BUZZ
Texas Tech University scrapped an event with a third-trimester abortion provider, originally slated for Monday, last week after pro-life advocates on and off campus urged the public institution to cancel the talk.
The university’s Health Sciences Center confirmed that it canceled the event with Shelly Sella, a New Mexico abortionist and author of the book “Beyond Limits: Stories of Third Trimester Abortion Care,” Texas Scorecard, a conservative news site, reported Friday.
“Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center evaluated the request and determined that it is not in the best interest of the university to host this event on campus,” the center stated.
Students with the campus Turning Point USA chapter, alongside Mark Lee Dickson, a director of Right to Life Across Texas and founder of the Sanctuary Cities for the Unborn initiative, and Jim Baxa, who is running for local office, led the effort to get the event cancelled.
They alleged that the event conflicts with state and local abortion bans, according to the report:
The group argued that Texas Tech’s status as a university subsidized by Texas taxpayers, that resides within the jurisdiction of the city and county of Lubbock, would have meant that TTUHSC was to host a speaker that would be promoting an illegal activity in a government building on government land.
While the event in a taxpayer subsidized facility was halted, organizers remain free to reschedule on private property.
“I am elated that Texas Tech has taken this action,” Preston Parsons, the president of TPUSA Texas Tech, told Texas Scorecard.
“Under the leadership of Chancellor Brandon Creighton, Texas Tech has upheld truth and stands for what’s right,” Parsons continued. “Turning Point USA at Tech will ALWAYS be vehemently pro-life, I would like to thank all of those who have fought, and will continue to fight, with us to protect the sacred lives of the unborn.”
Creighton is a former Republican state senator who sponsored a number of pro-life and education bills while in office, including a ban on diversity, equity, and inclusion offices at public universities.
Sella’s talk was titled “A physician’s perspective on third-trimester abortion care, ethics, and patient centered medicine.” Medical Students for Choice sponsored the event, according to the report.
Sella’s personal website describes her as “a board-certified OB-GYN and the first woman to openly practice third-trimester abortion care in the US.” She runs an abortion facility in New Mexico.
Texas state law protects human life from the moment of conception by banning elective abortions.
MORE: Christendom College cancels classes so students can attend March for Life
