Princeton paper prints pro-life message, calls on readers to unite against abortion

Sep 26, 2004 / 22:00 pm

A pro-life article published last week in Princeton University’s daily paper has shocked critics and raised strong support from pro-life students.

Ashley Pavlic, a student and president of Princeton ProLife, wrote the article, which calls on readers to “unite in identifying the war against the unborn as the graver evil” in the upcoming federal elections.

“With a major election approaching, we must reflect upon two critical issues: abortion and embryo-destructive research,” she says in her column, published in the Sept. 24 issue of the Daily Princetonian.

“A vote for a pro-abortion/embryo-destruction candidate is a vote for the direct and intentional killing of innocent human beings,” she writes.

Pavlic claims her argument does not stem from “religious dogma” but from “the objective demands of natural justice.”

Given that science has proven that the life of a human being begins at fertilization, she says, “justice demands that we extend to the embryo the same basic rights and protections that human beings in all other stages possess… We must not discriminate on the basis of age, size, stage of development or condition of dependency.”

Pavlic argues that killing “an embryonic human being” to harvest stem cells is just as evil as killing a mentally handicapped child to harvest organs for transplant.

“It is time to put away tired clichés,” she writes. “You cannot be ‘personally’ opposed to abortion while thinking others should have the choice. You may as well be personally opposed to slavery, but in support of others having the choice to own slaves.”

In the case of abortion, she says, “that ‘choice’ is a choice for murder.”

“While we may prefer the economic, educational, health and foreign policies of pro-abortion/embryo-destruction candidates, we recognize that the issues surrounding abortion and embryo-destructive research are of paramount importance, and we are forced to distinguish between socially desirable policies and the perpetuation of intrinsically evil acts,” she says.

Abortion kills 1.3 million children per year in the U.S., Pavlic points out. No presidential candidate is running on a platform of waging unjust war that will result in the intentional death of 1.3 million people a year, she says.

Ashley Pavlic can be reached at prolife@princeton.edu