Notre Dame Protests Over Obama: Arrests Made (VIDEO)

Hundreds of University of Notre Dame students protested President Barack Obama's commencement address Sunday as anti-abortion activists converged on the school's front gates.

At least 27 people were arrested on trespassing charges, said Sgt. Bill Redman of the St. Joseph's County Police Department.

They included Norma McCorvey, the plaintiff identified as "Roe" in the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion. She now opposes abortion.

Signs held by some protesters declared "Shame on Notre Dame" and "Stop Abortion Now."

Bishop John D'Arcy, whose diocese includes Notre Dame, joined the students, calling them "heroes" for expressing their anger over the Roman Catholic school's invitation to Obama, who supports abortion rights and embryonic stem-cell research.

D'Arcy declined to attend the commencement, instead speaking to the students who had gathered on the school's south quadrangle. He also attended a prayer vigil Saturday night.

"It's certainly the place for the bishop to be here. There's no doubt about that," D'Arcy told the crowd Sunday. "All of you here today are heroes, and I'm proud to stand with you."

Outside campus, more than 300 anti-abortion demonstrators gathered at the school's front gate.

But the off-campus crowds also included Sunsara Taylor, a New York City resident and a member of the abortion-rights group Abortion on Demand.

Taylor said she visited Notre Dame because she felt that "there was a voice missing" in the controversy over Obama's visit.

"If women don't have a right to decide if they have a child, women aren't free," she said. "We need to expand abortion access and abortion rights and lift the stigma. Fetuses are not babies and women are not incubators."

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Comments

[mcle3002]

I love how most of these abortion protesters are old. I am sure most of them voted against the school levies in their areas but they are trying to force young women to gestate.

[JustMe133]

Allen Keyes has the nerve to be sending people emails asking for funds to get him and the other protesters out of jail!! Think they would've been prepared before opening their big mouths!!!

[sprtakis69]

That's rich!

[sprtakis69]

So – let me get his straight. Me get it straight * giggle *

The religious right says the government needs to step in and not allow abortion to continue. The government needs to make it illegal again.

On the other hand….

The religious right says the government should not get involved in the sanctity of marriage. The government should not allow 2 loving individuals to marry.

So in essence they’re saying….

Get involved in our personal lives and stop this abortion nonsense.

While saying….

Stay out of our personal lives and don’t become involved in the sanctity of marriage by allowing gays to marry!

[Eric8869]

The Catholic Church is only against abortion because they need more kids to molest.

[sprtakis69]

Ouch!!!

[sprtakis69]

The funny thing is, and I grew up Catholic, Catholics don't believe in pre-marital sex or condoms. Are you telling me none of these college students are having sex, and if they are, they're doing it without protection? If they're all celibate I salute them! But if they're having pre-marital sex (sinner) wouldn't you expect to see a lot more pregnant college students in our universities?
So...
1. Either they're all celibate (yeah right)
2. They're using protection (sinners)
3. Or there are some students who've had abortions (possible)
*** It all seems hypocritical to me either way.
Me? I would NEVER want a woman to have an abortion. I would never advise a woman to have an abortion. I would never perform an abortion. I would never tell a woman what she can or can’t do with her body. It all comes down to her judgment day, and I am not her judge.

Abortion is law we have to live with thanks to Roe Vs Wade. I understand that Roe has changed her view on abortion, now that she’s older and didn’t have to raise the child she aborted. How nice for her, she got America in to this mess and then said, I’m sorry, I made a mistake.

Now the pro-life people take her by their side & say, we forgive you, march with us, we don’t hate you any longer, we hate those people over there, oh & Roe some of us hate gay people too.

[sprtakis69]

BTW, hating gay people is our new religious right mantra. Since we're not getting anywhere with abortion stance and gays are trying to, God forbid, marry!

[CR46]

Don't forget that the catholic church is against male masturbation, the watse of the sperm is as bad as an abortion. Maybe we acn start arresting men for masturbating in their own beds and showers to satisfy the catholics.

[BarackstarObama]

Hundreds of students? That's nonsense, and almost every person arrested was an outsider, let's get the facts straight.

[rays15]

That was EXACTLY my response to this arfticle. The agitators here have been the usual right-wing suspects from the start.

[rumblingspire]

a woman is in a unigue position in relation to the law. always will be.

consider prostitution. in a socialist system shall the prostitute be made to give it away?

[Endersdragon]

Thats another interesting point, how is prostitution not protected by right to privacy, but abortion is. Prostitution can take place entirely in the bedroom, abortion generally can't.

[rumblingspire]

well of course prositution should not be illegal. it is no ones business other than the parties consenting.

can people just attend to thier own souls and quit worrting about others. isn't it enough that one makes sure she does not have an abortion and not push others around.

[700rpm]

His comment wasn't worth a response.

[Endersdragon]

Ummm which comment was his?

[1088]

Don't we have the morning after pill? Most women doesn't know this fact, because of the Bush Admin.

[Endersdragon]

Ummm you will have to explain how the Bush adminstration kept this fact from the public (and how you got it when they did that). Personally I have heard the words "morning after pills" about 5 times in the past year, generally on TV. Go figure.

[rumblingspire]

how can you make abortion murder when a woman has a right to privacy? how can you convict if no one knows a crime was commited? as biotechnology advances woman will know how to abort in private, well most woman. any enforcement will be lopsided with the uneducated having higher rates of prosecution.

i feel that abortion is murder but one that can not be prosecuted. a woman is in a unigue position with relation to the law. Pure and simple.

