SEATTLE, WA, March 23, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A group of 16 national pro-life leaders, led by The Cardinal Newman Society (CNS) and Students for Life of America (SFLA), have sent a letter to the President of Seattle University calling on him to put an end to the institution’s numerous connections to Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion organizations.
The groups say that the Catholic Church’s condemnation of abortion makes a Catholic university’s association with any pro-abortion organization inappropriate.
According to the university’s website, the university currently refers students to Planned Parenthood for “sexual health” services, allows and promotes student internships with Planned Parenthood, hires employees with past experience with Planned Parenthood and highlights that experience on the University’s website, and honors students for their past work with Planned Parenthood.
“Seattle University, as a Catholic and Jesuit institution, has a God-given responsibility to live up to its religious identity,” said Patrick J. Reilly, CNS president. “Such an identity certainly precludes involvement with those organizations facilitating the slaughter of the innocents. May Seattle University today turn a corner and resolve to sever these scandalous connections.”
Kristan Hawkins, Executive Director of Students for Life of America, noted, “Promoting and glorifying Planned Parenthood and other abortion organizations on any campus is unacceptable, most especially on a Catholic campus.
“Planned Parenthood is the nation’s abortion Goliath and has repeatedly been found to protect rapists, racists, and sex traffickers of minors,” she said. “Time and time again, Planned Parenthood has proved its business is abortion, plain and simple. Seattle University must remove Planned Parenthood from campus and sever all ties with the abortion industry.”
Among the groups that signed on to the letter were Priests for Life, Human Life International, Susan B. Anthony List, Concerned Women for America, Live Action, Human Life Alliance, Catholics United for the Faith, Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, Culture of Life Foundation, and many others.
Other pro-abortion organizations with connections to Seattle University, according to the university’s website, include the Feminist Majority Foundation, Legal Momentum, and the National Organization for Women.
You can read the letter sent to Seattle University President Fr. Stephen Sundborg, S.J., here.
Contact information:
Sundborg SJ, Stephen
President
President’s Office
Administration Building 109
(206) 296-1891
[email protected]