Georgetown Pro-Life Students: University’s Invitation to Planned Parenthood CEO a ‘Slap in the Face’

Brian Snyder—Reuters
Brian Snyder/Reuters
Dr. Susan Berry

The scandal at Georgetown University regarding an invited address by Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards has reached new proportions as pro-life students at the nation’s oldest Catholic university plan demonstrations to protest the event.

As the head of abortion business Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) and its political arm – Planned Parenthood Action Fund (PPAF) – Richards actively promotes positions that directly contradict Catholic Church teaching on the dignity of human life and on human sexuality.

“Inviting this organization’s president to speak unchallenged on our Catholic campus is deeply disturbing and shameful,” Michael Khan, president of Georgetown University Right to Life, tells Breitbart News. “This is a slap in the face to all that we stand for as a university, but campus administrators seem to have no problem with it. It seems President DeGioia and other school authorities are more concerned with political correctness and expediency than our Catholic identity.”

Georgetown Right to Life represents over 400 students on the campus.

The university issued the following statement regarding the visit by the CEO of the nation’s top abortion business:

We respect our students’ right to express their personal views and are committed to sustaining a forum for the free exchange of ideas, even when those ideas may be difficult, controversial or objectionable to some. Georgetown University’s long-standing Speech and Expression policy governs the university’s response to controversial speech.

Recently, The Lecture Fund, a student-run organization, invited Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund, to speak on campus. Ms. Richards is not being paid to speak. Student groups may invite any outside speakers and guests to campus. An appearance of any speaker or guest on campus is not an endorsement by the university.

We recognize that the perspectives of some speakers run counter to the Catholic and Jesuit values that animate our university. We work very hard to ensure that these values maintain a privileged place in our community while at the same time providing a forum that does not limit speech either in the content of the view being expressed or the speaker expressing the view.

“The lack of moral courage is stunning,” says Khan. “Their refusal to speak out, do what is right, and exert pressure on rogue student groups says a lot about their character and judgment. With this invite, Georgetown is betraying its values. Cecile Richards does not elevate our public dialogue – she debases it.”

The Cardinal Newman Society has also launched a petition to urge the university to rescind its invitation to Richards. Over 7,000 have signed it just within its first 24 hours.

Since taking the helm at Planned Parenthood in 2006, more than 2.8 million babies have died during abortions committed by Planned Parenthood abortionists.

The abortion business has come under increasing scrutiny since the release last summer of undercover videos exposing the abortion business’ apparent practices of selling the body parts of aborted babies on the open market and altering the position of babies during abortion in order to harvest the most intact organs.

Students and faculty of Georgetown are drafting a letter to administrators about Richards’ planned visit to the school.

“We are wondering where the line is drawn – and whether or not others around the world who promote the violation of basic human rights would also be allowed to speak on Georgetown’s campus,” Khan says. “It seems that, based on Georgetown’s decision, school administrators view abortion as morally different from other human rights violations, like slavery and child labor, and therefore the promotion of its use is acceptable speech on a Catholic campus.”

Khan points to Richards’ recent campaign to have abortion supporters “shout your abortion” as a means to show there is no shame in having an abortion.

“This speaker’s complete lack of respect for the dignity of human life, as someone who proudly proclaims to ‘shout your abortion,’ is unbecoming of our university,” he asserts.

“Our school speech policy even states that ‘expression that is indecent or is grossly obscene or grossly offensive’ is inappropriate on campus,” he adds. “Surely, the administration would rightfully enforce this policy when it comes to, for instance, racist speech, but apparently speech that promotes the harming or killing of children is not of concern. This inconsistency in enforcing the speech codes troubles many of us.”

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