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]

02:24 PM on 05/19/2009

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]

11:58 AM on 05/18/2009

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]

12:34 PM on 05/18/2009

That's rich!

[sprtakis69]

10:55 AM on 05/18/2009

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]

09:29 AM on 05/18/2009

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

[sprtakis69]

10:56 AM on 05/18/2009

Ouch!!!

[sprtakis69]

08:46 AM on 05/18/2009

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]

09:27 AM on 05/18/2009

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]

12:19 PM on 05/18/2009

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]

06:03 AM on 05/18/2009

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

[rays15]

04:30 PM on 05/18/2009

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

[rumblingspire]

02:07 AM on 05/18/2009

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]

02:13 AM on 05/18/2009

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]

02:22 AM on 05/18/2009

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]

01:56 AM on 05/18/2009

His comment wasn't worth a response.

[Endersdragon]

02:00 AM on 05/18/2009

Ummm which comment was his?

[1088]

01:25 AM on 05/18/2009

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

[Endersdragon]

01:28 AM on 05/18/2009

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]

01:15 AM on 05/18/2009

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]

01:24 AM on 05/18/2009

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]

01:36 AM on 05/18/2009

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

[rumblingspire]

01:43 AM on 05/18/2009

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]

12:09 AM on 05/18/2009

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]

12:18 AM on 05/18/2009

George Bush was white.

[Readbetweentheelevens]

12:30 AM on 05/18/2009

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]

12:56 AM on 05/18/2009

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

[Natec2]

12:59 AM on 05/18/2009

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!

[kimleehan]

11:59 PM on 05/17/2009

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]

12:25 AM on 05/18/2009

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]

11:53 PM on 05/17/2009

Freakshow

[JScott]

01:11 AM on 05/18/2009

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

[DaBluAce]

11:40 PM on 05/17/2009

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]

12:27 AM on 05/18/2009

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

[SierraL]

11:17 PM on 05/17/2009

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]

11:24 PM on 05/17/2009

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