By Joy Priest
Big, bold billboards of aborted fetuses next to images of Jewish genocide and the lynching of African-Americans were shown in the grassy area beside White Hall Classroom Building Wednesday for the fourth time on UK’s campus.
The display signs are a part of the Genocide Awareness Project, or GAP, a demonstration being held through Thursday by the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform and the UK Students for Life group.
“In this whole display, there are several important aspects,” Fletcher Armstrong, director of the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, said. “We use pictures because unless people see pictures, they don’t have a sense of how bad it really is.”
Fletcher said that CBR’s operating principle comes from the King family.
“Dr. Martin Luther King said ‘America will not reject racism until America sees racism,’” Armstrong said. “It was the pictures he showed of the dogs attacking protesters and police brutality that led to the end of racism.”
Armstrong recited words of Alveda King, the niece of Martin Luther King Jr., saying, “America will not reject abortion until America sees abortion.”
Armstrong said the comparison to genocide was a topic often asked about.
“It’s important to know that in every case of genocide in this display, legal personhood was redefined by those in power in terms that excluded the intended victims,” Armstrong said.
Some students on campus were disturbed by GAP. Darren Brunkhart, a senior, was loudly protesting the content of the display on Wednesday.
“I just think that is disrespect to the Jewish religion and the Jewish people,” Brunkhart said. “(Abortion) isn’t even close to the Jewish genocide.”
Ronita Adams also disagreed with the display comparing the lynching of African-Americans to abortion.
“I don’t think these are the same things,” Adams said. “Abortion is a personal choice; lynching was an act of hate.”
Members of the campus organization Medical Students for Choice picketed next to the display, between which sometimes led to heated debate among the opposing demonstrators.
“I think this (display) is horribly offensive,” Angela Jarman, a second-year medical student, said. “I’m particularly offended by this sign calling us ‘death camp doctors.’”
Some of the medical students at the demonstrations questioned the amount of time required to deem a fetus a human being.
Deeper Still, a post-abortion healing retreat from Knoxville, Tenn., had two members present to share their abortion stories. Both of them had the procedure done in their teens and expressed regret about their decisions.
“We’re here to share stories that show abortion comes with a price tag,” Debbie Picarello said.
“Both of us have had an abortion,” Sandie Sendall said. “I made my decision based on fear, and statistically I find that other women who have had an abortion regret it by sometimes 10 years later.”
Armstrong said he believes men play a large role in women choosing to get abortions.
“The Elliot Institute says 64 percent of abortions are coerced,” he said. “Clearly it is predatory and irresponsible men doing the coercing. Men don’t force your girlfriends, wives or daughters to do this.”
Armstrong, however, said he felt abortion is not a gender issue but a human rights issue, and as long as human beings are being killed, women and men ought to speak out about it.
The UK chapter of Voices for Planned Parenthood was also on-site to oppose GAP.
“We’re out here in response to them,” Planned Parenthood President Elizabeth Licis said. “We have been waiting for this (display) to come because we feel people are seeing this and they have no support. We’re here as support; to show what we believe and what Planned Parenthood has to offer.”
Licis said she is “pro-choice” because illegalizing abortion could have negative consequences.
“I’m not completely pro-abortion,” Licis said. “When you are pro-choice you are for the choice to be sexually active, the choice to use contraception and the choice to have an abortion if put in that position. One of our biggest concerns is that there were so many (illegal abortions) done in the past, and (women) shouldn’t have to risk their lives.”
Demonstrations from both sides of the issue, anti-abortion and abortion rights, continue Thursday outside White Hall. One week from now, Students for Life will have another display of crosses to represent the number of abortions done on average each day.
Liberal Democrats want to bitch about spending cuts to the children at the same time they support abortion. Is this how you show you care DNC
What I want to know is how these people got permission to be in the middle of campus when hatespeech like this is normally restricted to the “free speech” area?
Forget for a moment the false dichotomy between pro-life and pro-choice. Forget for a moment the content of the arguments here. What offends me most is the utter anti-intellectualism of this display! They make no argument but rather depend on gross-out visual display to win people over. It is pathos at large. It is wholly without intellectual merit.
There are intellectual, logical ways to support or oppose legalized abortion. This is not one of them. That they are given air time at an institution that ostensibly exists to encourage critical thinking is a sad, sad thing.
Why would you want to force people to have children they know they cannot care for, but at the same time cut the support that they receive when they cannot afford to feed the children they have?
Why are we giving these attention deprived individuals more of what fuels their fire? It’s obvious that the facts their fight are founded upon are shaky at best and they are attempting to add stability through shock value. My advice for those who also found GAP’s display and argument problematic: keep calm and carry on. Know that there are others on our campus and country with some sanity still intact and will protect women’s rights to do what they will with THEIR body.
I can’t help but feel sorry for those giving tours to potential students that day… and I am with Kristina in questioning who in the university would approve this.
I know the University is a business, but are we now that blatant about being able to pay off the administration to allow disgusting and anti-intellectual displays like this in the heart of campus? Kentucky as a state has a certain reputation many of us students here are trying to fight, and over and over the UK administration seems to go against us. It’s about to a breaking point: if the University is not an intellectual institution concerned with the progress of Lexington, Kentucky, and the student body… then we all should act accordingly and give our tution monies to universities that are dedicated to their students and the intellectual advancement of humanity.
I know the University is a business, but are we now that blatant about being able to pay off the administration to allow disgusting and anti-intellectual displays like this in the heart of campus? Kentucky as a state has a certain reputation many of us students here are trying to fight, and over and over the UK administration seems to go against us. It’s about to a breaking point: if the University is not an intellectual institution concerned with the progress of Lexington, Kentucky, and the student body… then we all should act accordingly and give our tution monies to universities that are dedicated to their students and the intellectual advancement of humanity.
Deeper Still post abortion healing retreat: http://www.godeeperstill.org
Is there a post abortion syndrome?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEMtwZ6PArs
The comments below contain complaints and assertions about “anti-intellectualism,” but no actual intellectual challenges to the positions presented by the Genocide Awareness Project.
When a university creates “free speech zones” a general implication is that the rest of the campus is not available for free speech, but this is not the case. The FSZ near the student center is open all the time for anyone to exercise his/her right to speak, but in fact all the outdoor areas of the campus are also open to free speech, and at UK and at many other campuses this can be easily arranged with university officials, who rightly must evaluate the proposed activity to ensure that it will not disrupt other university functions. (Note that students were free to picket the Genocide Awareness Project and that Planned Parenthood set up tables nearby.)
The Voices for Planned Parenthood group went through the same channels as GAP to obtain the space for their table. In order to get outdoor space at UK one must apply and either be a student organization or hosted by a student organization. Though you are correct that free speech exists everywhere, UK presents as having strict rules about what goes on outside of the free speech zone. They will tell you that only “information sharing” is allowed in parts of campus other than the free speech zone and only if these areas are reserved.
The Voices for Planned Parenthood group went through the same channels as GAP to obtain the space for their table. In order to get outdoor space at UK one must apply and either be a student organization or hosted by a student organization. Though you are correct that free speech exists everywhere, UK presents as having strict rules about what goes on outside of the free speech zone. They will tell you that only “information sharing” is allowed in parts of campus other than the free speech zone and only if these areas are reserved.
as a side not, if you will read this…
Genocide Awareness Project was brought here by a student led group and was approved by the director of event planning and space reservations.