Secular Pro-Life
  • Home
  • About
    • Meet The Team
    • Mission and Vision
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Stances
      • Abortion
      • Religion
      • Contraception
      • The Rape Exception
    • Terms and Conditions
      • Opt-out preferences
  • Content
    • Index
    • Blog
    • Presentations
      • A Secular Case Against Abortion
      • Building Bridges
      • Deconstructing Three Pro-Choice Myths
      • Overlooked Findings of the Turnaway Study
    • Research
      • Abortion Law and Abortion Rates
      • Abortion Law and Pregnancy Rates
      • Later Abortion
      • Embryonic Hearts
    • Collections
      • For the biology textbook tells me so
      • They can hear you
      • Parents can hear you
      • Our children’s heartbeats
      • Becoming Pro-Life
      • Ask An Atheist
      • LGBTQ and Pro-Life
      • Fixed that meme for you
    • Print Materials
      • 100 Pro-Life Sign Ideas
      • Overview of SPL
      • 3 Reasons to tell people you’re pro-life
      • How to talk (not fight) about abortion
      • Bridges PRC Curriculum
      • FAQ
      • Presentations overview
    • Store
  • Contact
  • Get Involved
    • Why support SPL?
    • Donor Opportunities
    • Volunteer Opportunities
    • Volunteer Survey
    • More Surveys
      • Why do you support SPL?
      • Best and Worst Abortion Arguments
      • “Ask An Atheist” Interview
      • Non-Traditional Pro-Life Survey
      • LGBT Pro-Life Survey
      • Parents experiences with prenatal screening
      • Your experiences with adoption
  • Donate
  • Search
  • Menu Menu

Drexel needs a civics lesson

March 16, 2012/1 Comment/in Uncategorized /by Kelsey Hazzard

Kelsey speaking.  It’s hard to believe that my graduation from the University of Virginia School of Law is just two months away!  In light of this approaching milestone, I decided to revisit an issue from early in my law school career: namely, whether or not the Earle Mack School of Law at Drexel University in Philadelphia still fails to grasp basic concepts of constitutional law.  The answer, sadly, is yes.

Way back in the fall of 2009, when I was a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed first-year law student, I noticed that Drexel Law encouraged students to be abortion center escorts as part of its pro bono (volunteer) program.  The school website noted the possibility that pro-life sidewalk counselors and protesters might “violate the First Amendment.”  There’s just one problem: it is legally impossible for a private party to violate the First Amendment! Even then, I knew (and my past two and a half years of legal education have confirmed) that the Bill of Rights limits actions by state officials.  For example, the First Amendment is violated when police officers arrest pro-lifers who are engaged in peaceful protests.  Sidewalk counselors talking to abortion-minded women?  Not a First Amendment violation by any stretch of the imagination.
Almost three years later, Drexel still hasn’t learned this basic civics lesson (click to enlarge):
Abortion Clinic Escort Sevice–LSRJ Run Project
Students are trained in First Amendment Law and observe protestors
outside of abortion clinics to make sure they do not overstep their bounds.
Students will escort the women to the clinic, keeping track of protesters
action (sic).  Should a protester violate the First Amendment, the student
escort will take a full report of the incident and file his or her notes of the
incident with the Court.  If you are interested in participating in this project,
please contact LSRJ or Karen Pearlman Raab for specific requirements and 
time commitments.
Interestingly, another Drexel pro bono project– the “NLG Legal Observer Program”– has a much better grasp of the First Amendment.  That project encourages students to observe public demonstrations and record “any behavior on the part of law enforcement that appears to restrict demonstrators’ ability to express their political views.”  Just so long as it isn’t a pro-life demonstration, apparently.
But getting back to the “Abortion Clinic Escort Service” project: you may have noticed that it is run by LSRJ.  “LSRJ” is “Law Students for Reproductive Justice,” a pro-abortion advocacy group.  Drexel’s chapter of LSRJ also encourages law students to help children get abortions behind their parents’ backs, through the “Judicial Bypass Intake” project (click to enlarge):
Judicial Bypass Intake–LSRJ Run Project
Some young women decide they cannot tell their parents about their
pregnancy.  A judicial bypass is an order from a judge that allows a minor
to have an abortion without telling or receiving consent from her parent
or legal guardian.  Assist these girls seeking attorney representation at
their judicial bypass hearing by conducting in depth intake review and
filing out the Petitions to File with the Court.  If you are interested in
participating in this project, please contact LSRJ or Karen Pearlman
Raab for specific requirements and time commitments.
“Pro bono” is short for pro bono publico, which in Latin means “for the public good.”  Facilitating the deaths of unborn children, intimidating pro-life sidewalk counselors with bogus legal threats, and misinforming students about constitutional law is a far cry from the public good!  And it gets worse: a 2010 health inspection found that the Philadelphia Planned Parenthood on Locust Street, which is less than 10 minutes away from the law school, failed to give adequate follow-up care to abortion patients.  I wonder: will LSRJ be there for the 15-year-old girl they assisted in getting a secret abortion, when she’s in pain and alone in the Planned Parenthood recovery room? 
I suggest that we exercise our First Amendment rights by sending polite emails to Karen Pearlman Raab, the law school’s Director for Pro Bono and Public Interest Programs, asking her to reform the pro bono program so that it truly advances the public good.  Her email address is karen.a.pearlman@drexel.edu.

