Over 400 students descended on Georgetown this Sunday to participate in the Cardinal O Connor Conference on Life, a series of speeches and discussions that culminated in the annual March For Life on Monday. Held in Gaston Hall, the three keynote speakers, each representing a different attitude toward the anti-abortion rights movement, shared their experiences with students who had come from schools as far as Xavier University in Ohio and Notre Dame in Indiana. Rev. Frank Pavone, national director of Priest for Life, began the conference by calling abortion a form of sanctioned violence against women, and expressed clear support for the newly-elected administration s position on abortion. Pavone was followed by Cathleen Cleaver, the chief spokesperson on anti-abortion rights issues for the Catholic Bishops of the United States.
Abortions are down.
Pitts offered insight into the legislative action currently under construction and spoke at length of his own bill, The Women and Children Resources Act. Pitts was optimistic about his bill, but conceded that We have to be realists. We can set the agenda, but we won t always have the votes. Following nearly four hours of speeches, students broke off into discussion groups to reflect on what they had just heard. Jeff Huebon, a junior from Vanderbilt University, claimed he felt rejuvenated to see that there are other people fighting this fight.