The University of Portland’s pro-life group, Voice for Life, received opposition last week in response to its pro-life chalk messages written on campus sidewalks, according to the Catholic institution’s student newspaper, The Beacon. Many students were reportedly offended by the pro-life messages.
The messages written by Voice for Life were approved by Jeromy Koffler, the University’s Student Activities Director, and included such messages as, “You are not alone,” “You are strong, you are beautiful,” “Your Mom chose life,” and “Your story matters, you matter.”
One Sophomore senator for the Associated Students of the University of Portland told The Beacon that the chalk messages were “really guilt-shaming” and that many students responded negatively to them. “The quote ‘Your mom chose life’ is an awful quote,” he reportedly said. “It’s really insensitive.”
“People assume that because we’re a Catholic school, we’re definitely pro-life,” the student senator stated in the article. “It just needs to be talked about that we don’t all think that.”
In trying to counter to the pro-life messages a group of students reportedly violated University policy. Their messages included “Stop shaming women” and “Pregnant people have heartbeats of their own.” These messages were “technically a violation of [chalking] policy,” Jeromy Koffler reportedly said. Koffler told The Beacon that student organizations must submit a written request before chalking the campus, which is what Voice for Life did, but the other students violated the policy.
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Voice for Life responded to the opposition in a follow-up piece published by The Beacon entitled “Hearing from a Voice for Life” by Noah Banks, a junior and theology major at the University. Banks wrote in his piece:
Voice for Life as a whole seeks to be like a friend to all people on campus dealing with a crisis pregnancy, or who might be feeling the negative emotional or mental effects of abortion. We are intentional in our choices to use pro-woman, empowering language when we release public messages, such as those that were chalked on the sidewalks and Academic Quad last week.
The University of Portland is affiliated with the Congregation of Holy Cross.
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Reprinted with permission from the Cardinal Newman Society.