Readers should brace themselves for a triple shock: the University of Kansas has a pro-life group; its members are bold enough to host an event titled, “The Lies Women Tell;” and the Daily Kansan is fair enough, at least for the moment, to give the event decent coverage.
The group in question is called “Jayhawks for Life.” The event features Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America, and it will take place Thursday, Nov. 16, from 7 to 9 p.m. in room 201 of the St. Lawrence Catholic Center. The mission of Hawkins’s group is an unflinching one: to “abolish abortion in our lifetime.”
“Even having these discussions are extremely controversial and people get heated. And it’s hard to even have these discussions because a lot of them are personal, but these are discussions that need to be had in our nation,” Hawkins told the Kansan’s Emily Beckman.
The title of Hawkins’s tour is “Lies Feminists Tell.” Maya Hubbs, president of Jayhawks for Life, described the title of the tour as “out there” and freshman activist Marin Brown described it as “very hard.” Each considers herself a pro-life feminist, but both agree that “Lies Feminists Tell” gets attention.
Hawkins, however, has moved beyond feminism. “Because mainstream feminism has been so corrupted, many people just don’t even want to use that label. So today I probably wouldn’t call myself that,” she said, “and I think that’s sad.” Hawkins prefers “pro-woman.”
“I actually think we have a long way to go in the pro-life movement of making sure when people hear that word they understand that means we are pro-mother and pro-child, pro-woman and pro-life,” she said.
Beckman identified a male student, Ian Ballinger, a junior from Topeka, who plans to attend the discussion although not affiliated with either group. “I honestly think that the entire point of institutes of higher education is to foster an environment for different viewpoints [and] diverse viewpoints,” he told Beckman.
The irony, as Ballinger understood, is that his take on the university’s mission is today a borderline hate crime.