Reader Responses to Holding the Line

Permissive abortion laws impede movement toward social justice.

I am sad that my child graduated from an institution that fights to kill the most innocent of us all. I am praying that your hearts will soften on this issue and you will see how horrible abortion truly is.

The central consideration behind a potential reversal of the Roe is whether abortion policy is managed by the courts or evaluated by state legislatures as a result of debate. This consideration seems absent from this article. Is this deliberate?

You have graduates who are pro life. We are saddened and repelled by the support of abortion at Brown University. I also noticed the nice Catholic bashing in the article. For the record, I’m Jewish and a pro-lifer and a director of the Jewish Pro-Life Foundation and work closely with Catholics, evangelicals, and atheists in the pro-life cause. Women deserve better than abortion and students need to be told that there are life affirming alternatives to abortion. It is shameful that Brown devotes itself and promotes a culture of death. Your editors might keep that in mind when they ask for donations. Abortion is not healthcare. It is death care. Clearly something or someone is being destroyed. The people mentioned in this article disgust me. There are alternatives to abortion such as open adoption.

Our maternity home and homes for domestic violence, trafficking, and abortion trauma recovery assist victims to regain their dignity, renewing balance in their lives and in the lives of their impacted family members.  It is unfortunate that this other side of the coin is not represented in your articles, along with the often lifelong trauma experienced by millions of women haunted by the harsh reality of their aborted babies…perhaps the greatest pain our clients ever face. God forgive us!

I read with sadness, but not surprise, the article “Holding the Line” recounting the role of Brown and its students in championing abortion rights throughout the last five decades. What was missing from this account was any sense of the tragedy which any abortion represents, the innocent unborn life “terminated,” and the emotional, spiritual, and lifelong consequences of this action on the mother (and sometimes the father as well). In my personal life, and in my experience as a social worker and as a crisis pregnancy volunteer, I have seen many aspects of unplanned pregnancies and the measures taken to cope with them. Abortion may appear to be an easy solution to a problem, but for those who treasure the miracle of life, it is always a tragedy.  In many cases, a woman can be provided emotional and material support to make it possible to continue her pregnancy and raise her child. In other cases, adoption into a loving home allows the child to grow into the talented, loving individual God meant them to be, as have my adopted son, cousins, niece, and a number of friends. We must remember that the rights of the unborn also need protection.

This article brought back memories of my part time job at Family Planning on R.I., an HEW- (now HHS-) funded clinic at Women and Infants Hospital offering free family planning services in the early 1970s. In addition to birth control services, the clinic provided women with pregnancy testing, an exam, and letter documenting their status and, upon request, a referral to a “Clergy Consultation” group of ministers who could help them obtain a legal abortion in New York City  pre-Roe vs. Wade (1970-73). While I never had to choose for myself, I saw first hand how empowering choice was for young women experiencing an unplanned pregnancy.

Abortion violates the existential dignity of both a woman “with child” and the human life in the womb. Permissive abortion laws impede genuine movement toward an ecology of social justice that balances the complex relationships, responsibilities and rights of women, men and their children. I would hope that the Brown community could do better in advancing ideas and laws for a healthy society than advocating for the barbaric practice of abortion.

Is he unable to see the possibility that a person with unique DNA dies with every abortion?

“Thank God we passed it,” said Maeve Wiesen about the pro-abortion law recently passed in Rhode Island. Is she referring to the same God who said to Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you?”  Chaplain Richard Marker informed us that before Roe, “People really died.”  Is he unable to see the possibility that a person with unique DNA dies in every abortion?  I am reminded of the time Huck Finn told Aunt Sally about an explosion on a steamboat.  “Good gracious! anybody hurt?” she asked.  Huck replied, “No’m. Killed an n-word.”  “Well, it’s lucky,” said Aunt Sally, “because sometimes people do get hurt.”  Huck and Aunt Sally had tunnel vision, making it impossible for them to see the dead Black human being as a person whom God knew and loved.

Please tell Mimi Pichey ’72 that God does not like it when you destroy innocent life, and yes, I mean babies during abortions. Killing babies is not reproductive justice, it is violence against the defenseless. Your biased reporter might try speaking to women who regret their abortions and are pro-life. You have graduates who are pro-life and are disgusted by the graduates of Brown who promote violence against babies. Someone does not survive an abortion and that is the infant,  and yes, sometimes the mother during these so-called safe procedures. This is not healthcare, this is death care. That Brown would publish this pro-abortion propaganda is truly nauseating. You have fallen lower than I could have imagined.

As a pro-life alumna, I was sad to see your adulatory history of pro-abortion advocacy at Brown. You portray “women’s rights” warriors as moral giants standing for “reproductive justice”—but demean pro-life advocates as “cruel, very vicious people” who are guilty of “psychological abuse.” I would guess that many BAM readers share my belief that abortion is the ultimate human rights violation. Are their voices ever sought out by BAM?