I don't care if it's a perfect match, because it's a very complicated issue, but a politician's position on certain issues-within-the-issue, such as late-term abortion, etc, can definitely be a dealbreaker for me.

In any case, I think it's unfortunate that they would do something like this. I mean, holding a prayer ceremony is certainly more mature than holding a protest, but my view is that whether you voted for him or not, whether you agree with him or not, the President of the United States deserves your respect. Personally, I am not a huge fan of his, but I would still stand if he entered a room and treat him with respect, because no matter how you think he's doing at it, being the President is not an easy job.

Absolutely. I'm one of a very few pro-life demorcrats and it pained me to not be able to vote for President Obama. He embodied everything I wanted in a politician except for the fact that he supports the Roe v. Wade decision to legalize abortion. Nothing is more important than human life, regardless of religious standpoint (I am agnostic) or political views.

According to the article linked, they only expect 20-50 students out of the 1800 graduating to skip the ceremony and participate in the prayer service, so this is such a small portion of the students. I think what they are doing is perfectly OK. It sounds like they are going to be respectful and non-violent, and I don't see why they should be obligated to listen to Obama if they don't want to.

For me personally, I don't have a strong view on abortion one way or another, other than hoping fewer and fewer women get them. There are other issues that would be a deal breaker for me, but they are way more extreme and most mainstream politicians don't have such views anyway.

i, for one, find it refreshing that he is pro-choice and has taken such a mature approach to the topic

i am shocked that some students will not attend their own graduation let alone won't support such a strong leader based on this issue

because the issue is so comlpex and contentious, i would not judge a politician solely on this issue whatsoever...no one is pro-abortion but choice is important in any and all situations

I like that fact that they are doing something they believe in, without resorting to childishness or violence. I myself am pro-choice and I think it would be a deal breaker for me politician-wise. Only because if there is no choice, what about women that need them? And I know that people say "its ok (ok, maybe not the right choice of words, maybe acceptable) if a woman has an abortion in cases of rape/incest/health dangers, but then how many women who want/need one will claim rape so it can be done?
I am pro-choice, but don't think I could do it myself ever. That doesn't mean that I would want to take away someone else's right to it (and that's how i feel about my politicians).

it's extremely important to me that i vote for someone who feels the same way that i do about abortion. that being said, i still wouldn't skip my graduation if the speaker had a different abortion stance than me.

It's absolutely a deal breaker for me. There's no way that I could vote for a pro-life president given my views on the subject. That said, I wouldn't skip my graduation because of the speaker.

Absolutely! I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I didn't! Human life needs to be defended at all stages from conception until natural death.

I think that it is admirable that some of the students will not be participating in this hypocrisy. I've been following this issue pretty closely, and I do believe that a lot more than 20-30 people won't be attending. It has caused quite a commotion in the Catholic community, hundred of thousands of signature have been presented to Father Jenkins (head of ND) asking him to reconsider, and he's been besieged with emails and letters and phone calls.

We need to stand firm in our beliefs, otherwise why should we have them at all?

I'm not a single-issue voter, so no, a politician's stance on abortion isn't a dealbreaker for me. I take a holistic look at what a person stands for and go from there. There are other social issues besides abortion, though abortion gets the most attention. We have a hard enough time taking care of people whose "personhood" isn't even a question, IMO.

I went to a Catholic university, and apparently in their circles, Notre Dame is considered "Catholic" only in name, because of previous incidents at ND that were "contrary to Catholic beliefs and traditions". I'm not Catholic, so it doesn't matter to me, but those who feel THAT strongly about it are allowed to do as they wish. The "hardcore" Catholics and pro-lifers would be the ones to take this far enough to *boycott* their graduation, which I would think would be very few of the students, considering the last sentence.

I was watching Fox News last night [omg I can't believe I even STOPPED on that channel], and the students they interviewed were talking *more* about the fact that Obama was receiving an honorary degree from ND when his stances don't support their beliefs, particularly about abortion, not necessarily about him being there. There have been people before who have spoken at ND before who weren't pro-life that received honorary degrees [they asked a student about that and she simply said, "that was before my time, so I can't speak to that, but we're starting with this NOW"]. Doing this with Obama seems like an attack against the person himself and not necessarily his beliefs on the issue [where's "hate the sin, love the sinner" when you need it?].

I wouldn't let somebody else's politics keep my from my own graduation, though - NOT EVER. As a recent college graduate, I was just happy to get there. I arrived in the middle of our [boring!] speaker's talk, and I really didn't pay attention. I wanted to WALK.
Hell, I'd want to meet the President and hear them speak. Even if it was Bush or somebody I didn't agree with politically.

*Oh man I TOTALLY didn't mean for that to be so long!

I agree with margokhal about being an overall voter. I am one of those funny people who is pro choice but anti-death penalty. I do however agree with their choice to not participate in the graduation. This is obviously very important to them and they feel like going would be a mistake. I wouldn't do it but I understand.

No, I would not vote for a politician who did not support my view on abortion. I wouldn't vote for anyone based solely on the one issue, though.

I love that most of the people in the protest picture appear to be male.

dm8bri good cath!

catch* rather

I'm pro-choice and I would not vote for someone who wasn't. For me, it's an important issue, not just because of the many issues relating to unwanted pregnancies, but it's a women's rights issue to me. I don't want to go backwards and I sure don't want a bunch of old men controlling my body, scary.

Being a current college student, I can't imagine skipping my college graduation for anything short of catastrophic injury or death.

In regards to the politicians - I honestly don't know how much it affects who I vote for. It's important, to be sure, but at the same time it's definitely not my number one priority in who I vote for.

