A young Iowa woman is accusing her college sorority of kicking her out after she voiced her pro-life views on Facebook.
MacKenzie Dreeszen, an alumni of Cornell College in Iowa, joined a protest against Planned Parenthood in August after undercover videos showed the abortion business trafficking aborted babies’ body parts, according to Caffeinated Thoughts.
The trouble began when Dreeszen posted a photo of the rally and later a message on Facebook that said, “220 people are here in Des Moines protesting taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood…not exactly something that you can ignore #alllivesmatter #defundPP #ProtestPP.”
Dreeszen said her Facebook friends began debating in the comments sections of her posts, including several members of her sorority, Delta Phi Delta. Dreeszen, who now works for the Polk County, Iowa Republican Party, said she liked a few of the comments but otherwise did not participate in the conversations.
“The next day, a Delphi alum who graduated a year before I did started sending me nasty messages that were personally attacking me, my friends, and John (Dreeszen’s fiancée), calling him a murderer because he served in Iraq and Afghanistan … I tried to defend myself and John, but realized that the situation was too emotionally charged and I blocked my friend,” Dreeszen told the news site.
The trouble didn’t end there. Six weeks later, Dreeszen was caught off guard when the Cornell College chapter of Delta Phi Delta sent her an email announcing that the sorority’s judicial board voted to revoke her alum status, according to the report. The board accused her of violating an article of the sorority’s constitution, which states, “Members should respect each other and the group.”
“You were given a trial and the Judicial Board decided that the best course of action based on offenses was revocation of Alum status,” the letter states. “With this punishment you will no longer be allowed to attend Delphi events and the removal of the word ‘alum’ on your family line will be active immediately.”
Please support LifeNews and our pro-life news with a year-end donation!
Dreeszen appealed the decision, according to the report. She said the sorority violated its own constitution when it failed to inform her of any facts or circumstances of the complaint. She said she also was denied the right to defend herself before the board made a decision.
Dreeszen wrote to the sorority board:
Again, I don’t even know what circumstances you are referring to with this contact. If it is a misunderstanding that we can just drop then that would be something we should do as sisters. It seems like some emotional decisions were made but the conclusions at this point do not matter because they were not conducted in accordance with the constitution. Please send me more information and let me know if you think this is just a misunderstanding or if you are deciding instead to accept my formal complaint to the members of the judicial board that conducted the unconstitutional proceedings.
In response, the board sent Dreeszen a second email claiming that she was kicked out because she “liked” comments that attacked sorority sisters on social media, showed disrespect for sorority sisters both on and off social media and ignored sorority sisters’ concerns about racist remarks. The so-called racist remark involved Dreeszen using the hashtag #AllLivesMatter in her pro-life posts, according to the report.
The board refused to change its decision and told Dreeszen, “You were not put on trial for your beliefs, but rather the disrespect you showed to sisters with differing beliefs and opinions than your own.”
Dreeszen, however, believes that her conservative, pro-life stance is the reason for the sorority’s unfair treatment of her. She sent a letter to the Greek Council at the college, asking for help in the matter.
“For over a year, I have been working as a professional Conservative activist, and this has sparked some controversy between me and my friends,” Dreeszen said in a letter to the college. “In other words, this is a simple case of discrimination for voicing opinions in opposition to these individuals.”
“It is my belief that the crime for which I am being convicted without a hearing is the crime of being a Conservative. … I fear for those who come after me if freedom of speech is so easily squelched,” Dreeszen said.
