-choice" college instructors, filled the hall.

The program was delayed almost a half-hour while participants tried without success to fix the video equipment provided by the college, which was inexplicably non-functioning.

And after Stephanie gamely began without the audio-visual part of her lecture, the lights in the hall went out several times.

But none of this rattled the young executive director of the Canadian. Centre for Bioethical Reform, who used the word "choice" as a springboard for her talk.

"Visa sent me a catalog, 'Experience a World of Choice" offering a choice of premiums based on the amount she charged on her credit card, she explained.

Her gym also advertises a variety of fitness programs under the slogan, "Your body, your choice."

"Everybody likes choices!" she said.

"With the association of the word 'choice' with abortion, we as a society have come to believe that abortion is just another preference issue, like my Visa card or my gym-not a moral issue."

With her Visa plan, the choices available to her are very clearly defined, she pointed out; "But with abortion it's never really clear what the choices are.

"The information I will give you tonight will show you the humanity of the unborn, not because I say so, but because science shows that it is human."

That the unborn are human is scientifically indisputable, she said: any biology textbook will confmn that. the development of a human being begins at fertilization.

"The genetic identity you have today was determined at fertilization. Your genetic identity is different from that of your mother and father."

But, said Stephanie, "pro­choicers" will argue that, when it comes to the issue of abortion, the unborn are "different" from the born.

She used the acronym SLED to summarize these differences:

Size
Level of development
Environment
Degree of dependency

None of these four condi­tions determines one's humanity, she maintained.

Stephanie also tackled some of the more radical arguments for justifying abortion.

Peter Singer of Princeton University and feminist philosopher Mary Ann Warren concede that the unborn are human beings, but say they are not "persons," because they fail to meet certain criteria, such as having the ability to reason or to per­form self-motivated activity.

Singer recognizes that his criteria for personhood would also justify the killing of infants, but says that there are conditions under which infanticide would be justified.

"Their concept is very elitist," said Stephanie. "The concept that we may have human beings who are not persons has plagued society throughout history"-for example, with the Jewish holocaust and with slavery.

Other pro-abortion apologists admit that abortion kills a human being, but say that the unborn is an "intruder" who takes over the woman's body, and she has a right to use force to expel it.

They argue that the woman consented to sex, but not to having a baby.

"The child does not 'invade' the uterus; it is the action of sex that causes him to be there," said Stephanie.

"When we preach equality, we should practice it. None of us is equal in ability, function, looks or size: the only thing that makes us equal is our humanity. If we truly believe we are equal, we should act like it."

After her talk, over a dozen students lined the aisles for an emotionally charged question-and­answer session.

The questioners were generally polite, but any pro-abortion statements elicited raucous applause and cheering, while Stephanie's assertions were sometimes greeted with derisive laughter or shouted comments.

College Chaplain Kelly Denton-Borhaug, who had brought her sociology class, spent several minutes chastizing Stephanie for the graphic photos on her website comparing abortion to the holocaust or lynching, calling them "incredibly manipulative, inflammatory and offensive."

Then she walked out of the hall without waiting for a reply.

"The pictures are inflammatory, graphic and horrible, because abortion is inflammatory, graphic and horrible," said Stephanie.

"We don't like to see it compared to other atrocities because it emphasizes the seriousness of abortion.

"It is a further injustice to let similar atrocities occur."

Several students objected to the lecture's format, saying that the flyers put out by Jubilate Deo!, the Catholic Goucher group co-sponsoring the talk, led them to believe that both sides of the issue would be presented.

Jubilate Deo! President Katy Zeitler said that the group had tried to set up a debate format, contacting Maryland NARAL, Planned Parenthood, the Feminist Leadership Alliance and a Women's Studies pro­fessor on campus, but none had agreed to participate.

After the question-and­answer period, students crowded around Stephanie, earnestly continuing to ask questions and argue.

Were any hearts and minds changed?

"Not that I could tell," said Katy. "But my hope is that some seeds were planted that will grow later. "

The response to Stephanie's talk at the University of Maryland on April 11 was almost a mirror image of that at her Goucher talk, said Defend Life Director Jack Ames.

The 75 mostly pro-life Catholic students who attended were warmly enthusiastic.

Sephanie's April 9-13 Defend Life-sponsored speaking tour included talks at Villa Julie College; Johns Hopkins University, Georgetown University; Catholic University; Our Lady of the Fields Catholic Church, Millersville; Lancaster Bible College, Lancaster, Pa.; and Firm Foundation Church, Westminster.