Alex Foy (The Beacon)
By Alex Foy, Guest Commentary
Last week on your way through the academic quad you may have encountered over a hundred white little crosses placed in front of the chapel. The Voice for Life organization placed these crosses along with a plaque of statistics to protest abortions. The plaque itself detailed the amount of abortions that have occurred since Roe v. Wade was enacted by the Supreme Court; these statistics are accompanied by a picture of a newborn, and the statement that by week six of pregnancy the heart begins to beat.
My critique is not with the general pro-life argument, but rather the execution of this argument. I believe we live in a country where everybody should be entitled to express their own opinions. My problem stems from how Voice for Life falsely universalizes their argument and thereby removes the woman's individual life story from her choice to seek an abortion. Moreover, Voice for Life fails to recognize how this demonstration may affect certain women within the UP community.
By holding their demonstration as such, particularly because they place their demonstration in front of the church and use the little crosses, the clubs argument presents to a passerby as: abortion is murder, murder is a sin, and thus a woman who has an abortion is a sinner. Yet, this argument removes all contexts from abortions, and with this particular medical procedure I believe context shines through as the most critical part to consider. What if a woman seeks an abortion because she was raped and became pregnant? What if she seeks an abortion because attempting to give birth to a child could prove fatal? What if she is a pregnant thirteen-year-old who cannot support the child?
Of course, Voice for Life could answer these context related questions through many different means: they could argue in favor of adoption with supplemental therapy for rape victims. They could even advocate safe sex or abstaining from it in some cases. But they don't. The sole message of the demonstration is that women who have abortions are murderers; that they copped out from responsibility. Moreover, this argument implies that women do not have a choice when it comes to pregnancy, an event which should center itself around their own experience and left up to their own opinion.
The pro-life message through the little crosses also fails to consider how this representation of their message may affect members of the community. It is certainly possible that a student, faculty member, or parent who encounters this demonstration, may have had an abortion. Could you imagine your choice illustrated as a little cross? In this way, the little crosses demonstration makes a universal argument without considering context; while also making the UP community a less inclusive place. I am an advocate of pro-choice who can understand the reasons why someone would be pro-life. But not when they present their argument in the form of little crosses.
Alex Foy is a junior English major. He can be reached at foy14@up.edu
