Calling the debate over abortion “the fundamental moral issue of our time,” Senator Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) took the stage in the ICC Auditorium on Wednesday to affirm the right to life. He invoked his belief in God to justify his desire to outlaw abortion.
Well-attended by supporters and protestors alike, the speech was part of the Cardinal O’Connor Conference on Life, a series of anti-abortion events intended to coincide with the 31st anniversary of Roe vs. Wade.
The famous 1978 Supreme Court decision, he said, ran counter to American values. “There is something unnatural and unjust about this decision. So you are here, and the issue becomes the fundamental issue of our time,” he said.
For much of his speech, Santorum reflected on the political struggle to pass a ban on partial birth abortions in the Senate and strove to inspire student members of the anti-abortion movement at Georgetown. “You are called to be faithful and called to hear God. Look into your hearts and determine what is just,” he said.
Such a call is not found in popular culture or among many of the members of the Democratic Party, according to Santorum. “The popular culture is not a nurturing one; it’s a hedonistic one,” he said. “The Democratic Party has moved away from the weak to sticking to the lawyers, labor unions and people who fund their campaigns.”
Santorum, a second term Pennsylvania Republican, is the third ranking member of the senate. He repeatedly reflected on the difficulty of achieving moral clarity in a partisan atmosphere. “Can you find common ground? Yeah you can, but it’s pretty arid. It’s very difficult,” he said.
Delivered on a campus in which, Santorum said, members of the anti-abortion movement are a minority, the speech was met with protestors in Red Square and several pointed questions concerning the Senator’s stance on homosexuality and the death penalty.
For Lily Housman (CAS ‘05), a member of the Georgetown Democrats who stood in the cold to protest throughout the afternoon, Santorum’s presence on campus was an affront to liberal values. “Rick Santorum is an extremely conservative man who doesn’t represent the views of the majority of Americans; he’s anti-gay rights, anti-choice, and pro-gun,” she said.
Santorum’s speech was the keynote address in the conference, which was organized by Georgetown’s Right to Life organization and the Knights of Columbus. “It’s really about networking and raising awareness of these issues in the general public,” said Laura Peirson, (CAS ‘05) the President of GU Right to Life.
The audience included GU students, faculty, anti-abortion supporters from around the country, and a group of nuns from the Catholic order Sisters of Life. Sister Mary Grace, visiting from New York, said she was happy to attend the conference on the day before the National March for Life. “It’s very edifying to see people so immersed in the culture of life,” she said.
