FRIDAY
August 25, 2000
volume 11, no. 150


NEWS for Friday, August 25, 2000
"QUESTION ABORTION" CAMPAIGN IN U.S. COLLEGES
Feminists for Life's Ads Put a Face on "Choice"

WASHINGTON, D.C., AUGUST 24 (ZENIT.org)

    "College students are constantly told to challenge the status quo," said Serrin M. Foster, president of Feminists for Life. "Twenty-seven years after the Roe vs. Wade decision, abortion has become the status quo -- one out of every five abortions is performed on a college woman. FFL serves as a catalyst for developing resources and progressive solutions for pregnant and parenting students by asking women what they really want -- because women deserve better."

    Their national college outreach program is focused on bringing college students to question abortion, and to move administrators to provide resources for pregnant and parenting students.

    Foster recently unveiled a series of eight ads. The ads address basic needs, including alternatives to abortion, paternity establishment, child support, post-abortion trauma and the lack of campus resources for pregnant and parenting students. One ad reminds students that without housing on campus, on-site daycare and maternity coverage, pregnant and parenting students do not have a choice. "These ads put a face on 'choice'," said Foster.

    One of the ads features Rebecca Wasser Kiessling, who was conceived in rape. Now a lawyer and mother, she asks students, "Did I deserve the death penalty?" Society seems to assume that the only solution to the pain of rape is abortion.

    Another ad shows a baby's face and asks, "Is this the face of the enemy?" According to FFL, our society has pitted women against children.

    The real enemies are a lack of emotional and financial resources. FFL's College Outreach Program is now in its fifth year. The program seeks to address the root of the abortion plague by identifying and eliminating the causes that drive women to this tragic decision. The program began at Georgetown University and has since been brought to Princeton, Berkely, Harvard, University of Chicago, Oxford, and Notre Dame, among others.

    Already on the Georgetown campus, there is greater awareness of the resources for students. The university has established housing for pregnant and parenting students, instituted financial assistance for child care, and hired a full-time staff person to assist such students.

    "If we truly care about the rights of women, the very least we can do is make carrying pregnancy to term a realistic choice," said Kathryn Getek, former president of the Ivy League Coalition for Life and a graduate of Princeton University. "On college campuses, for the most at-risk population, FFL approaches the matter in terms that make people listen." ZE00082520

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