Echoing the current call for bipartisanship being made in Washington, D.C., the College Republicans are enlisting the help of a variety of student groups to raise money for the Womenspace clinic for domestic violence.
But the College Democrats and Students For Choice have declined to be part of the fundraiser because Justice For All, a campus group that opposes a woman’s right to choose an abortion, has already decided to participate.
Last year, Justice For All sponsored the controversial Genocide Awareness Project, which used large posters in the EMU Amphitheater to compare abortion to the Holocaust.
Senior English major Scott Austin, who is a member of both College Republicans and Justice For All, said the idea was to bring all four groups together to show the widest support for the clinic, which has been in Eugene for 24 years.
“Here are four groups that are polar opposites of each other,” Austin said. “But here’s a program all four groups can agree on.”
The College Republicans are planning to spend a weekend in February calling Eugene homes, soliciting money and other donations for Womenspace.
But College Democrats co-chairman Jed McGuire said after discussing the offer in its meetings, the group thought it would be a poor environment in which to have groups with such varying political ideologies together.
Students For Choice director Sara Poynter agreed and said her group, which advocates abortion rights, doesn’t want to be affiliated with a group that adamantly opposes them.
“If Justice For All wasn’t involved, we’d be more than happy to be a part of it,” Poynter said.
McGuire also said the College Republicans were anything but bipartisan in their offer. He said the invitation was made specifically to force the College Democrats to work with groups they don’t like or to appear inflexible if they declined.
“We would have worked with them had they not tried to bully us into it,” McGuire said. “I’m a little confused as to what [their] motives are.”
But College Republicans chairman Jason Gathercole said he went to a College Democrats meeting Thursday afternoon to explain that the issue is collecting money, clothing, toys and food for Womenspace, not politics.
“I can’t fathom a reason why they wouldn’t want to,” Gathercole said.
Austin agreed, and said the opposing views on abortion between Justice For All and Students For Choice simply don’t matter.
“None of us care, for this project, what the other group’s political views are,” Austin said.
Gathercole added that Womenspace won’t mind groups with varying political views supporting the clinic either.
“Womenspace doesn’t care who’s involved, they just want the money,” he said.
But Margo Schaefer, community outreach director for Womenspace, said the organization doesn’t blindly accept donations from any group, and she hasn’t heard from the College Republicans yet about the fundraiser.
“It would be polite, and, in this case, practical, of them to contact the organization,” Schaefer said.
She added that she appreciates their efforts, but the staff discusses whether to accept a donation when controversial groups are involved.
Schaefer said Justice For All would be one of those groups.
“Domestic violence does not recognize ideological boundaries [and] we have to reach across some ideological boundaries,” she said. “But we can’t stretch across the board.”
Gathercole said the College Republicans have contacted other campus groups, including Men Against Sexism and the ASUO Executive, and all of them are considering co-sponsoring the fundraiser. The group will also send invitations to all student groups asking whether members want to donate time to make phone calls to solicit donations.
“It’s going to happen nonetheless,” Gathercole said. “I believe there will be wide support.”
But Schaefer said regardless of the support, Womenspace staff may decline to accept the donations, especially if the College Republicans’ motivation is to cause tension between themselves and other groups.
“We’re not interested in being political fodder for somebody,” she said.