Pro-life group brings graphic images to Hornbake

A pro-life advocacy group using large banners depicting bloody, aborted fetuses incited student debate on Hornbake Mall under University Police supervision yesterday in a demonstration that will continue today.

Members of the university chapter of Students for Life, along with representatives from the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, set up a large ring of posters depicting fetuses and dead bodies of Holocaust and black lynching victims.

Demonstrators linked abortion with those atrocities. Mark Harrington, one of the center's directors, said abortion was "contemporary genocide." The demonstration disgusted many students and provoked others into debate with the activists.

"It's horribly offensive," said Molly Girona, a junior art and education major. "I don't want to have to look at that on my way to class. I don't think it should be pushed on me."

"I don't think they should prove a point like this," said freshman biology major Hosein Kafimosavi.

"I think if this is the reality, there's no sense in softening the blows," said junior criminology major Walt Quick.

A small police force kept watch over the two groups, their posters and students walking past to ensure safety. The first day, however, went without incident, said police spokeswoman Maj. Cathy Atwell.

The group reserved the mall for the demonstration, and after police evaluated the event, they determined a small force was needed to keep watch, Atwell said.

"There is some history of conflict; based on that history we want to be sure that the group has a safe environment and equally provide a safe environment for people on the opposite side of the argument," Atwell said.

Students for Life members stood by their decision to invite representatives from the center to the campus.

"This is college; a lot of people are stuck with the situation of being pregnant. There are better options than abortion," said member Katie Amenabar, a sophomore neurobiology and physiology major.

"Just like people setting up Israeli-Palestinian stuff, it's getting out one side of the argument," said Anthony Battista, a Students for Life member and senior philosophy and pre-med major.

A few students formed a counter-demonstration, including senior government and politics major Jenny Rosloff, who upon seeing the protest, made a sign reading, "Decisions should not be based on propaganda."

"This just enraged me so much that they're comparing a woman's right to choose to the Holocaust and lynching," Rosloff said.

CBR, which has visited about 50 college campuses nationwide, uses shocking images in its demonstrations, Harrington said, because historically the shock value has been a good way to reach the masses and force social reform. He cited anti-Vietnam War literature in the late '60s as an example.

"We know it works based on those cases," he said. "You can't discuss it only rhetorically, you have to use pictures."

"The way people are able to talk and think about [abortion] with these pictures in their minds is different," Armstrong said.

I checked out the Diamondback's main page and I read these articles in their editorial section. They want to talk about propaganda? Read these articles:

Look beyond abortion pictures

For those of you who traveled by Hornbake Mall yesterday, you were greeted by a series of rather grotesque pictures. This display was presented by those who wish to see women's choice eliminated. They turn to graphic pictures because their argument has no substance.

First, for anyone who may have been revolted or disgusted by these images, I implore you not to give sway to these pictures. Instead, I ask you to go home, turn on the Discovery Health Channel and watch any of the numerous surgeries they depict. Even when censored for television, these operations invoke the exact same feelings of nausea. It would be absurd to call a heart surgery wrong merely because we are squeamish at the sight of blood. Similarly, abortion cannot be wrong merely because it requires an unappealing operation.

Yet the propagators would argue abortions are murder while heart surgery is not. On what basis do they make this distinction? If we are to feel moral abhorrence at one image and not the other, this must be based on a presupposition of one being wrong and another being fine. The propagators have submitted themselves to a vicious and irrational circle. They may say an embryo is a person whereas a heart is not. Again, on what basis do they make this claim? Both have human DNA, are living and are distinctly human. The heart cannot be confused for one of a dog or cow. They may interject that an embryo has distinct DNA, different than anyone elses'. However, this is true for cancer, which can occur because the genetic material mutates. And while it is true we all start as embryos and not as hearts, it is equally true we all start as sperm and egg.

It is not by being of human flesh that makes us people but our role thinking and feeling beings capable of self-realization. It is greatly doubtful whether fetuses have this ability. Do not insult yourself by limiting your being to mere codes of nucleic acids.

