When I read Marcus Goff's guest commentary ('Pro-life' a sad misnomer) in last week's edition of The Auburn Plainsman, I was quite confused.
I was at the Students for Life booth the day he talked with some of the students there. I heard their conversation.
What he wrote in his article is very different from what the people there told him and does not correspond to reality.
Here is just one example: among the many values that Mr. Goff wrongly attributes to pro-lifers are their "increased efforts to expel and keep out needy Mexican immigrants."
I believe Mr. Goff was unaware the guy sitting in the back of the stand (that would be me) is a Mexican immigrant.
Not only am I an immigrant, but I am a needy one as well (by being a grad student I automatically fall into the "needy" category)!
I also found Ms. Lindsey Davidson's editorial comparing Students for Life with Brother Micah rather absurd. Students for Life does not approve of Brother Micah's methods nor do we use them.
We are not here to condemn anyone, but rather to give a voice to those who do not have one. As a matter of fact, that which Ms. Davidson criticizes in pro-lifers is exactly what people who oppose the pro-life movement do all the time.
Let us take Mr. Goff as an example. He appeals to the feeling of pity towards the poor as a support for abortion.
Is this not using emotion instead of reason? And for Ms. Davidson to resort to the legality of abortion as a reason for it not being ethically wrong is equally erroneous.
Any basic knowledge of the history of this country will reveal several legal institutions that were nonetheless unethical (slavery, anyone?).
When Mr. Goff speaks of abortion being more humane than poverty, I question his experience with true poverty. I have worked with extremely poor people and I would gladly invite Mr. Goff, Ms. Davidson and anyone who wants to, to go with me and work with them.
The people I have worked for are not only poor but also mentally or physically disabled; many of them were abandoned by their family and left out on the streets and dumps; they lived in the worst conditions imaginable. None of them have ever told me that it would have been better to not have been born at all.
Most human beings have a natural tendency to cling on to life despite their terrible circumstances. That is a reality.
There is, however, one thing on which Mr. Goff is right. He is right in his claim that the pro-life movement, in order to rightfully call itself "pro-life," should be more than just an anti-abortion movement.
It is already more than that. Pro-lifers all over the world work every day to assist women who go through difficult pregnancies, both economically and emotionally; they take care of orphans and abandoned children; they work in the slums with the poorest among the poor, seeking to improve their quality of life.
I can testify to this work because I have seen it, and I have seen it done by members of Students for Life.
As Carlos Castillo Peraza, a Mexican politician and philosopher, once said, being pro-life means much more than just opposing abortion: "It means being in solidarity with man from the very beginning of his vital process. It is taking up our social and political responsibilities in order to define, organize and optimize material resources so that a dignified, just and free life can be guaranteed to all human beings."
This is what the pro-life movement already works for, as does Students for Life.
Yes, it does so even when some of its members fail to comprehend the complexities of it and fall in contradiction or error.
After all, we are only human.
The important thing is the pro-life movement should be understood as what it truly is. This is what Students for Life believes, this is what the Pro-Life movement believes.
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