Do No Harm debates abortion

According to Serrin Foster, it might be time to end the abortion debate.

Foster, president… According to Serrin Foster, it might be time to end the abortion debate.

Foster, president of the Feminists for Life organization, welcomed both pro-life and pro-choice audience members to a lecture she gave Wednesday at Pitt.

Foster’s lecture, sponsored by Do No Harm, Pitt’s graduate and professional student pro-life club, focused on the social conditions that lead women to have abortions, instead of approaching the issue from a religious viewpoint. FFL has worked on legislative efforts such as child support enforcement and the Violence Against Women Act.

Do No Harm’s secretary Angela Fortunato called Foster’s ideas “a way for both sides [of the abortion debate] to work together for what’s best for women and children.”

According to Foster, the government should provide more resources for women to make abortion rare.

“Babies don’t ruin lives. Lack of education, bigotry and not being able to make a living wage ruin lives,” she said.

Patricia McFadden and Allison Tobey, members of Medical Students for Choice, came to Foster’s lecture to make themselves a “polite nuisance.”

“It’s good to get other people’s viewpoints,” Tobey said.

One main ideological difference McFadden and Foster had was about when life begins.

“It’s so sad that we now have a generation of women who don’t believe that abortion is a violent act,” Foster said after McFadden asked her about a possible distinction between a fetus and a baby.

Foster said she is against using the word “fetus,” which she said means “young one” in Latin. Instead, she used the word “baby” throughout her speech.

“We speak English!” she shouted emphatically.

Foster also referred to abortion doctors as people who “take a pile of cash for a bundle of flesh.”

In reference to the Supreme Court case that made abortion legal, Foster said, “Roe v. Wade would have protected child- and wife-beaters. It would have sickened the early feminists.”

Foster also said she was against abortion even in cases of rape or incest. Victims of sexual assault “want to make the rape go away,” she said. But according to Foster, aborting a fetus is “a case of misdirected anger.”

“How medieval. Haven’t we gotten out of the age where who your father is determines your worth?” Foster asked about fetuses created by rape.

Despite these major differences between her viewpoint and the pro-choice perspective, Foster said she believes the abortion debate is often unproductive.

Instead, she wants to focus the energy from people on both sides of the issue on building resources for pregnant women on college campuses and increasing women’s other rights.

After a FFL campaign at Georgetown University, the school set aside four townhouses for new mothers to live in.

Foster would like to see a similar campaign at Pitt. After her lecture, she collected names and contact information from audience members.

“I’d love to come back to the University of Pittsburgh next year,” she said.

She said Pitt’s lack of student family housing especially concerns her. She would like to help organize a forum next year at Pitt to discuss ways to pressure administration to provide more resources.

According to Tobey, however, “I agree with what [Foster] said about improving resources for pregnant women, but I really don’t think she really addressed how making abortion illegal would make it better.”