This letter was written by London high school student Jake A. Cooke, son of Brian and Nikki Cooke, to university president Paul Davenport. Davenport never responded.

Dear Mr. Davenport,

I am a Grade 10 student at Mother Teresa Catholic Secondary School in London, Ont. This is an open letter and is being sent to Bishop Fabbro, UWO faculty, the chair of the board of governors, Don McDougall, the London Free Press, the president of Campaign Life Coalition, Jim Hughes, and others. I have heard of this honourary degree that you are planning to give Mr. Henry Morgentaler, who killed his own son. I have many friends who could be future students at Western and I, for one, know that not one of them or I will go there if you give Morgentaler this degree.

Almost 16 years ago, I was born, but my parents were young and not married at the time. A lot of people pressured them to have an abortion. They actually thought about it, but in the end, they decided to have me. That was the best decision that my parents have ever made. They gave me a life to live. I am now the oldest of seven.

Some of my friends run at the Western track club and are very strong runners, but would rather give up running there than see this happen. Some of my friends are coming out of Grade 12 ready to go to university and now they will have to go elsewhere, I hope you do realize that you are about to lose a major amount of your income, graduates and good reputation. I have some friends currently studying at Western, who will immediately go elsewhere to a different university, even if it means leaving their family to go and study.

Well, Mr. Davenport, I have heard that, despite more than 12,000 signatures against your decision, you are not willing to change it. This is shameful. Are you sure that you are making the right decision?

I am a big hockey fan and I think what you are doing is like giving an award to Todd Bertuzzi for having the best punch in the NHL. He might have the best punch in the NHL, but he shouldn’t be honoured and rewarded for it. I know that you would probably never give an honourary degree to someone for sucker-punching someone else in the head. It is unrealistic, right? Well, why are you doing this, then: honouring someone who is proud that he has killed more than 100,000 babies?

Many of my friends and I will never go to Western if you do this, so please change your mind because it is never too late.

Sincerely,
Jake A. Cooke (Unaborted)

This letter is from one of the forgotten victims of abortion, the father.

Dear Mr. Davenport,

I am writing to implore you to reverse your decision honouring Dr. Morgentaler. You see I am a father who was forced to endure the abortion of my child. I pleaded with my partner to let my child live. I offered to parent the child by myself. I even would have offered it up for adoption just so that he could survive. All to no avail.

After the abortion, I endured indescribable anguish, anger and I fell into a dark depression. I’m better now, but I don’t think I ever will be right again. It’s been almost three years now, and when I heard that UWO was going to honour an individual that only had brought death to children, I was appalled. All of my pain and anguish welled up to the surface again. You see, Mr. Davenport, the campus at UWO was of a great help to me in my healing process. I would drive by and see a campus bustling with students hungry for learning and for life. I would have loved to have sent my son to your university and watched him become a productive young man. Because of people like Morgentaler, I have been denied the opportunity to see my son graduate from any university.

If it is too late to reverse your decision, can I offer you an alternative? Could you reward my aborted son an honourary degree as well? Since he isn’t here to accept it, I would be proud to accept it on his behalf and every other aborted child denied the opportunity to attend your university.

His name is Jonathan Duncan Hotston. I could and would clear my schedule to attend.