Abortion-Rights Opponents Using 'Crass Tactics' To Protest Obama's Notre Dame Speech, Opinion Piece Says

Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 15 May 2009 - 1:00 PDT

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Antiabortion-rights "protesters intend to turn Notre Dame's commencement into a circus" because of their opposition to the university's invitation to President Obama to receive an honorary degree and deliver a speech at the ceremony on Sunday, Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Monica Yant Kinney writes in an opinion piece. "Never mind that a majority of Catholics voted for Obama in 2008, approve of his job performance and support the university's invitation," she says. Yant Kinney, a Notre Dame alumna, notes that the university has been inviting presidents to its campus since former President Eisenhower was in office. "Most recently, the class of 2001 honored George W. Bush, who as governor of Texas presided over scores of executions," she writes, adding, "The Catholic Church vehemently opposes the death penalty, yet no bishops boycotted Bush's visit."

Yant Kinney continues that antiabortion-rights advocates Randall Terry, Alan Keyes and others "have already been arrested in the last two weeks," and "[s]ome demonstrators pushed strollers with baby dolls dripping in fake blood." She asks, "And what to make of the soul who hired an airplane to pull a banner of an aborted fetus right by the statue of the Virgin Mary? Where's the reverence for life in that gesture?" Yant Kinney concludes, "The anti-Obama protesters may be trying to change his mind, but as for hope? With such crass tactics, they're mostly hoping for attention. I guess they succeeded" (Yant Kinney, Philadelphia Inquirer, 5/13).

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