I write this in response to Notre Dame Right to Life's offensive display euphemized as the Cemetery of the Innocents. This and other events of Respect Life Week are demeaning not only to pro-choice individuals on campus, but also to women across the nation.
As a pro-choice Catholic, my integrity and character have been repeatedly attacked. In response, I state that Catholic doctrine should never have a veto over national policy and a clear separation of church and state takes precedence over the subjective morality of a particular religion.
In a line of decisions, going back as far as Union Pacific R. Co. v. Botsford (1891), the Supreme Court has recognized that a right of personal privacy exists under the Constitution. The Court has found this right echoed in the First, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments and also in the penumbras of the Bill of Rights.
Simply put, a woman has the right to control her own body. The "rights" of a fetus should not take precedence over her interests in reproductive health and personal liberty. To that end, my roommate and I actively protested the Cemetery of the Innocents on Thursday and Friday and we are proud to have done so. We will continue to stand up to the misogyny, sexism and bigotry of the anti-choice right and also to the anti-intellectual undercurrent that is sadly now so pervasive within the Catholic Church.
I close with a quote from novelist Ayn Rand:
"I cannot project the degree of hatred required to make those women run around in crusades against abortion. Hatred is what they certainly project, not love for the embryos, which is a piece of nonsense no one could experience, but hatred, a virulent hatred for an unnamed object ... Their hatred is directed against human beings as such, against the mind, against reason, against ambition, against success, against love, against any value that brings happiness to human life. In compliance with the dishonesty that dominates today's intellectual field, they call themselves 'pro-life.'"
Please support women's rights: Keep abortion safe and legal.
Andrew Yi
sophomore
St. Edward's Hall
Oct. 13