[Endersdragon]

How does someones right to privacy extend that far? No one can commit assisted suicide... that would certainly fall under the right to privacy. No one can have a third trimester abortion... that would certainly fall under the right to privacy. Doctors are mandatory reporters of child abuse, that certainly goes against the right to privacy. No one can have their doctors give them unneeded perscription drugs, and you sense the picture. Many things that take place or would take place in a doctors office go against the right to privacy, what makes abortion so different?

[700rpm]

Assisted suicide is now legal in at least two states. Stay tuned. More will follow.

[rumblingspire]

the fact that abortion can be performed unassisted in complete privacy, by more ways than one.

i hear the seeds from "queen annes lace" (wild carrots) were used in the old days to keep a woman from becoming pregnant. a pre-emptive strike. Is the consumption of wild carrot seeds murder? Is spilling the seed murder?

[Natec2]

Where were all these, so called, Catholics when GW Bush was invited? Where were they when he executed 131 inmates (more than any governor in the country), remember Catholics are against the death penalty. Where were they when the POPE (John Paul) said this was an immoral and unjust war in Iraq? Hypocrisy, idiocy, cynicism… OH but look, just like the tea parties, all wh I te conservatives… how about ra ci sm hiding behind proclaimed moral righteousness! Remember, just like the rest of us, de mons can also pray!

[damilitantone]

George Bush was white.

[Readbetweentheelevens]

I'm not disagreeing with your sentiments, but I would like to point out that Roman Catholic Dogma does not prohibit the death penalty. You can support the death penalty and be consistent with Roman Catholic Dogma. The Pope's pronouncements on the U.S. Irag invasion are not Dogma. You can still be a member of the Church and support the invasion. The Roman Catholic Church, however, does have a dogmatic position on abortion.

[rumblingspire]

So, the catholics are concerned about dogma, not the sanctity of life.

[Natec2]

Ah yes... Catholics must continue to increase their numbers after all those priests ra ped all those little children and caused a mass exiodus from the church... The "dogma" of Conservative Christians & Catholics have become quite clear... they are against the 2 things (homosexuality & abortion) that does not produce wh ite babies for Evangelical (racist) Christians (they have known, for a long time, of the dwindling white population) and future sexual toys for Catholic Priests... Is that about right? Not insulting you "read" but I know hypocrisy, idiocy, & cynicism when I see it... I am just calling them on it!

[Natec2]

Ah yes... Catholics must continue to increase their numbers after all those priests ra ped all those little children and caused a mass exodus from the church... The "dogma" of Conservative Christians & Catholics have become quite clear... they are against the 2 things (hom osexuality & abortion) that does not produce wh ite babies for Evangelical (ra c ist) Christians (they have known, for a long time, of the dwindling wh ite population) and future sexual toys for Catholic Priests... Is that about right? Not insulting you "read" but I know hypocrisy, idiocy, & cynicism when I see it... I am just calling them on it!

[ny2va11412]

I am an Episcopalian and am not bound by Catholic "dogma", though we are supposed to "believe in the Holy Catholic Church" according to our Creed. That being said, I think it's amazing that Catholics can square capital punshment, divorce (for a price), slavery and pedophilia with God, but not abortion. More importantly, why are they concerned with whether or not abortion is legal or not? Are they not convinced that all good Catholic women would never get one? Maybe they know that more Catholic girls get abortions than anyone else...oh, yeah...they have their personal physicians call it a "D & C", go to confession, say a few Hail Marys and it's ok. But, they want to destroy the rights a poor, underage NON-CATHOLIC woman has to not have an unwanted child they cannot afford. How many "good Catholics" arelining up to adopt unwanted Black babies? None.

[Endersdragon]

Where is Obama as Illinois sentenced 103 (slightly less) kids to life in prison. Something tells me that goes against caring for our kids...

[Natec2]

How is that Obama's fault...? That is a problem with Illinois D.A. What a ridiculous remark that is very much akin to asking how many abor tions has Obama performed...? The age of these "kids" and what they "did" needs to be factored in for the sentencing.

[jsgaetano]

I know Republicans are super-soft on crime, but this shrill puling whine goes even farther than I would usually expect.

[BigRed100]

Right on Natec2. I hope some of these idiots are at Air Force bases trying to prevent the military from aborting not only children, but men and women, old and young. I cannot stomach these holy roller hypocrites. Not one damn peep as Bush and Co. have been responsible for at least one million dead (according to the Lancet, British medical journal).

[kimleehan]

My situation was different, 90% of all women, pro-life or pro-choice, who find out that they will give birth to a baby with downs syndrome, spina bifida, anencephaly and turners and klinefelter syndrom will terminate the baby.

[Endersdragon]

Sadly, this is true I can't wait until we add autistics like me to that list... :sighs:. Eugenics in America, the one reason why Clinton didn't want the partial birth abortion ban...

[rsf1017]

Freakshow

[JScott]

from the pic looks like the mother who was in
Throw Momma From The Train.

[DaBluAce]

why are non child bearing age women and men out there protesting!! They couldn't muster up a egg or sperm if they tried but they want to tell young women what to do with their bodies!

[Endersdragon]

So your opinion only matters if your partcipating in the issue... then why do we ever ask Frances opinions on wars :-p.

[SierraL]

if the president were white these protests would not have occurred. I hope all the young brothers ND try to recruit for football took noteof today's events.

[CrittersRTasty]

Yeah, cause nobody was against abortion when we had a white president.