Georgetown's invite to Planned Parenthood president irks Catholics

A student group at Georgetown University, a historically Catholic institution, has invited Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards to speak on campus in April.

The Georgetown University Lecture Fund, the non-partisan student organization that issued the invitation, states on its website that it “strives to bring speakers to Georgetown’s campus to enlighten, educate and, occasionally, entertain.” The private event will be free, but open only to Georgetown campus ID holders.

The website also lists a variety of speakers hosted by the Lecture Fund in recent years, ranging from conservative commentators Ann Coulter and S.E. Cupp to liberal commentator James Carville and a speechwriter for President Barack Obama. The page also says the undergraduate group has worked with Presidents Obama and Bill Clinton.

The invitation sparked an indirect rebuke from Cardinal Donald Wuerl, the archbishop of Washington, who penned a blog post last week titled “The Identity of Catholic Universities.” Although the cardinal did not mention Georgetown by name, he wrote, “Whatever is opposed to life itself, such as abortion or suicide, or otherwise insults human dignity is an infamy that poisons human society. … It is neither authentically Catholic nor within the Catholic tradition for a university to provide a special platform to those voices that promote or support such counter-values.”

Planned Parenthood is the nation’s largest abortion provider. For every birth-oriented service it provides, it performs 17 abortions, according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

In 2012, Georgetown University officials hosted former Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius as a speaker at commencement activities despite a petition against the speech with over 26,000 signatures organized by the Cardinal Newman Society.

Now a new petition sponsored by Georgetown University Right to Life and Students for Life of America to rescind the invitation to Richards has more than 6,500 signatures. The group called the invitation a “slap in the face.”

Georgetown administrators issued a statement on the matter last week, saying they respect students’ rights to express personal views, even those that are difficult, controversial, or objectionable. The statement also noted Richards would not be paid to speak.

“Our Catholic and Jesuit identity on campus has never been stronger,” according to the statement. “Georgetown remains firmly committed to the sanctity and human dignity of every life at every stage.”

Pre-med sophomore Michael Khan heads Georgetown Right to Life, a group representing over 400 students on campus. He said the invitation points to a worrisome trend in which recognized university groups act as fronts for unrecognized groups and use university money in the form of club funding. Khan said Georgetown Right to Life, also a recognized group, will get $1,000 from the school this semester, but the Lecture Fund will get thousands more.

“They’re the group that brings on former presidents and high-profile speakers. In this clever way that Georgetown sets it up, the students deal with it,” he said. Although Richards won’t get a direct speaker’s fee from the university, Georgetown could still pay for incidentals like transportation and lecture hall rental through the Lecture Fund.

The Lecture Fund did not respond to a request for comment, but during last week’s media frenzy, chairwoman Helen Brosnan tweeted, “being pro-choice is a deep act of faith.”