As the abortion debate rages during election year, the Cornell Coalition for Life is heavily recruiting new members to join their pro-life cause.
“Cornell is disproportionately pro-choice,” said CCFL president Paul Ibrahim ’06. “Even though we were small last year, we know there’s a lot more potential.”
CCFL stresses an inclusive, non-partisan and non-religious approach in advancing the pro-life cause. According to the coalition’s website, “Students, faculty, and local residents with a wide diversity of backgrounds and opinions unite to educate our peers about the tragedies of abortion, euthanasia, and infanticide in the Cornell community and in society at large.”
Ibrahim added that “even though we’re pro-life, we are pro-women. We want them to have other choices than abortion and we want to help them appreciate the value of life and having a baby.”
Most recently CCFL has used recruiting tactics such as email and mailbox flyers with quotes including, “over 40 million of these little ones have been aborted in America… or 1/3 of your peers.” The mailbox flyers also have quotes from Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger such as “the most merciful thing a family can do to one of its infant members is to kill it,” and “we do not want word to get out that we want to exterminate the Negro population.”
Although Ibrahim agrees that “it’s an aggressive tactic,” he believes that “it should work.” He also asserted that “Cornell is tilted so pro-choice that people think we’re the extreme. But that’s just because we are the minority.”
Students Acting for Gender Equality co-presidents Emily Marchese ’05, and May Silverstein ’05 agree that “even though we may bump heads with CCFL in areas such as the partial birth abortion act, we still both deal with women’s issues and women’s empowerment.” Marchese added, “we will only continue to bump heads if we focus on what we disagree on.”
Silverstein hopes that the organizations will collaborate in the future. “We would encourage an opportunity to work with them on women’s health issues in the future,” she said.
According to Alex Grawa ’07, a CCFL member, the best part of the organization is “the environment that is fosters for pro-life. It’s nice to come together with a group that embraces your views.”
CCFL meets every Wednesday at 4:30 in 103 Rockefeller Hall.
Archived article by Stephanie Wickham
Sun Contributor