I think Christina has given some great responses on this topic, and as a graduating ND student wanted to add a few of my own words.
If youâre looking to assign blame, make sure you put it in the right placeâŚsquarely on the shoulders of Father Jenkins, the board, and whoever else made this boneheaded decision. Claiming that Notre Dame pro-life groups are diminishing the evil of abortion is not only untrue, itâs quite counterproductive. We are all working towards the same goal hereâŚwhy the need to demean groups who choose not to use aggressive tactics?
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When this whole mess got started, I was reading and commenting on Jill Stanekâs blog, where quite a few people were getting impatient for a student response and jumping the gun (IMO), booking flights and hotels to come to ND to protest and âturn this into a circus,â in Randall Terryâs words. When I asked for people to hold their horses, and thenâperish the thoughtâlet the relatively strong pro-life movement on campus lead the charge with protests and official responses, I was told to âstop the infightingâ and not to take swipes at outsiders who were âon my sideâ.
Well this just seems to be the biggest swipe a pro-lifer could take at those working to defend life at ND that I could think of. Actually blaming those active in Right to Life here for this invitation? As if students have any say in the actions of the administration (and as if these same students hadnât already learned this lesson the long-and-hard way through many, many similar battles during their time hereâŚ)
Itâs just too much.
Not necessarily blaming pro-life students, BUT, I donât think they did all they can. Câmon, no abortion pics! What are theyâŚwimps?
Those hard hearted pro-abortion people need a stronger dose of reality check, and if it takes abortion pics to do it, so be it.
If that doesnât wake them up, canât say pro-lifers didnât do their best.
Same goal, maybe not the most efficient tactic.
If Fr. Jenkins sees abortion pics, like imprint it on his bone head , who knows if ND would be in such a scandal today.
As for Notre Dame in particularâeven though the student body generally supports President Obamaâs invitation to Commencement, I wouldnât at all characterize everyone here as âhard-hearted pro-abortion peopleâ. The student body is ~85% Catholic; sacramental participation is quite high. Community service and social justice-y type commitments are popular, and somewhere along the way students here lost sight of the right to life as a fundamental moral principle in the Catholic faith. An important one, yes, and perhaps top of the list of many others when we are discussing Catholic social teaching.
So what Iâm trying to say is that pro-life protests at ND take a different tenor at ND than they do at other schools. Students here are generally already grounded in Catholic faith; what is important is to re-orient it towards the right to life. Prayer and student events try to do that. ND has a Cemetery of the Innocents every year and many other life-supporting events (such as events to support the local Womenâs Care Center, which provides pro-life counseling, free pregnancy testing, and baby/mommy supplies to many local women). We attempt to be more positive in our affirmation of life, while being honest about the reality of abortion, rather than emblazoning the quads with graphic images. Criticize away, but in my time here I have seen this positive approach as much more constructive in reaching out to those who donât share our pro-life passion than the alternativeâŚ
But overall, I would say that within the pro-life movement there is
no consensus about the use of graphic abortion pictures. If weâre honest, Iâd say we have to admit that they are not the best medium for every situation. Itâs one thing to have a rational debate with someone, realize that you are no longer making progress, and ask to take them aside to look at some photos. It is quite another to post enormous photos of innocent aborted children on the sides of trucks, on billboards, and in the sky. I donât have any children yet, but I would say that I wouldnât want them to see these pictures while driving down the streetâit is undeniably too much for a small child to handle. There seems to be a shortage of prudence on the part of the CBR which is chartering these planesâŚ
My other major issue with these images is that I do not at all believe that using them so wantonly is at all
pro-life. They are used for their shock value; the images chosen for trucks and airplanes are the most striking, the bloodiest, the most horrible image of a dead baby to be found. But it doesnât matter what abortion looks like; what matters is what abortion
doesâit destroys an innocent human life. And to use images of the victims of this crime against human life in such a way
objectifies them. It does not protect uphold their dignity as children of God; it uses them as a means to an end, however noble that end may be. We donât fight the evil of pornography with enormous pornographic images, do we? This is similar, in my mind.
That all said, I am glad that I am far from campus when that plane is flying overhead, for the most part. Aborted children in the sky? This is a new form of hell.
What a slap in the face for all they believe in, and their hard work at a Catholic university!
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It seems it would be more upsetting to those who DO recognize the humanity of these poor children. I know it certainly was upsetting to meâŚmade me extremely sad to see it. 