Juxtaposing detailed photographs of aborted fetuses with images of victims of lynchings, the holocaust and other atrocities, the photo display organized by an anti-abortion group had the University of Southern Maine’s Portland campus buzzing with emotion Wednesday and Thursday.
Organized by the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, the Genocide Awareness Project is a traveling display that sets up a series of large signs used to incite reactions from onlookers on college campuses around the country.
Meanwhile, students opposed to the group’s presence on campus organized the “Carnival of Coincidence” next to the Woodbury Campus Center, down the hill from the display’s location, on the other side of Luther Bonney Hall. The carnival featured face paintings, snacks and a bouncy castle meant to draw students away from the photo display.
“We want to give people something else to do,” said Timothy Zabihaylo, a senior history major and an organizer of the carnival. “They want us to get riled up, break the law, so they can sue the college. But we’re not going to rise to their bait.”
Detractors of the campaign like Zabihaylo said the images are meant for little more than shock value and have no place in the perennial abortion debate.
But volunteers with the project argued the graphic images are essential to their message.
Frank Diorio, 76, a volunteer from New Jersey, drew parallels between the intended effect of the images of fetuses and the role that shocking images of police brutality at civil rights marches played in sparking outrage about racism in the Jim Crow-era South.
“Every injustice can only be corrected after people see graphic images of those injustices,” said Diorio, who estimated he spends three to four months out of the year traveling to college campuses with the Genocide Awareness Project. Diorio, who is retired, said he has been volunteering with the group for about 12 years.
Many students were unhappy to have the images on campus. Krystal Summers, a junior media studies major, said that as an African-American student from the South, she was offended by the comparison of abortion to lynchings.
“I’m not for or against abortion,” she said. “That’s for a woman to decide what’s right for her. But it’s unnecessary to put the issue up there with other issues that are completely unrelated. That has nothing to do with women.”
Standing next to Summers, Fatima Al-Freihy, a pre-med student, shared in her friend’s distaste.
“This is completely inappropriate,” she said.
As the morning wore on, classes ended and sent students pouring out of Luther Bonney and Payson Smith halls, directly past the display.
One volunteer wearing a cowboy hat and dark sunglasses spoke to passersby from atop a small step-ladder as some walked by averting their gaze, while others stopped to argue with him. The majority of people walking by or talking to the volunteers seemed to disagree with their tactics and message. While most of the arguments remained civil, several passersby muttered curses and one student swore several times directly at a volunteer.
One woman challenged the man on the step ladder, asking if her previous decision to have an abortion made her “a terrible mother.”
When the man appeared to begin to answer in the affirmative, she cut him off.
“No,” she interrupted, her voice cracking with emotion.
Not everyone walking by was opposed to the group. Sophomore political science major Conan Marchi, who self-identified as pro-life, said he agreed with the message, but not its presentation.
“They have the right to do it, but they won’t win their argument,” said Marchi. “I don’t think it’s gonna change people’s hearts.”
There were no significant incidents Wednesday or Thursday involving the display, according to USM police officer Jeffrey Soper. Soper said the public safety dispatcher received a call about people raising their voices to each other around noon, but things had calmed down by the time he arrived. Soper and other officers could be seen throughout the day keeping an eye from afar.
The controversy wasn’t limited to campus. On both days the group parked their truck, which features a large image of an aborted fetus on either side and which they use to haul their equipment,on the Deering Ave. bridge over Interstate 295, and less than 500 yards from King Middle School.
King Middle School Principle Mike McCarthy said some parents called and were upset about their children’s exposure to the images, but there was little school officials could do other than make sure no group members spoke to children.
“We may not like what people do but we respect their right to do it, so it’s kind of a conundrum,” McCarthey said.
When asked about the incident, the group’s Northeast Coordinator Leslie Sneddon, 52 of Richmond said she could understand why parents were upset and the truck was not intentionally parked by the school, although she said she did not regret having done so both days. Sneddon said the school, which made national news several years ago for providing contraception to students, was a perfect target for the groups message.
“If they’re old enough for contraception and sex, they’re old enough to understand the consequences,” she said. “Now is the time to have that discussion. It’s a teachable moment.”
But McCarthy said the school stands by the decision to provide contraception to students who ask for it. He said the healthcare providers at the school are primary care physicians for many of the students there, and they would have difficulty accessing contraception elsewhere.
“All we did was make it so doctors could be doctors, and we’re very proud of that,” he said.
Check out my widely circulated essay on the relationship between abortion and genocide:
http://teachers.lakesideschool.org/us/english/perez/documents/AbortionIsAFormOfGenocide_000.pdf
I would add to this essay the etymological relationship as hinted at in the English words “progeny”, “ontogeny”, “genesis”, etc. (abortion being progeny-cide) and in the potential genocidal aspects of abortion and population control referred to in the UN Convention on genocide.
“All this being said, it is not our intent to advocate for abortion to be classed as the crime of genocide.”
Then what exactly is going on here?
To show the similarities, and they are not a few.
AND Meredith, your solution to the unwanted children (AFTER THEY ARE ACTUALLY BORN) is?
I’ve heard this argument before, and it falls flat in Rio de Janeiro where Abortion can only be legally performed if the pregnancy puts the life of the woman in danger or if the pregnancy is the result of a rape.
BUT the government routinely shoots homeless teenagers in the old Imperial Capital City, because their presence offends the sensibilities of tourists.
