If you find pictures of aborted fetuses disgusting or offensive, you would feel fortunate to have avoided the free-speech area recently. But the students who did end up viewing the displays were informed by several pro-life groups about the consequences of abortion.
The free-speech area in front of the Social Sciences building has been known to allow controversial information to be displayed on campus in extreme manners and on October 27 and 28 students were not disappointed. Several pro-life groups, including The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform and The Genocide Awareness Project, conveyed their beliefs to students using graphic images of aborted fetuses. They compared abortion to WWII concentration camps and lynching.
“We are trying to raise awareness on abortion which we believe is a contemporary genocide, that’s why we are comparing it to the Holocaust, American slavery, Rwandan genocide and Darfur.” said Mark Harrington, the executive director of the Ohio branch of the Center For Bio-Ethical Reform. “It fits the definition [of genocide], which is the systematic destruction of a racial, political, religious, or ‘other’ groups which the exterminators consider to be undesirable. In this case the ‘other’ group is the unwanted, unborn children.”
Some students were surprisingly considerate of the groups’ rights to believe what they wish and to inform others.
“I’m not really against somebody speaking their mind. It’s their prerogative what they want to say but at the same time I think it’s rude, [my friend] is Jewish and it offends her,” says Jessica Medina, a sophomore and theater major, referring to the photos of the concentration camp prisoners.
Although students were polite with their arguments and no punches were thrown, several students were engaged in heated debates with the pro-life advocates.
“I think it’s a woman’s decision of whether she wants to keep something in her body or not. How can you tell someone that you can’t do something to your own body?” said Mel Sorrentino, a senior in media and cultural studies.
Ultimately, the anti-abortion advocates were firm in their beliefs and some students were there to speak on behalf of the group as well.
“An unborn child is a complete human being. So every time you see a little baby or a little kid or any one of us, we are the unborn. This is us who is being aborted. Every one of us was once an unborn child,” said Peter Fernandez on behalf of FAU Students for Life and the Catholic Newman Club. “If a fetus is a human being, which it is, then you can never justify killing a human being. They deserve the same life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
