STARKVILLE, Mississippi, February 28, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Pro-life students and activists have planned a week of events in response to Mississippi State University’s funding and hosting of “Christian” abortionist Willie Parker to lecture its gender studies program.
Parker, who aborts babies all over the southeast and is the author of a new book trying to make a “Christian” case for abortion, is scheduled to speak at MSU on Thursday, March 1. Parker is one of the abortionists at Mississippi’s only abortion center, Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
The university has not disclosed the amount of money being spent on Parker’s speech, titled “Abortion and the Christian Case for Choice.”
The pro-abortion event is “co-sponsored by College of Arts and Sciences, Office of the Provost, Holmes Cultural Diversity Center, African American Studies, Department of Sociology and the Loftin Fund, President's Commission on the Status of Women, President's Commission on the Status of Minorities.”
Pro-life students are acting against the event with a week of pro-life activities on campus. These include:
February 28
Tabling on the Drill Field and passing out pro-life literature from 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
A Black History Festival for Life in McCool 234 from 4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
March 1
Prayer Service in the Chapel of Memories from 3:45 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
March 6
Speaker: Christina Bennett in Taylor Auditorium in McCool from 4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
March 7
Panel for Life, featuring multiple pro-life panelists who will answer questions about the pro-life movement, in Foster Ballroom in the Union from 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
March 8
I Lived on Parker Avenue movie screening with food, in McCool 130 from 6:00 p.m. – 7:15 p.m
Mississippi priest tells university president: children are being ‘slaughtered’
Hannah Loper, an MSU senior and former president of MSU Students for Life, told LifeSiteNews if the university is going to use tax dollars for an event on abortion, it needs to give the pro-life side equal time.
MSU Students for Life has a successful Pregnant on Campus Initiative that helps students facing unexpected pregnancies. Students regularly babysit for and provide meals for student parents, Loper said.
The American Family Association, Urban Talk, Personhood Mississippi, Pro-Life Mississippi, and the Catholic Campus Ministries of St. Joseph's Catholic Church all helped pull pro-life events together as a response.
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“It’s really encouraging to see them stepping up and backing us and wanting to support us in any way,” said Loper. She said that she’s also grateful to university staff for helping pro-lifers book space for their counter-events. “We’re very appreciative of the way that we’ve been treated on campus.”
Father John J. Bohn, pastor of St. Richard Catholic Church in Jackson, wrote MSU President Mark Keenum a strongly-worded letter blasting abortion and asking that the university give the pro-life Christian perspective equal time. He noted many attendees of Parker’s talk will likely be “strong advocates” of protecting children from mass shootings while seeing “no problem with allowing children to be slaughtered in the wombs of their mothers.”
Bohn, who received his Master of Science Degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from MSU, wrote:
As a Catholic priest, I believe abortion is indefensible as a legally-protected practice. I believe abortion, more than any thing else, has singlehandedly led to the increasing disrespect of the sanctity of human life we are experiencing in our culture. However, I also believe in a University’s role in facilitating discussion, debate, and research on a host of topics. My hope is that you and Mississippi State will put an equal amount of effort into offering presentations and discussions from a ‘Pro-Life’ perspective as you all have with this ‘Pro-Choice’ perspective. There are many fine, wise voices out here who would jump at the chance to make a “Christian Case for Life” at Mississippi State.
We as a nation are still reeling from our country’s latest mass shooting, this time at a high school in Parkland, Florida. Since this tragedy, there have been many voices crying out for constructive change in order to protect our children from violence. I can predict with certainty that many people who will be at Dr. Parker’s presentation will be strong advocates of protecting children from such things as mass shooters, yet will see no problem with allowing children to be slaughtered in the wombs of their mothers, all in the name of choice. Again, I hope Mississippi State will provide opportunities for us “Christians for Life” to shine a light on just how incongruent this notion is of protecting some children but not others.
“I don’t think there is any Scripture that backs up the ‘choice’ to take a life,” Loper commented. “I believe God is very clear on where He stands about life…every life has value [and] abortion terminates life” no matter how young the unborn child is.
15-week abortion ban advances in Mississippi
The controversy at MSU comes just days after a bill banning all abortions on babies older than 15 weeks passed the Mississippi Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee. It’s now headed to the main Senate chamber.
“It’s a huge victory and we’re so excited that it’s passed the Senate committee,” said Loper. “We are of the mindset that any limitation on abortion is a victory, even if it’s slowing chipping away the age limit.”
“I am committed to making Mississippi the safest place in America for an unborn child,” said Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves. “I appreciate the work of the committee and look forward to seeing our state continue to lead the way in protecting the lives of unborn children.”
If the bill, which has already passed the state House, passes the Senate and Republican Gov. Phil Bryant signs it, Mississippi will become the state with the most protective pro-life laws in the country.