To the Editor:

Wednesday’s column by Leslie Cozzi ’03 (“A misguided way of fighting abortion,” 3/6) perpetuates many false stereotypes concerning Operation Save America.

Although I have always been staunchly pro-life, I used to be embarrassed when people would place me in the same category as OSA. They’re misogynist, they’re clinic-bombers, and they give the pro-life movement a bad name — or so I thought. A conversation with Jane Roe and a little research changed my mind.

In doing research for a paper last term, I got the opportunity to interview Norma McCorvey, otherwise known as Jane Roe of the infamous Supreme Court case, Roe v. Wade. McCorvey was working at an abortion mill in Dallas when the kindness and charity of Flip Benham and his OSA — then Operation Rescue –staff not only converted her to the pro-life cause, but also converted the six other women working there as well.

When she first told me this, I didn’t understand how that could be possible. How do rash insults and violence convert someone to a movement that, at its core, is about non-violence and respect for humanity?

McCorvey explained that although Benham never shirked from telling her that what she was doing was evil, he was always kind. He never ceased to tell her how much both he and God loved her.

When OSA held protests where she worked, they were never violent or abusive. In fact, it was she and the other abortionists, not OSA, who often hurled insults and acted violently.

Although OSA’s rhetoric may at times be severe, it is certainly not an “incitement to domestic terrorism,” as Cozzi would have us believe.

As even Roe can testify, it is not said out of misogyny, but out of genuine love and a belief that no matter how unpleasant the truth is, it should be told.

Lauren Mutti ’03

March 6, 2002