After a series of embarrassing events that had one of our most prominent Catholic universities denying a platform to a pro-life speaker, the University of St. Thomas finally retreated and paid for the appearance out of their own pockets. That wasn’t an entirely altruistic move; UST administrators wanted to have more control over the event, and they wanted to diminish the influence of Young Americas Foundation at the same time. In the end, though, the students at St. Thomas get to hear Ms. Parker and her point of view for choosing life.

I’ll be live-blogging the event in the more traditional, reverse-chronological order style. I’m ensconced in a corner where I can have power and remain unobtrusive. I’m only hoping I can say the same thing about my car. I’ll also take a few pictures of the melee the university apparently expected to come from pro-life supporters. Stay tuned!

8:02 – It’s over — and whatever UST thought would happen when a pro-life speaker visited a Catholic campus, it didn’t happen except for some powerful witnessing. Amazing. She’s quite a speaker.

8:01 – “The mindset of the eugenicists are with us,” in response to a question about the argument that abortion depresses crime rates.

7:50 – “If the Left wins the White House, there will be a lot of dead babies.”

7:48 – Q&A: 46% of black pregnancies end in black abortion — is there an awakening there? “Not when you see their leading presidential candidate.” That gets a whoooooa.

7:47 – Ending with a sustained standing ovation. No demonstrations and no disruptions.

7:45 – Ending on an emotional note. She talks about how her grandchildren will look back on the shame of abortion and ask us what we did to stop it. What will we say?

7:40 – Socialism and redistribution violate two commandments, Parker says. “Somebody has something that someone else wants. That’s covetousness. So we hire a politician to steal it.”

7:37 – Bringing up the impact of abortion on the black communities. “We spend a month talking about black history, but we can’t talk about the 5000 blacks a day being aborted?”

7:36 – Unproductive men are promiscuous men, and promiscuous men are dangerous men.

7:33 – Abortion hurts both men and women. When they start having children later, the happiness carries some guilt.

7:31 – Challenging the feminist you-can-have-everything argument; later in life, these women wind up alone, and wind up more government-dependent than married women.

7:27 – Parker tells a disturbing story about a 15-year-old sent on a LA city bus to get an abortion, and who got a lamineria.

7:23 – Parker castigates Bill Clinton for vetoing the partial-birth abortion ban, calling him the “former President trying to get back into the White House through the back door”.

7:20 – “God is going to answer this question of abortion”; Parker wants the audience to remain optimistic.

7:18 – Parker has a great speaking style, very conversational and engaging. She has the entire audience with her.

7:15 – Interesting point — Parker says we look at what everybody else is doing. That’s why pop culture is so influential and so destructive, especially when so many families are broken. Moral relativism reinforces it. It’s a bizarro conformity, an Eisenhower Era of degradation [that’s my line, not hers].

7:13 – In every area of life, there are laws and discipline. Why do people think that doesn’t apply to sexual activity?

7:11 – There are a lot of young women in this audience, and Parker is talking directly at them. You could hear a pin drop.

7:09 – She criticizes the 60s and its mores. She says that the abandonment of consequences was a false argument. Parker talks about her own abortions, drug use, and sexual promiscuity, and how the supposed lack of consequences is a fraud.

7:08 – What makes America so great? Altruism and ambition. We have to remain focused on what’s right, not what we can get away with.

7:07 – Parker says that slavery used to be legal, too — but it didn’t make it right. Parker also notes the proliferation of POBs: Personally Opposed, But ….

7:06 – A very warm welcome. She says, “I didn’t know I had so many friends in Minnesota!” in talking about the blessing of the controversy.

7:03 – It’s full on the main level, and we’re just getting started. So far, everyone’s behaving. The gentleman sitting next to me thinks that UST just stepped on themselves trying to adhere too closely to process.

6:48 – So far, no other media here either. There is a student covering this as a final before her graduation, and we may wind up interviewing each other afterwards.

6:45 – OK, the guard has lost interest in me. The auditorium has begun to fill, and they’re talking about opening the balcony section as a contingency. No provocateurs thus far ….

6:39 pm CT: Well, I tried to speak to Star, but she’s rather busy at the moment. The security guard has taken an interest in me now. This should be …. interesting.