This shooting of homeless children has become known as “The Rio solution” (somewhat like the final solution, don’t you think?) So I could make the case that LACK of abortion services leads to genocide.
I’m not going to bother reposting my question, as it was obviously deleted for a reason. Good looking out, though.
Just kidding–apparently your site works again? My apologies for being snippy with you, Free Press.
One of the group’s volunteers at the Orono campus admitted to having had FOUR abortions herself….FOUR! Now ending up with an unwanted pregnancy once can happen….even twice, I guess. But couldn’t she grab a clue after the first or second time?? FOUR?? And now she is telling other women they have no right to terminate ONCE??? Sorry, but I don’t buy her “filled with regret and warning others” story….she was totally irresponsible and stupid to get pregnant four times when she didn’t want a child.
Oh really? Whoopi Goldberg is a hero to you on the left, and she’s had 7 abortions (and is proud of it!). At least this woman found the truth before it escalated further. I’m sure she IS filled with regret, but Goldberg isn’t – scary! Sounds crazy to me..
Whoopi Goldberg is a hero to “the left”? News to me.
Who is left? Goldberg is not my hero? But then I’m not “left” either….just pro choice.
Exactly right; something like that detracts enormously from her credibility as a responsible human being. I confronted her about it, and she said she used contraception all four times. Somehow I doubt it.
Some folks believe “the rhythm method” is contraception.
The Guttmacher Institute says that 54 percent of women who have abortions had used a contraceptive method (usually the condom or the pill) during the month they became pregnant:
http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.pdf
If you see an article titled,” Anti-abortion” then is has a progressive bias. “Pro-life” or “Pro-fetus” is more neutral.
I disagree; I’m “pro life” for the people actually standing and breathing on their own. Not so much for zygotes the size of a pin-head. You have your definition of “life” and I have mine, that is what makes this country great.
I have seen first hand the results of “limiting” abortions. Charles Manson’s mother wanted an abortion, BUT Indiana (at the time) would not allow this procedure. So when Charlie was five, she used Indiana’s Stubborn child law to have the boy placed in a reform school, where he was raped by staff and inmates alike.
You suppose his life (and Sharon Tate’s) would have been far worse had Indiana granted his mother “choice?”
How about you; Who many children in Charlie’s situation have you fostered/adopted?
I like your outlook. I also believe that you must have “the breath of life” within you. As a Christian who has read the Bible, Adam was not considered a human until God breathed the breath of life into his lungs and the same with Eve. I have also read the passages about pregnancy. This is for women to take care of themselves and not let anyone interfere with their body while pregnant. However, sometimes due to mental health or other health issues it is better for a baby not be born into conditions where he or she would not be wanted or taken care of. It is sometimes better for society to not have the burden of a “sick” child as well.
If you are against abortion, don’t get one, and instead of wasting your time protesting and trying to shock others into agreeing with you I have a few other suggestions that might actually do some good: adopt children, many many unwanted children need homes, especially the older ones that have been severely abused and have behavioral issues, start with them. Then I would suggest that you focus your attention on more public funding and increased access to BIRTH CONTROL, you could also bring birth control education to schools who refuse to offer it, since you don’t mind getting in people’s faces and being invasive, set up programs outside of local school and hand out free birth control, perhaps the giant bill boards could show them how the birth control should be used. Since there are about 1.2 million abortions performed each year, instead perhaps you could set up adoptions for those 1.2 million unwanted babies next year? I guess we could all sit around taking the conservative approach, lets just teach our kids not to have sex, they wont, and the world will be good once again:)
I am a mother of 4, let’s start out with that. I am married to my children’s father and have been for 7 years. Before we were married though, I had a medical pregnancy that was determined to be a blighted ovum. For those of you who don’t know what that is I’ll explain. A blighted ovum is when your body is preforming all of the necessary functions of a pregnancy like producing the hormones, growing a yolk sac, an amniotic sac, all of the extra fluids, everything except one key thing…the baby. I endured 12 weeks of going in for ultra sound after ultra sound. They would see that everything in my body was growing and there was everything to indicate a pregnancy, except there was no baby, no heartbeat, not even an outline of an actual person being in there. I was told I needed a medical procedure called a D&E otherwise known as an abortion. Even on the paperwork it stated it was an abortion. I was told if I don’t have the procedure done I could be sterile and never have children. I am glad the doctors knew how to do the procedure correctly because if they didn’t it could have meant I could be rendered sterile. I was very upset with the loss, even though I know in my heart that there was no baby. HOWEVER, there are anti-abortion activists out there that are looking to change laws to make it illegal to teach doctors to do the D&E or D&C procedure. In my case the procedure was medically necessary. There are millions of cases similar to mine that occur every single day. I have an abortion, even though I did not abort an actual baby, I did have the exact same procedure. It’s important to know that not every abortion is murder. In fact it probably saved my life. Not only that but it made it possible for my 4 other children to be given a chance a life. Just because a woman has an abortion doesn’t mean they are doing it because they are a murderer, you do not know her circumstance, you do not know her medical history, her mental health, the father of the zygote, or any other factor. So many times I hear not only someone spew that they don’t want people to get abortions and they don’t want a big government in the same breath. Quit trying to legislate on what people can and cannot do to their own bodies and you’ll end most of the fighting in Washington DC.