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U of O Abortion Debate: Courage and Class and a bit of Bad Behaviour
By KC McLean - D'Aout, 14-Nov-2011 03:48:00
The nervous energy of the 200+ people packed into the lecture hall at U of O for kick-off debate hosted by U of O Medical Students for Life, and Medical Students for Life was met by a display of tremendous skill and class from Stephanie Gray, and what I would call a type of courage from opponent Jovan Morales.
Stephanie made a logically tight argument that physicians should not provide, or refer for, abortion, based on the personhood of the pre-born child. Jovan, while struggling at times as an admitted novice to debating, certainly deserves credit for stepping up where no one else would.
Despite some small complaints that the debate was a sham because there had not been a proper search for a more experienced debater, I should clarify here that Jovan was the only person with the nerve to debate after months of searching and inviting outspoken abortion advocates to lay out their best case. He had far more courage than any of the pro-choice "protestors" shouting disruptive profanity from the back of the lecture hall. Well, except for the few that brought their liquid courage: several were drinking alcohol openly, while holding up their signs and mouthing off. One of the audience pointed out that there was just enough heckling and bad behaviour to make things exciting.
My take-away: a whole new level of respect for Stephanie. At any time, she could have skewered Jovan to the point of humiliation by turning arguments and faulty logic back on him. Just one tug on one thread of his case, and I envisioned his presentation being unravelled. But she didn’t. Not one ad hominem attack. Not one snicker when he referred to the foetus as a “child” or a “baby,” after his opening declaration that a foetus is not a child. Stephanie gave the audience enough credit for us to evaluate that for ourselves. She stuck to her case, treated her opponent and audience with respect and grace, and remained unflustered by the shouting and verbal attacks made at her. That’s class.
Andrea Mrozek posted some pictures of the event in her blog, ProWomanProLife.
An audience member video recorded the whole debate. Link to follow when I see it's up.
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1 Comment
1. 24-Nov-2011 03:36:00 by Skulander
Even if the fetus is a "person" (and that is far from certain, despite your claim to the contrary) you just can't ignore that the fetus is living in a woman's body, HER body. We can debate this day and night until our voice grows hoarse. But the bottom line will always remain: it's not your body, dear KC McLean. It's not your choice. YOU are entitled to make decisions for YOU. That's the only thing you are entitled to. Would you accept me to interfere in your pregnancy, imposing you my morality, my views, my decisions, my way of thinking, my religion? Of course not. You simply cannot make those decisions for another woman. That is what the United Nation's special rapporteur showed loud and clear in his report to end criminalization of abortions, claiming that preventing women a say in her pregnancy is a violation of her human right. Which of course it is.
And perhaps no one was willing to "debate" you because we don't "debate" human rights. We stand up for them.
Because too often being "pro-life" means worshipping the fetus. REAL women's lives, they don't care too much about that. Oh, and I'm also very curious about one thing: if your case is apparently so obvious, why do you need to lie to women? Why all these fake clinics? Why pictures of 20+ weeks old fetuses (when they are not in fact miscarriages...) while 90% of abortions occur before week 12? Why set up a non-existant breast cancer/abortion link, or equally non-existant abortion/post-abortion syndrome? Why make false claims about fetal pain? And I could go on... Thing is, a 1st trimester fetus just isn't a "person." And YOU are struggling to show otherwise.