In the liberal climate of Massachusetts and the overwhelming majority of Democrats on college campuses, opinions that stray from the Democratic Party line have limited room to breathe.
But on the University of Massachusetts campus, a group of students, driven by the desire to launch a different point of view into the mainstream, has emerged.
The organization is UMass Students for Life.
The cause lives up to the namesake. UMass Students for Life is a student-run organization that started in the 2006 fall semester with a pro-life platform and the intention of providing another avenue for pregnant women on the UMass campus besides abortion.
President Nicole Desrochers and co-founding member Caitlin Petrizzi, along with 25 student members, believe that dialogue on abortion is a one-way street right now, and they are aiming to start a conversation from the pro-life side of the debate.
“I’ve been involved in pro-life groups in the past, and I saw a lack of it on the UMass campus,” Desrochers said. “[UMass Students for Life] is a place for women to go to get the whole story and to really get support if they want to keep their babies and go to school. That was really the motivation: to help on the campus.”
Desrochers, along with Petrizzi and several other current members, started UMass Students for Life over a year ago and have made strides to make their group the ideal haven for pregnant college women.
Recently, Desrochers invited Dr. John Diggs, a pro-life Medical Doctor in South Hadley, to speak about abortion and the “difference between objective fact and opinion,” according to Desrochers and Petrizzi.
Diggs’ seminar was the “first big thing” for the new organization, Petrizzi said. UMass Students for Life is also planning several fundraising events for this spring and has something on the horizon for the fall semester.
But the group is relatively new and is trying to accomplish the difficult task of spreading the word that they’re here.
“We want to act as an outreach group to send people to different services that we know of,” Desrochers said. “If a woman on campus knew about our group and tried to get in touch with us – which is the ultimate goal, we want to be able to be accessible – she would contact us and we would help her get to the services that she needs and deserves.”
Desrochers has had close friends go through the abortion process and that experience served as the impetus for her involvement in the pro-life cause. It is an issue that provokes powerful emotions on both ends of the spectrum, and Desrochers and Petrizzi were both aware of the potential for chaos when dealing with a sensitive issue.
So they implemented a policy of cool, calm and collected. They have formed an apolitical group with no religious affiliation or divisive partisan politics in order to create a dialogue with people who subscribe to pro-choice policy – or those who haven’t made up their minds.
Desrochers believes this was the best way to take a strong stance on a delicate issue.
“Obviously it’s an issue that’s very polarizing and emotionally charged, and rightfully so,” she said. “I tell people not to get animated or to lose our cool, especially as a new group and especially with the kind of message that we’re trying to portray. We’re trying to be very inviting and advocate for life, so we’re trying to be cool and compassionate. That’s the point of it.”
UMass Students for Life has worked closely with the organization Birthright International, which has a branch in Amherst. Birthright International offers free pregnancy testing, confidential assistance, non-judgmental and caring advice, maternity and baby clothes, housing and social agency referrals and adoption information among other things, according to its Web site, www.birthright.org.
The organization comes highly recommended from Desrochers, and allows UMass Students for Life to be more aggressive with their promises, knowing that it has an established organization for women in need right around the corner.
“[Birthright International] will bend over backwards to make sure that you and your baby are safe, healthy and happy and have all the resources that you want,” Desrochers said.
Petrizzi’s grandmother was involved with Birthright International for eight years and provided shelter for a woman in need during her time as an employee, and Petrizzi believes that adoption is a valid choice for a new mother too overwhelmed to take care of a newborn child.
Desrochers and Petrizzi think that Birthright International is the key to providing care for newborns and opens up another option for women who aren’t able to take care of a child after it’s born.
UMass Students for Life is aspiring to be something along the lines of Birthright International, except concentrated specifically on the UMass campus and, of course, on a much smaller scale. Desrochers and Petrizzi want UMass Students for Life to provide “any need that a woman could possibly want.”
While no women have come to UMass Students for Life for help yet, Desrochers, Petrizzi and the rest of the members will continue to provide something that they believe was missing from the UMass campus.
“I think this is something basic and to want to have your child once you become pregnant is something natural,” Petrizzi said. “That shouldn’t be jeopardized or twisted around to make it seem like it’s nothing. And the problem with UMass, being such a liberal campus, it makes it seem like abortion is a women’s choice, it’s women’s health, it’s a decision that’s personal and it makes it like it’s not a big deal.”
“I think it’s a misconception that any woman who would want to have an abortion on campus wouldn’t be able to do school, wouldn’t be able to do this, that and the other thing,” Desrochers said. “But it is possible. And the point of this group is to make it possible for her and to help her achieve everything she wants to achieve.”
Rob Greenfield can be reached at [email protected].
