Harassment of Pro-Lifers on Catholic Campuses

Once inextricably linked to the Catholic Church, the pro-life movement has become increasingly estranged from it, particularly at the college and university level.

Students for Life of America (SFLA) has an interactive map showing acts of vandalism committed on 60 college campuses against pro-life displays: Three of them are Catholic universities.

According to SFLA:

• At Loyola Marymount, pro-life posters were taken down;

• At St. Louis University, the cemetery of the innocents crosses that pro-life activists erected were destroyed; and

• At Marquette, the monument to the unborn was destroyed and Democrats bragged about it later on Facebook.

All are Jesuit universities. Not to put too fine a point on it but the pope is a Jesuit too.

During the Obama years, Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles actually tried, with Santa Clara University, to fight a California law that forced them to provide abortion coverage in the health insurance they give employees. The Obama Administration’s Health and Human Services Department, not too surprisingly, rejected their appeal. Nevertheless, Loyola Marymount did fire an employee whose traditional views on marriage offended the LGBT community there: She went to court and prevailed, winning reinstatement.

St. Louis University is a Jesuit institution of higher learning at which one of the “approved speakers” for October was Sue Thayer, a former Planned Parenthood employee who spoke about her conversion to the pro-life movement. Also at SLU, the Knights of Columbus chapter claims that they “pray with the peaceful protesters outside of the Planned Parenthood facility just a few blocks west of campus. “ As they put it, “This is a nation-wide effort to let the citizens around us that that we support life from the moment of conception, and that women who choose life for their unborn child will be supported and aided by the Catholic community.” Meanwhile, at SLU, the Director of the Institute for Biosecurity at the Saint Louis University College for Public Health & Social Justice also works as an Infection Control Consultant with Planned Parenthood.

As for Marquette, as we reported 13 years ago, Marquette University’s law school distributes a “Milwaukee Survival Guide” that lists Planned Parenthood as a resource. Moreover, as John McAdams, who taught there, can tell you, Marquette is a dangerous place to be a traditional Catholic, even on your own time. In fact, the university fired him for doing just that. McAdams found the dismissal unjust and eventually the Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed with him. Marquette, of course, is in Wisconsin.

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