Conservative Catholic groups are ready to fight a new Law Center policy regarding funding for abortion related internships.
“The policy is unfit for a Catholic law school,” Daniel Hughes (LAW ’08), president of Progressive Alliance for Life, a student group at the Law Center committed to pro-life causes, said. “It has committed itself to funding pro-abortion legal work.”
Under the new policy, all students who work on law-related issues for public interest organizations or government agencies are eligible to receive funding from the Law Center. The policy allows students to work for pro-choice organizations, while the previous version prohibited it. Students at the Law Center prompted the change last year when a student was denied funding for her internship with Planned Parenthood.
The Progressive Alliance for Life, founded in 2004, has over eighty active members, many of whom have made efforts to overturn the recent change.
“There is precedent with the Apostolic Nuncio and Archbishop [Donald W.] Wuerl to intervene when the school takes a pro-abortion stance,” Hughes said. “I don’t know why the administrators think this will stand. The offices of both have shown an interest in reviewing the situation. They think it’s highly problematic to guarantee extensive funding for pro-abortion.”
According to Hughes, the Archbishop and the Apostolic Nuncio—a representative of the Holy See—intervened in the 1990s when University President Leo O’Donovan funded Hyas for Choice, a pro-choice group on campus. The school pulled funding when faced with losing its “Catholic orientation.”
Hyas for Choice, supportive of the policy change, attribute the Law Center administration’s action from an academic standpoint.
“If GU Law Center aims to remain one of the top law schools in the country, it must offer a public interest law program that is competitive with other top American law schools,” Julia Marter (COL’08) and Nicole Cramer (COL’08), members of H*yas for Choice, wrote in e-mail.
The fellowship “will provide grants to all students who work on law-related issues at a public interest organization,” Law Center Dean T. Alexander Aleinikoff said in a statement.
“The intention of the dean is to weasel around the policy so that students can get funding for abortion organizations,” he said.
LifesiteNews, an online conservative news service, encouraged readers to voice their concerns to the Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Pietro Sambi and Georgetown President John J. DeGioia.
A spokesperson for the Apostolic Nuncio’s office said the office has received calls and letters of concern regarding the policy change, but it would not comment on the number.
