O'Connell Hosts Pro-Life Assembly

By Clare Lazzuri
HERALD Editor
(From the issue of 1/18/01)

"One-third of your peers were never born," said Serrin Foster, president of Feminists for Life and speaker at the annual pro-life assembly at Bishop O’Connell High School in Arlington Jan. 12.

Invoking the theme "Life Is in Your Hands," O’Connell held its annual pro-life assembly 10 days before the annual March for Life, in which the school participates each year. As a means to get students thinking about pro-life issues and their possible participation in the March, the assembly featured Foster, an O’Connell grad, as well as the launch of "Rachel," a song about post-abortion syndrome, written by Allison Kelly and sung by Marie Smith, both of Front Royal.

Foster spoke emphatically about the "true meaning" and history of feminism and the detrimental effects of abortion. She pointed out that although some may be intimidated by the word "feminist," that the true feminist philosophy "embraces the basic rights of all human beings without exception and rejects the use of force to dominate, control or destroy another."

She went on to detail the traditional opposition to abortion which can be found in many feminist writings.

"The early feminists — facing conditions similar to those faced by women in developing countries today — were strongly opposed to abortion, because of their belief in the worth of all humans," said Foster. "Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who in 1848 organized the first women’s convention in Seneca Falls, N.Y., classified abortion as a form of ‘infanticide.’"

Foster pointed out that groups such as NOW (National Organization for Women), which are staunch proponents of abortion, are not true to feminism. According to Foster, "the goals of the NOW-led feminist movement with respect to abortion would have sickened and horrified these early feminists."

Foster also debunked the myth that Roe v. Wade came about because of a national demand for legalized abortion. She claims that even the founders of the modern, more radical feminist movement did not demand legalizing abortion. Rather, she said, it was the efforts of two men, Larry Lader and Dr. Bernard Nathanson, who convinced a few radical feminists they needed abortion to enjoy all the rights of men.

Lader, who founded of the National Abortion Rights Action League, had population concerns, and Nathanson, who had seen many botched abortions in his work as a doctor, wanted to legalize abortion for medical reasons. According to Foster, the two lobbied feminist leaders, even telling them that 100,000 women had died from unsafe, illegal abortions — a number that was totally fabricated.

Nathanson has since converted to Roman Catholicism and now writes and speaks publicly on behalf of the pro-life movement.

Ironically, Foster said, the abortion rights movement began on a lie about the number of women who died from illegal abortions, but "no one mourns for the women who die from legal abortions."

She went on to tell the O’Connell audience of the importance of remaining chaste, and encouraged them to live virtuously and make good choices.

"Every abortion is a reflection that we have failed women, and that women have settled for less," she said. "If you have a friend considering an abortion, it is no different than carrying a gun to school or contemplating suicide. Someone is going to die and you must tell an adult and help them both … Because life truly is in your hands."

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