You’d like to think it’s true, wouldn’t you?

It is probably true for most issues. It’s probably true if you want to explain why you are pro-choice on the abortion issue. But in many cases it’s FALSE if you try to explain why you are pro-life on the same issue.

We heard recently from a student (we’ll call her Denise) in the SUNY system who had the experience of trying to do a "scholarly presentation of something she believed in."  That was the assignment.  The following is her story.

As required, Denise turned in the outline of her talk, including most of the references, a week before the class. The presentation was to include a partial viewing of "The Silent Scream," a video made by pro-life Dr. Bernard Nathanson when he was an abortionist. It was probably quite apparent that she was pro-life.

Her presentation experience, however, was very different from that of presenters with other topics. The difference began part way through her presentation when the professor began to interrupt with comments on her content.

The professor questioned the validity of the statistics, saying that they were "dubious." (They were from the NY State Department of Health.) She said that Margaret Sanger's eugenics statements in her own book were taken out of context. (Margaret Sanger is the founder of Planned Parenthood. Her books show the early orientation of Planned Parenthood to be heavily based on Adolf Hitler’s ideas of eugenics. According to Sanger’s books, she wanted to discourage the "inferior races" from breeding.)

The professor said it wasn’t possible that one abortionist said that doing abortions he made three times as much as regular doctors, "ethical" doctors, he called them. (This was a quote from a book, and the word "ethical" was used by the abortionist to describe the other doctors.) She was positive that abortionists weren’t in it for the money and was offended by the student’s use of the word "ethical."

The professor also criticized Denise for not presenting both sides, although, as noted at the top of this page, the assignment did not involve making a balanced presentation, but was supposed to be a scholarly treatment of a belief.

At the end of Denise’s presentation, the professor handed out prepared packets of pro-choice information to each of the students, telling them that this was the correct information.

How would you like to be evaluated by the class after a presentation like that? In addition to grading the presentation, the class was supposed to write comments on it. Most of the comments written by the class were a mirror of what the professor had said, not of what the student had said. The comments included "dubious statistics," "presentation not balanced," and "data taken out of context."

And as if that weren’t sufficient, the professor sent Denise at least eight e-mails afterwards to continue discussing the issue, and then scheduled a whole class session to present a rebuttal of the video the student had shown.

In one of her e-mails, the professor said that she had a duty to intervene because the student had biased views and strong opinions and no data.

Isn’t it strange that the students were capable of doing critical analysis on all the other topics that were presented, but were so incapable of thinking for themselves when faced with a pro-life presentation that the professor had to step in and rescue them?

How strange.

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So what's the point???!!!

There’s probably a moral to this. It’s not "Don’t stand up for what you think is right." The student did something highly commendable, and it’s what we all have to do, each of us in his or her own way, in order for the truth to eventually be known.

The moral is probably  "Be prepared for unfair opposition." (See the tips below.)  It will surely come. However, even out of the unfairness can come some good. The student commented to us that she thought the class sympathized with her for the unfair treatment she got. Who knows? Perhaps that very obvious unfairness helped some of the other class members to listen to our student with a more open mind.

Sometimes out of an apparent curse can come unexpected benefits.

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Note: The name of the student has been changed and we have chosen not to identify the SUNY location or the professor. Our intent is not to castigate a specific professor or institution, but (1) to point out that the playing field is far from level and (2) to leave us all forwarned.

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Comments from another student

This presentation was one of three, planned jointly to handle different aspects of the abortion issue. One was technical and ran into no opposition.  The second was not technical, but also ran into little opposition.  Here are the comments from the second student on what happened during the third presentation:

Denise bore the brunt of the counter presentation prepared by the professor. The very fact that the professor had a counter presentation prepared struck me as odd, because for no other presentation did this take place. Her reasoning was that she felt it her duty to ensure that the class was given all the facts. I found this odd as well because she did not present the other side of the story for any other issue. It seemed to me that if a presentation furthered the feminist agenda then it was exempt from scrutiny. For example we were given many one sided presentations (by guest speakers) on lesbianism, Christianity, Islam, and poverty. At no time were we given the other side of the story on these issues. We were only given the feminist perspective.

In short my impression is that everyone's opinion is equal as long as you agree with the feminists. Tolerance (translated acceptance) is expected of everyone else, while they remain intolerant. I believe the professor should have let our presentation stand on its own and should not have involved herself in it. If our data was from reliable sources (and it was) then it should have been allowed without challenge from her. If a student challenged them then that would have been fair and actually it was encouraged, but to have the instructor take sides was unfair and I believe it had an intimidating effect on the students, silencing those that may have agreed with us.

In conclusion I believe the professor acted unprofessionally in this instance by taking sides on the issue. I say this because she did not act this way for any other issue. If she played the devil's advocate for us, she should have done so for everyone. To remedy this situation I would like to see classes instituted at universities around the nation that do present the other side of these issues. For example why should feminism presume to speak for all women? Concerned Women for America has approximately 500,000 members while the National Organization of Women (NOW) has about 50,000; that's a ten fold difference. Why isn't the larger body of women given access to the university curricula. This problem goes far beyond one instructor's bias.

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Hints for anyone planning a pro-life presentation:

1. Be completely prepared. Have hardcopy of all your statistics and use completely reputable sources.

2. If there are other presentations to be done, make sure yours isn’t the first one. Note how the moderator operates. How are interruptions handled? Is the presenter allowed to request that questions be deferred to the end? When it’s your turn, firmly request the same treatment.

3. Supply handouts, preferably including some of a size that someone can put in his or her pocket to read privately.

4. Use visuals appropriate for the size of your presentation room. Fetal models are effective for a very small gathering, especially if you can pass them around, but are probably ineffective for a large meeting room or auditorium.

5. If you don’t know an answer, say, "I don’t know." You can research the answer for them or refer them to someone else.

6. Don’t get defensive and don’t get mad at anybody. Stay factual.

7. Remember that you will not change anybody’s mind if it’s closed. Concentrate on presenting information that will shed light on the issues for those people who are willing to really listen to you.

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Need data for a pro-life presentation in the Rochester, New York area?  Come in and use our library.  Call to make arrangements.