As a pro-choice professor who respects the pro-life position, I too condemn whoever attacked and vandalized the "abortion cemetery." American debates over abortion are already far too polarized and acrimonious. Vandalism leads only to anger, never to understanding or reconciliation.
Students at any great research university, including Notre Dame, ought to have complete academic freedom. That includes the freedom to express their views on any subject, including abortion, no matter what position they hold. Currently, pro-choice students do not have the right to organize or hold events, as pro-lifers do. Yet pro-choice students' lack of freedom does not make the pro-life students' statements any less deserving of respect.
The vandals may have been attempting to make a political statement about abortion, or they may simply have been drunken louts. Either way, what they did was reprehensible. In short, I agree with the sentiments of the students interviewed in Monday's edition of The Observer: Nobody has the right to curtail freedom of speech on a university campus, and we desperately need more open, free, and respectful dialogue about the complex and divisive issue of abortion.
Gail Bederman
associate professor of history
Oct. 11
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