I'm pro-life personally but pro-choice on a broader scale, which I know sounds a little bizarre. In my own life I know I could never have an abortion, because in my mind and according to my religious beliefs it is morally wrong to do so. However, I don't feel that my religious beliefs should necessarily be opposed on others, even if I believe abortion is a sin. I know that there are cases in which it's NECESSARY - rape, danger to the mother, etc - and I firmly believe that if you're allowing abortions to women in those cases they need to be allowed to all, because to allow them only to a select few would undermine the sanctity of life far more drastically then to offer them to everyone. How could you assign a value level to the fetus, saying all babies deserve the right to life, and then go "Oh, well, except x-y-and-z. Those aren't *really* people yet, we can let those ones go."? You can't. That's just wrong, plain and simple. If you're going to let some, you have to let all, because once you start picking and choosing who's worthy of life and who isn't it becomes a very slippery slope of evaluating the "right to life" of people and fetuses.

I don't want to see babies aborted. I want to see them live to become children and adults and live their lives. I want a politician who will work to reduce the number of abortions which occurs drastically. Make living conditions and medical conditions better, make education better, make support systems better so women don't NEED to turn to legalized abortion to rid themselves of an unwanted to child. Urge women to consider adoption. Do EVERYTHING you can to prevent an abortion. But in the end, the decision should not be based on me and my religious beliefs, because my womb is empty. I don't have to carry a child for 9 months and give it away, which I can imagine is equally excruciating (although I am a *huge* supporter of adoption). I may believe it is morally wrong and a sin, but just because I do doesn't mean other women shouldn't have the opportunity to make the choice to do it anyway.

*oh lord I'm sorry that's so long!!!

And as long as it was I forgot something (ughhhh, please don't beat me guys)! I just wanted to mention for the record that I am a practicing Catholic, which makes my stance extremely unusual (and might even qualify me for excommunication).

I couldn't vote for a pro-life president because the ability to have an abortion safely is a VERY important issue to me.

But if someone who was pro-life was speaking at my graduation, I wouldn't skip it.

I think is better for a woman to abort that to put her child through: Child abuse, neglect, etc.
In my native country you see so many children living on the streets, sniffing glue so they can deal with hunger, all around the world you see people selling their girls into prostitution, and even in the orphanages kids are sell to those prostitution webs. Here in America they are many girls sell by their own parents to pimps for drugs. Don't you think is better for those parents to abort than to put their kids into through all that? Forcing a woman that does not want to have kids to be a mother is not the best choice, until these issues exist abortion should be legal, when EVERY kid is able to have a stable, secure, and happy child hood then abortion should be reconsider.

Not voting for the guy because of his abortion stance is one thing. Not going to your own graduation over it is another. I mean he won't be making a pro-choice speech I'm sure and it's not like he attacks your beliefs just by existing and being there.

Can't vote for someone who believes i should have no rights over my body. Screw that!

just b/c someone is pro-choice doesn't mean they approve of abortion. it's not that simple. i don't think anyone who is pro-life is thinking "yes! let's kill unborn babies!" they simply believe in the woman's right to choose. no one should be able to tell me what i can or cannot do with my own body. i am pro-choice but that doesn't mean if i become accidentally pregnant i will get abortion...as i think other pro-choicers may also agree with. i think far too many pro-lifers confuse pro-choice with must get an abortion no matter what which is not the case.

its a deal breaker for me...i cannot vote for someone who is pro-life, however if we had a president who was pro life and they came to speak at my school, i would jump at the chance to hear him/her speak. there are some things that are worth experience no matter what your belief system is.

I am pro-choice and could never vote for someone who was pro-life. Having said that, I've also not applied for certain jobs because they're for religious-based groups. Its not that I'm anti-religion, but I am not religious and while I wouldn't go out of my way to purposely offend people who are religious, I don't want to have to constantly watch what I say so I don't accidentally offend them. And a job isn't worth that much tip-toeing to me.

I am pro-life, but having said that I'm a Democrat who proudly voted for Obama. I think that Roe v. Wade is something that won't be overturned nation-wide, states individually would overturn it at their discretion. Anyway, I think that it's admirable that the students are holding a prayer service instead of a protest. It's their belief, and they are entitled to it. For me though, I would be psyched that the President of the USA was speaking at my college and his stance on abortion wouldn't affect me in the slightest.

Well, "in the slightest"... That's assuming that it's not mentioned (why would it be?) and wasn't a big issue at the time, like legalising an abortion related Bill or something. Sorry, just trying tbh!

While I may not vote for someone who was staunchly pro-life (for the obvious fear that they would crusade to reverse RoevWade), I think it's a shame that an academic institution can not see the benefit of having the opportunity to hear the President (Obama, Bush, Clinton, ANYONE) speak. Not because of his political views, but because the more of "both sides" one hears, the more credible their own convictions become. NOT to mention that he is most likely not even going to talk about politics, and will probably deliver a lovely, inspiring speech for the graduated who have worked so hard!

America is great because of our freedom to protest and speak our minds, but I think there is a time and place for everything.

I am pro-choice and do consider it a deal breaker if a politician wont consider letting women have a safe option for abortion. I believe abortions will occur anyway but I want a safe and clean place for women to have them done professionally.

It's not about the "murder of children" for me, it's about giving women a choice to have the procedure done professionally.

I wouldn't boycott a politicians appearance at my University because of differing beliefs. I would take the opportunity to ask questions if possible and gain a new insight to the issue.

A woman's right to choose is one of my priority issues. If a politician is against a woman's right to choose, and shows any signs of working to overturn Roe v. Wade, they will not get my vote, period. If, like a decent person, they view themselves as being Anti-Choice, but would never force that belief on others, then ok.