Bucks County Community College to host bipartisan panel to discuss abortion

The Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Bucks County Community College looks to cut through the boisterous and heated dialogue that has enveloped the abortion and reproductive rights discussion by hosting a bipartisan forum Thursday.

Designed to coincide with Constitution Day — a national holiday honoring Sept. 17, 1787, the day the 39 delegates to the Constitutional Convention signed the United States Constitution — the event will begin at 12:15 in the Student Commons of the Gene & Marlene Epstein Campus at Lower Bucks, 1304 Veterans Highway, Bristol Township.

The event will also be live-streamed at the Zlock Performing Arts Center on the Newtown campus at 275 Swamp Road.

The panel discussion will also stream on Zoom, and interested parties can register here to virtually attend.

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"The forum will address two of most important topics facing Pennsylvanians this year," said host and moderator William Pezza, a member of Bucks County Community College's social and behavioral science department. "We have five panelists and we want to make sure they deliver the messages they want to deliver."

Panels are Committee of Seventy Policy Director Patrick Christmas; Susan B. Anthony List Pennsylvania Deputy Field Director and Bucks County Pro-Life Coalition spokesperson Marlene Downing; Bucks County Community College Associate Professor John Petito; Planned Parenthood Keystone President and CEO Melissa Reed; and David Steil, an eight-term former state representative.

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Pezza said each panelists will be given fair and equal time, and the in-person attendees will be given index cards to submit questions. If there's time and if those questions weren't previously addressed during the panel discussion, then those questions will be presented to the panelists for their consideration.

"We want to inform the public in a bipartisan, neutral atmosphere," Pezza said. "We feel as though this is providing a public service, and encourage the public to participate and hear what the panelists have to say."

This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Abortion the main topic in Thursday's bipartisan panel at BCCC