A Huge Success at an Unlikely Place.(University of California Berkeley hosts Bay Area Celebrate Life Conference)(Brief Article)

Given the liberal, pro-abortion reputation of the student body, the faculty, and the surrounding area, Berkeley, California, would seem like a very unlikely location for a pro-life conference. On first thought, most people would be surprised if a critical mass of people could be found willing to devote time to promoting pro-life causes.

However, pro-lifers everywhere will be heartened to know that the University of California Berkeley (UC Berkeley) has a vibrant and active campus pro-life group. Even better, in April Berkeley was the site of the first Bay Area Celebrate Life Conference organized by pro-life students at UC Berkeley, Stanford University, the University of California San Francisco (UCSF), and the University of San Francisco (USF).

The conference began April 18 with a Thursday evening lecture by Siobhan Nash-Marshall, a philosophy professor at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota. In her lecture Nash-Marshall described how America has gone from being a country that favors community rights to one that favors individual rights, citing several court decisions involving abortion and other issues.

Nash-Marshall then articulated a philosophical case for community rights, and went on to use this notion of community rights to construct a thoughtful, compelling argument against legalized abortion.

The conference continued on Friday afternoon at Sproul Plaza in the center of campus with what was widely considered to be the first pro-life rally held on the campus of UC Berkeley. Serrin Foster, president of Feminists for Life, outlined the feminist case against abortion. Foster talked about how many early feminist leaders, including Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, were pro-life, and then offered practical suggestions for how to make college campuses more accepting of mothers and pregnant women.

Even though a sizeable number of pro-abortion students showed up to protest, the event went off smoothly. "The rally was a tremendous success," said Ryan Haslam, a recent UC Berkeley graduate who helped organize the conference.

On Saturday, April 20, over 60 Bay Area college and high school students were in attendance for the last day of the conference. After the welcome the students attended a series of workshops designed to give them the skills to more effectively promote the pro-life cause.