``I did this solely for the sake of the graduates,'' Quindlen said. ``I would have given a memorable speech. I would have talked about the sheer pleasure of living.''
Quindlen, a Philadelphia native and former New York Times columnist who has written two best-selling novels, Object Lessons and One True Thing, said the decision was her own. She said the Rev. Edmund J. Dobbin, president of the Catholic university, had not asked her to withdraw.
She said she was informed about objections to her planned appearance by Dobbin and her uncle, John Quindlen, a former member of Villanova's board of trustees.
``When my uncle told me of the tempest that developed, I immediately said I would call and withdraw,'' Quindlen said.
University officials declined to comment on her decision.
Almost immediately after Quindlen was announced as the commencement speaker on April 23, students and alumni who oppose abortion rights launched a letter-writing and e-mail protest, Margaret Mary Filoromo, an alumna from Downingtown active in antiabortion work, said yesterday.
Filoromo, cofounder of Villanovans for Life while a university student in the 1970s, said: ``You have to uphold the basic teachings of life and go against the culture of death, as the Pope has said. Anybody who would be against that, you can't have as a speaker.''
Well-known antiabortion activist Michael McMonagle of the Pro-Life Union of Southeastern Pennsylvania said he had begun organizing students and others to protest at the commencement ceremony.
He said plans were being made to ask each graduating senior to carry a rose - a symbol of the antiabortion movement - then walk out at the start of Quindlen's address.
About 1,800 seniors and graduate students are scheduled to receive degrees.