Related Posts

Tags: free speech, Planned Parenthood, pro-life protests
Share this entry
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Pinterest
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share on Reddit
  • Share by Mail
https://i0.wp.com/secularprolife.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/drexel_1.jpg?fit=400%2C52&ssl=1 52 400 Kelsey Hazzard https://secularprolife.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/SecularProlife2.png Kelsey Hazzard2012-03-16 16:05:002021-11-08 12:44:07Drexel needs a civics lesson
You might also like
Will there be justice in Kansas?
Explainer: Planned Parenthood Defunding Votes
Midweek News Roundup: 05/18/11
Apparently protecting embryos is more extreme than severing babies’ spines.
Supreme Court: No Free Speech for License Plates
Irony at the March for Life counter-protest
So an atheist walks into Summer of Mercy…
Are CMP’s full footage videos actually the full footage?
1 reply
  1. Andrew Bair
    Andrew Bair says:
    March 16, 2012 at 4:38 pm

    Well said, Kelsey.

    I don't see Drexel Law (or any major universities for that matter) encouraging students to help at pregnancy resource centers or monitor the pro-abortion shenanigans at pro-life events.

    Log in to Reply

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Follow via Email

* indicates required

Categories

  • Ableism
  • Abortion pills
  • Administrative
  • Adoption & Foster Care
  • Biology
  • Bodily Rights
  • Dialogue strategy
  • en español
  • Later Abortion
  • Legislation, laws, & court cases
  • Miscarriage & Pregnancy Loss
  • Personhood
  • Philosophy
  • Pro-Life Demographics
  • Rape Exception
  • Religion
  • Research
  • Speeches, Discussions, Presentations
  • SPL Emails
  • They Can Hear You
  • Top SPL Articles
  • Top SPL Graphics
  • Uncategorized
  • We Asked You Answered
  • Year In Review
  • Your Stories

Archive

It’s crucial that we demonstrate that anyone can–and everyone should–oppose abortion. Thanks to you, we are working to change minds, transform our culture, and protect our prenatal children. Every donation supports our ability to provide nonsectarian, nonpartisan arguments against abortion. Read more details here. Please donate today.

DONATE
SUBSCRIBE
© Copyright 2025 Secular Pro-Life. All rights reserved. Website Design by TandarichGroup

Related Posts

Don’t like abortion? Must-see video
Scroll to top
Manage Consent

To provide the best experience, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent may adversely affect certain features and functions.

Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}
Want to receive our email newsletter?

We’d be happy to keep in touch. Subscribe for access to our newsletter and other updates.