Those on Hornbake Mall have no rational basis to declare abortion murder beyond their own religious beliefs. They have no reason to believe such actions are wrong beyond their own religious tenets, and thus they would imprison you for failing to follow their beliefs.

Furthermore, they may ask that we err on the side of caution if we are unsure. It is not better to refrain if we do not know if an embryo is a person? But we must realize, erring on the side of caution means imprisoning or executing your mother, sister, girlfriend or daughter merely because she wished to control their own body. It asks us to assume one is guilty of a crime, unless they can prove they have not done it. That is unjust.

Lastly, we must remember that this debate is not merely over late- term abortion or abortion in general. It encompasses all family planning, including condoms, birth control, medical care and sex education. The debate begs the question of whether you should have access to all information and a choice to determine your own life.

But do not look with hatred upon those who would imprison you for determining your own sex life. Instead, look with pity upon those who would voluntarily submit themselves to the yoke of tyranny.

Stuart McPhail is the co-president of the university chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. He can be reached at smcphail@wam.umd.edu.

Abortion display appalling; uses lies and disgusting comparisons as propaganda

I was appalled at what I saw on Hornbake Mall yesterday - pictures of aborted fetuses were compared to nickels for size and gross depictions of deformed breasts, with the implication that abortion causes breast cancer.

Why was I so disgusted? Not by the material itself, but by the blatant lying and propaganda techniques the Genocide Awareness Project and Students for Life utilized. First, there have been no conclusive studies to link abortion to breast cancer. Even the doctor quoted in GAP's literature could only say there is "probably" a link.

GAP members' also attempt to compare abortion with other instances of genocide such as the Holocaust and slavery in the United States. Their argument is that just as we find it preposterous for the Nazis to kill Jews or for slave owners to kill their slaves, we should also see it as disgusting for mothers to "kill" their unborn fetuses.

GAP members, however, forgot to mention a few things. Of course they forgot to consider the welfare of the impregnated woman, her health risks, her livelihood, etc. Supposing this in itself is negligible (which is insane, but alas, I continue), GAP members neglected to tell you what abortion procedures were like before Roe v. Wade. They neglected to mention that though "1/5 of all abortions are had by college women," these numbers would be the same with or without the enforcement of Roe v. Wade. The only difference is that women would not be allowed access to legal health care, and women's bodies would be subjected to the whims of government.

If GAP wants to talk about slavery, let's talk about the enslavement of American women's bodies that would inevitably come with the reversal of Roe v. Wade.

Allison Jai O'Dell
Senior
Classics and History

“America Will Not Reject Abortion Until America Sees Abortion” Fr. Frank Pavone, National Director, Priests for Life.

I firmly believe that Fr. Frank is correct.

Please watch the video available on-line called Hard Truth at Abortion Videos . It is perhaps the most powerful film ever produced on abortion. Actual footage of living, in-utero children and their aborted peers tell the hard truth about abortion in ways "just words" never will. Hard Truth packs such unprecedented power that viewers can scarcely watch without being profoundly affected. In total, the film is only nine minutes long, and except for the introduction, there is no narration.

Then go to http://www.priestsforlife.org/resources/abortionimages/index.htm , and see the horrible reality of abortion via color photographs.

I also highly recommend reading Abortion: the Silent Holocaust. It was written by Fr. John Powell, S.J. (Click on “abortion: books” then scroll.) I believe it is one of the most important books on the subject ever written. This book has overwhelming importance for readers from high-school age onward, as well as adult study. The author speaks directly to the reader as few writers can. He takes you along his personal journeys from his studies in Germany and tour of the death camp in Dachau, through his work in the pro-life movement.

Comprehensive education of adults, and more importantly school students, is
THE MISSING KEY OF THE PRO-LIFE MOVEMENT

Ignorance is the greatest weapon of the pro-abortion side.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.