If everyone sees things differently, then who sees them as they really are? A question I have always pondered. However, according to Norma McCorvey, there is only one “right” way to see the world, and that is through the eyes of Jesus.

On Sunday, March 11, I sat in a packed I.V. Theater to listen to the former “Jane Roe,” a woman who was instrumental in the legalization of abortion, stand behind a podium and declare that she’s “100 percent, no exception, pro-life” because she has found Jesus. How convenient! Please do not misconstrue my sarcasm. I applaud people who genuinely believe in someone or something. It is hard to give all of yourself, your heart, soul and mind to something, and then have the courage to stand up and say, “I believe in this!” I, unlike Ms. McCorvey, am not a Christian, but I do believe in something. I believe in a person’s right to make choices and subsequently live with the consequences.

On Sunday night, I was part of a minority in I.V. Theater that believed in a woman’s right to choose. And why? Because quite simply, who am I to tell another woman otherwise? And who is Norma McCorvey? She’s a woman who conveniently forgot what it meant to be young, poor and pregnant. She’s a woman who conveniently forgot what it meant to feel scared. Scared by the thought that you yourself are just a child, or that you can’t support yourself, let alone another person, or that you are HIV-positive and can’t bear passing a terminal illness onto your child, or that you were raped and can’t imagine raising a child conceived in hate. How convenient it is for someone to stand up and declare pro-choice is wrong because the Bible says it is!

As I said before, I am neither Christian nor Catholic, but I know many who are. And I know that if I asked 100 different people what the Bible says about a particular topic, I’d get close to 100 different interpretative answers. Yet, Norma McCorvey and the pro-life supporters accepted no alternative interpretations of the topic of abortion. I watched as Norma McCorvey stated “right” and “wrong” as if the world were simply black and white. I watched as she said that a Christian who accepts abortion is “not a Christian.” I watched as she said there are no acceptable exceptions for abortion. I watched as she got defensive when an audience member voiced an opinion contrary to her “right” and only one. And I watched as a once brave and positive “Jane Roe” became overshadowed by a very close-minded and self-satisfying Norma McCorvey, and did so in the name of God.

And I wonder what happens next? What happens if Roe v. Wade gets reversed? Will unplanned pregnancies stop occurring? Unfortunately, what will happen is exactly what happened before the courts legalized abortion – illegal abortions will occur. And contrary to Norma McCorvey’s belief that there are “no safe abortions,” the “safe” doors to our present-day abortion clinics will be closed as the very unsafe doors to the back alleys are forced open. Back alley doctors will botch abortions in record numbers and teenage couples will increasingly leave their unwanted babies in trash bags. All of this because Jesus and his pro-life followers have condemned abortion and say that it is wrong. Excuse me for highlighting the hypocrisy.

I don’t claim to be better than anyone else is. And I don’t claim to have all the answers, but I do suggest that in a world as diverse and complicated as the one in which we live, it doesn’t pay to see things as they should be if we are unwilling to see the ways that things are. It is one thing to follow God’s light – it is quite another to be blinded by it.

Kristi Maso is a senior English major.