Since its creation last year, the students for life club has received back lash for their views. However, the club opened its doors to pro-choice students juniors Emma Clemenz and Riley Crump to have an educated debate.
“We want to show that we are open-minded people, we’re not just like ‘we’re right and you’re wrong because that’s the way it is,'” debate organizer junior Sarah Maarouf said.
Wednesday Feb. 15, the members of the students for life club met in H223 and listened to the argument presented by their pro-choice friends. Clemenz and Crump spoke on the safety of abortion clinics, the number of illegal abortions compared to legal, the medical ramifications of an abortion, Planned Parenthood and its services and the relevance of brain activity and a fetus’ ability to support itself outside of the womb.
After the girls presented their information, they invited the pro-life club to ask questions. The group went back and forth over topics such as when is a human truly alive and when does it have personhood, reasons for bringing life into the world, safety of the mother and fetus during abortions and many other topics.
The two sides conflicted mainly on when life begins, the pro-lifers agreed that life begins at conception, while Clemenz and Crump argued 28 weeks, when a fetus can support itself outside of the womb.
The debate ended on friendly terms, as the students for life club applauded Crump and Clemenz.
“I think it [the debate] helped me see the other side of why they think the way they do and why I still hold my own beliefs. It helped me understand their opinion but it also helped me form my own,” Maarouf said.
