Anti-abortion group, Bobcats For Life, will be hosting an event for pro-life and pro-choice students alike Thursday with a historian’s reading and interpretation of speeches made by Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger.
Bobcats for Life president and founder Jacob Hoback said it will be an unbiased event meant to educate.
“It’s just to kind of put it into reality,” Hoback said. “It’s got kind of a pro-abortion feel to it, but we just think it’s important that everyone sees both sides.”
That will be the first event Bobcats For Life will host as a fully active student organization. The event will take place Thursday at 6 p.m. in Copeland Hall room 104.
Hoback, a sophomore studying political science, said while some of the things said will probably bother him, he is excited for the event as a learning experience.
“There’s no real message that goes along with this,” he said. “I don’t want pro-life people to be intimidated. I want people to go and really find out what (Sanger) said.”
Education on issues as important as this, Hoback said, is crucial.
“In my opinion, abortion is not talked about enough,” he said. “Whether you’re pro-life or pro-abortion, it’s a big deal. I think it’s important to know a lot about it and to stay really educated on the issue.”
Gabriel Mann, communications manager for NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio, said it would be very difficult for an event like this, centered on Margaret Sanger, to be unbiased.
“It’s such a rare thing that we hear Margaret Sanger in any other way than non-abortion operatives trying to use her words in an anti-abortion context," Mann said.
Mann said pro-abortion groups such as NARAL do not advocate for teaching others about the origins of Planned Parenthood.
“What’s really important is to understand the modern threats there are to access to abortion and reproductive health care,” Mann said. “Margaret Sanger is really just a talking point that the other side uses. There is no upside to discussing (her).”
Abbie Snyder, a sophomore studying creative writing, said she also thinks it would be difficult to make an event like that unbiased.
“I feel like (Bobcats for Life’s) intentions may be that it’ll be unbiased, but because of their affiliations, it’s automatically going to be seen and heard as (anti-abortion)," Snyder said.
Instead, she thinks it would be more beneficial to hold a debate that was open to students interested in learning more about the topic. She said she would like to hear both sides present their opinions, the histories of their movements and for them to be open to questions.
“If you wanted a really unbiased event on this topic, you need to get both people that are pro-choice and pro-life in the same room, both of them talking at the same time,” Snyder said. “It would still be biased but you would be able to see both sides of it at the same time.”
