Congressional Candidate Beth Farnham Visits College Democrats
Congressional candidate Beth Farnham visited College Democrats during their meeting in Glatfelter Hall. (Brandon Fey/The Gettysburgian)
By Brandon Fey, News Editor
Gettysburg College Democrats hosted Beth Farnham, the Democratic nominee for Congress in Pennsylvania’s thirteenth House district, on Wednesday, Oct. 30 for a discussion on local politics and abortion.
Farnham prefaced her talk by acknowledging the difficulty she faces as a Democratic candidate in a historically conservative district. Despite this, she remains determined to hold abortion access and comprehensive reproductive health education as the cornerstones of their campaign.
She emphasized her belief in the importance of creating safe and legal access to abortion, birth control, and resources related to family planning.
“Only when we can create the families we choose, that we can be truly free, ” she stated, arguing that these decisions should be private and not legislated by others.
Sharing a personal experience of her mother’s miscarriage, the candidate stated that doctors face risks in states where abortion is banned, reasoning that they could be prevented from performing life-saving procedures due to restrictive laws. It is because of this that she emphasized a need for federal laws securing the legality of abortion to be backed by the U.S. Constitution, including the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment.
Farnham expressed her support for diverse family structures extending beyond traditional marriage, as she advocated for rights for those who choose to pursue partnerships, adoption or house pets as alternatives.
Farnham shared a story about shaming and societal pressures that she attributed to her mother’s early marriage, as well as the impact that subsequent divorces had on her family. She said that it was because of inadequate preventive education that her mother contracted neurosyphilis from which she died.
This experience has led Farhman to become a vocal advocate for comprehensive and inclusive reproductive education. She condemned what she described as unvetted and harmful programs pushed by religiously-founded crisis pregnancy centers, stating that her attempts to replace them with evidence-based school curricula have been met with both challenges from the political dynamics of her district. She believes that despite the difficulty, the potential for change is worth every effort.
The conversion then shifted to prior political experience in addition to her campaign strategies.
Farnham shared her experience of running for the school board against an opponent who faced difficulties due to a lack of understanding of the petition process in Pennsylvania. She said that he had cross-filed as both a Republican and Democratic candidate, but failed to properly gather the required signatures, leading to the removal of his Democratic petition by the local Democratic committee.
Farnham, on the other hand, was able to leverage the cross-filing process to her advantage, running as both a Republican and Democratic candidate. She stated that this allowed her to reach a broader voter base, highlighting the importance of understanding local election laws and regulations.
The discussion also touched on strategies for engaging with undecided voters at the polls, and political debate over controversial issues like abortion about which Farnham told the students to be mindful of “gish galloping,” in which topics can be deflected to irrelevant subjects.
She emphasized the importance of discussing abortion as a matter of ”agency” rather than solely a healthcare issue while presenting complex reasons as to why a woman may seek an abortion, including health conditions, abusive relationships and financial constraints. She also challenged the religious argument that life begins at conception.
Farnham concluded the discussion by encouraging the students in attendance to engage with the political process and apply the lessons learned to their own civic engagement efforts.
