Members of Operation Rescue to Speak at Event

Three speakers from Operation Rescue, a national pro-life organization, will appear at the eighth semi-annual Ivy League Coalition for Life Conference, to be held tomorrow morning in Sever Hall.

Security guards will be provided by both Harvard and the Harvard-Radcliffe Alliance for Life, though organizers say they expect little disruption.

The only group that has pledged to protest the conference is the Spartacus Youth League, a national Marxist organization, and its Harvard affiliate, the Harvard Friends of the Spartacus Youth League.

League representatives canvassed the Science Center yesterday, distributing flyers which read in bold print: "Stop Operation Rescuel Stop anti-abortion terrorists! Defend abortion!"

Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III affirmed that the Spartacus rally "has been approved, and we were informed by the Friends that they planned a non-disruptive demonstration in the Yard."

Although Alliance president Mark J. Barker '95 said the conference is "not a rally at all" and is intended to be peaceful, some questions have been raised about security.

When he spoke to Alliance representatives about the conference last week, Epps said: "I didn't think hiring security would be necessary, but now I think it is....The speakers are controversial."

The alliance volunteered to host the intercollegiate conference this semester in order to provide a forum in which "people who are interested in the issue of abortion can discuss it... and to get people to reconsider their stance on the abortion issue," according to member Craig E. Estes '96.

The alliance hopes to have between 30 and 40 delegates from Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth and other area schools attend the conference to "talk about issues they've already talked about in the past," Estes said.

But the youth league and Friends maintain that the alliance has a different agenda entirely.

Buried in the flyer's text was the claim that tomorrow's conference is "timed to coincide with the trial of Paul Hill," the man who gunned down an abortion doctor and his escort in Florida last July.

"That's nonsense," said Barker, who claims that he planned the conference well before he knew the dates of the trial.

Hill's trial ended Wednesday with a verdict of guilty. Yesterday the jury called for the death penalty.

The flyer also claimed that the conference's speakers are "hiding under a cloak of academic respectability" by choosing to speak at Harvard.

But the conference has more ties to Harvard than just location, Barker said--one of the speakers is a Harvard graduate.

John C. O'Keefe '72, a former Eliot House resident, "is considered by some the founding father of the rescue movement," Barker said.

Harvard would seem a somewhat unlikely location for the event, considering its liberal reputation. But that reputation makes it a good site for the conference, Barker said.

"I think it's good to have an event like this in such a citadel of political correctness," Barker said. "That's what I view Harvard as."

Epps emphasized the College's "strongly held view that groups have a right to invite speakers of their choosing, and that other member of the college are expected to hold to those principals."

The president of the Harvard Friends of the Spartacus Youth League, Eva S. Bartok '97, said "they will honor traditions of free speech at Harvard," Epps said.

But when questioned about the professed peaceful nature of the rally, League spokesperson Thomas Downing said only that "our intention is to build as large a possible a demonstration in order to stop Operation Rescue....They're trying to use a cloak of academia to promote their terrorist views."

So far, no other Harvard groups have planned reactions to the conference

The flyer also claimed that the conference's speakers are "hiding under a cloak of academic respectability" by choosing to speak at Harvard.

But the conference has more ties to Harvard than just location, Barker said--one of the speakers is a Harvard graduate.

John C. O'Keefe '72, a former Eliot House resident, "is considered by some the founding father of the rescue movement," Barker said.

Harvard would seem a somewhat unlikely location for the event, considering its liberal reputation. But that reputation makes it a good site for the conference, Barker said.

"I think it's good to have an event like this in such a citadel of political correctness," Barker said. "That's what I view Harvard as."

Epps emphasized the College's "strongly held view that groups have a right to invite speakers of their choosing, and that other member of the college are expected to hold to those principals."

The president of the Harvard Friends of the Spartacus Youth League, Eva S. Bartok '97, said "they will honor traditions of free speech at Harvard," Epps said.

But when questioned about the professed peaceful nature of the rally, League spokesperson Thomas Downing said only that "our intention is to build as large a possible a demonstration in order to stop Operation Rescue....They're trying to use a cloak of academia to promote their terrorist views."

So far, no other Harvard groups have planned reactions to the conference