“Empowerment:” Intolerant Marquette Feminists Want to Ban Anti-Abortion Speech

As a Political Science student and the Marquette College Democrats went to Facebook to endorse the vandalizing of an anti-abortion display at the university, the feminist group Empowerment issued a statement on the incident.

At first, it seemed to reject the vandalism. It stated:

Firstly, Empowerment does not condone the defacement of property and acknowledges the need for respectful discussion wherever such polarizing opinions are expressed.

OK, fair enough. But then it goes on:

Secondly, Empowerment stands in support of women’s right to choose and access to safe and legal abortion free from violence and intimidation. . . . Empowerment works to create and uplift a community of students that support one another in their personal and academic growth. At the core of this community is a deep respect and appreciation for our differing beliefs, backgrounds, and cultures. Empowerment is devoted to listening and amplifying narratives, especially those which have been strategically marginalized by oppressive institutions. We work to understand what this system has done (and continues to do) to the structures we inhabit, how we can make a difference, and ultimately, how we can heal together.

The hypocrisy here is stunning. As we will see, a “narrative” these women do not respect is opposition to abortion. As for “those which have been strategically marginalized by oppressive institutions,” it has been those who oppose abortion that have been marginalized by powerful institutions such as government, the mass media, the educational system, and organizations like Empowerment.

It goes on:

The “Memorial of the Unborn” is a display which directly undermines this healing by further stigmatizing abortion. Rather than fostering discussion and understanding, the display is damaging to the mental health of students and a disturbing act of public shaming.

So “healing” means coming to accept that abortion is OK. In other words, for Empowerment, “healing” means that people who disagree with them need to shut up.

The rhetoric about “shaming” is equally hypocritical. The leftists will happily shame people for any expression they think is racist, shame males for being part of a “rape culture” (regardless of whether a particular male would even think of raping any woman) and shame whites for their “white privilege.”

But don’t dare shame women who might have an abortion.

And of course, facing different opinions about abortion damages women’s “mental health!” Obviously, college needs to protect students from different opinions, in order to protect their mental health.

But it then gets downright bizarre:

In the past, students at Marquette have complained to university administration regarding the harmful nature of the display, which, until this year, employed crosses to emulate a “fetus graveyard.” The shift to pink and blue-gendered flags offers no recompense to those interested in human rights and, rather, demonstrates the harmful and misguided conflation of sex and gender and promotion of the gender binary.

That’s right. Marquette For Life is not on board with the transgender agenda! But then, neither is the Catholic Church. Heaven help us if students at a Catholic university should agree with the Church on gender theory.

Complaining About Speech

But note the “complained to the university” statement. Students at Marquette have complained that a student group is allowed to promote a political position with which they disagree.

But it goes further:

This year, several students submitted official complaints through university avenues. Student activists also demonstrated briefly in front of the display on Thursday, mounting their own signs on top of Marquette for Life’s. To these activists and all those dissenters of policies and institutional stances that privilege oppressive narratives over your very existence, Empowerment says:

Your pain and anger is valid. We are here for you. We support you.

Do not listen when people tell you to be more tolerant of other’s intolerance.

Thus they are condoning the vandalism, by supporting the covering over of the anti-abortion message of Marquette for Life. It seems “defacement of property” is something they really don’t mind.

The notion that one should be “intolerant of intolerance” is a staple on the politically correct left. Of course, the entire formulation is oxymoronic, since the people who say it are themselves admittedly intolerant, and thus have no right to expect tolerance from others.

Just as bad is their notion that they are the only ones authorized to decide who is “intolerant,” and shut up those they believe to be so.

Likewise, the notion that one’s “existence” is threatened if somebody disapproves of your opinions or actions is also part of the repertoire of politically correct leftists. Do they actually think they will disappear in a cloud of smoke if they hear opinions they disagree with?

Gross Intolerance

Submitting “official complains through university avenues” means, quite simply, they were asking Marquette to shut up the pro-life demonstration. Empowerment, in fact, is every bit as intolerant as the students who vandalized the display (or perhaps, some of their members were the people who vandalized the display).

A substantial number of students (and faculty) at this “Catholic university” are not only hostile to the Catholic position on abortion, they are actively trying to shut up its expression.