The College Fix

Petition claims the club promotes a ‘Culture of Death’

TFP Student Action, a group that works to promote Christian values on campus, is circulating an online petition asking Georgetown University President John DeGioia to ban “H*yas for Choice,” a pro-choice group on Georgetown’s campus. The petition had garnered more than 16,000 signatures as of Monday afternoon.

H*yas for Choice is a ” pro-choice, sex-positive, reproductive justice group” that seeks to “provide sexual health options for people of all genders on Georgetown’s campus,” according to the organization’s website.

The online petition, meanwhile, describes the organization as a “radical pro-abortion club” and states that the group has been promoting abortion, distributing contraceptives, fundraising for Planned Parenthood, inviting pro-abortion speakers to campus, criticizing Catholic teaching, and promoting transgenderism.

The group is not officially recognized by Georgetown, but does utilize resources such as classroom space from the university.

“Although Georgetown University claims that H*yas for Choice is not officially recognized as other student clubs are, the distinction doesn’t seem to matter,” TFP Student Action claims. “In fact, the ability to undermine the right to life and promote the Culture of Death appears to be enhanced by the lack of official recognition.”

The petition also says that in the past the group has displayed a poster reading, “Protecting Abortion Access is a Catholic value” at a transgender event on campus.

The petition argues that as a Catholic university, Georgetown should not allow the existence of a pro-choice group:

Why does Georgetown allow pro-abortion activists to organize and recruit new members on campus, instead of safeguarding the right to life?  While so many Catholic students struggle to defend moral values, why is Georgetown favoring those who undermine the truth and trample Church teaching?  Is it too much to expect a Catholic university to take up and defend the cause of the unborn instead of catering to Planned Parenthood?

“No Catholic campus should ever allow a pro-abortion club,” it concludes.

Responding to the demand, the board of H*yas for Choice wrote to The Georgetown Voice: “As an unrecognized group that entirely operates on campus based on individual student rights, there are no immediate steps Georgetown could take to ban us that wouldn’t change overall student rights.”

Read the online petition here.

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