LETTER: Sidewalk chalk abortion debate counters claims that students have open minds

Dear Editor,

Last week members of Students for Life spent time writing pro-life messages in chalk around campus. The next day many of them had been written over or erased.

For a community that claims to be as open-minded as UMW, it was disappointing to see that we weren’t afforded the same respect as other campus groups that use similar methods.

Why do pro-choice members of our Mary Washington community feel the need to vandalize pro-life messages on campus walk? Why do they feel the need to pull down pro-life flyers or flyers for crisis pregnancy centers that offer women alternatives to abortion, an activity that has been going on for several years?

Doesn’t pro-choice mean being open to all choices, not just the ones you believe in? Some “pro-choice” students here on our campus have decided that ignorance is better than information.

Calm and rational debate is possible, even when it comes to a heated issue such as abortion. I’m sure that most pro-choice students on campus are against this pro-silence policy.

Women and men should have all the information available to them. If the pro-choice movement is so confident that they are right, then why do they continuously fight laws that oblige women to become informed about the fetus (unborn child) inside of them?

Some states are pro-women enough to require that women view ultrasounds or read information packets that allow them to make an informed decision. What is so bad about that?

Even President Obama, a proponent of abortion on demand, says that a decrease in abortions is desirable and that open and civil dialogue is important.

Though results are conflicting, some studies show that up to 80 percent of women who view an ultrasound keep their baby. If what we are striving for is a decrease in abortions, why not fully inform women?

I look forward to the day when all members on both sides of the debate can be civil, and information can be shared fully.

Sincerely,
Michael Gardner,
Class of 2011
Vice President of Students for Life