It is difficult for UK students to miss the fake pictures of bloody fetuses as they walk to their classes this week. These images did their part: Their purpose was to shock and awe. Many students probably felt sick to their stomachs after viewing them. What the images didn’t do was convince.

Radical pro-life groups flout these images as if they were their Shroud of Turin because they don’t have real arguments to support their agenda. Instead of approaching students with truth and sound arguments, they forcibly shove gruesome images in our faces in an area they know most of us travel through on our way to class.

I don’t mind it when people pass out Bibles to students on campus, and I don’t mind it when someone hands me a flier, even if it’s a letter from God telling me that he hates me. These things are easily avoidable, and my eyes aren’t forced to see them. A friend reminded me that everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion, and I agree, but I am also entitled to say, “No, thank you.” The Genocide Awareness Project has every right to believe and say what it wishes, but it is our duty to recognize when it’s not credible and refuse to support them by declining their propaganda. Their tactics did not allow for a polite “no,” and that is where the problem resides.

I am most ashamed of UK, a university that I’ve grown to love over the past year, for allowing these images to be displayed on our campus. I just hope that UK does not support a radical group such as this, but allowing them to set up their images as they did tells me otherwise. Does UK not support a woman’s right to bodily autonomy? Without our reproductive rights, many of the female students wouldn’t be attending this university right now.

The last thing I can say is this: if you found the images of fake, bloodied fetuses disgusting, just think of how you would feel to see images of real-life women who face abortion in countries where it’s illegal. It’s far more gruesome than what the Genocide Awareness Project can provide.

Lindsay Wheatley

Integrated strategic communication junior

Group should be more sensible with display

I walked outside of my class yesterday to discover enormously-sized grotesque images of aborted fetuses. The display of such unbearably horrific imagery could be undeniably excruciating for some people who have lived through an abortion experience. Ignoring the obviously redundant arguments for and against abortion, let’s think about the human side of this.

Imagine that you were about to have a child that was the product of rape or incest, and you had to make a decision. Now imagine yourself coming to school with those images of aborted fetuses in the middle of the campus, and you have no choice but to look at them as you walk to class. The fact that the abortion issue isn’t being debated in a reasonable fashion that allows both sides to present their cases simply suggests that shock value is the only way this anti-abortion group can reach students. The fact that this group must resort to such imagery lends itself to fanaticism.

The anti-abortion group also had a police officer next to the display. If the situation is so prone to violence and can’t be demonstrated in a sensible manner, perhaps it would be best to pursue it more tastefully.

Justin Cooper

Chemistry junior