Abortion protest to return to The Green

One year after their anti-abortion protest sparked controversy on campus, the registered student organization Pro-Life Vanguard will return to The Green Thursday and Friday with a display featuring graphic imagery of aborted fetuses, Holocaust victims and lynching.

The Genocide Awareness Project, an initiative of the Center for Bioethical Reform, an anti-abortion group, makes comparisons between genocide and abortion, in what protest organizers call an effort to combat the dehumanization of unborn fetuses.

"We want people to understand that the preborn child is in fact a human being that has value, and that abortion is an act of violence," said Gina Paladinetti, president of Pro-Life Vanguard.

Last year, hundreds of university community members gathered around the display, some protesting its comparison to genocide, and debated free speech on campus. Other less-serious onlookers held up joke signs, scrawled with statements like "Pro-Viking" and "Protesting is for losers!"

For this year's event, students have already begun organizing several serious counter-protests.

Sophomore Becky Burgess, a member of the feminist RSO V-Day, is organizing one such demonstration.

She said she felt disrespected and angered by the display last year, and this response triggered her desire to organize a counter protest.

"I feel like they were using the struggles of other marginalized groups [like African-Americans and Holocaust victims] and using these people and their stories as props," Burgess said.

Though students reacted strongly to the display's comparison between abortion and genocide, Paladinetti said the group does not regard the two acts as equal. Rather, she said there are ways to compare the forms of genocide with abortion.

"Most people who talk about abortion have never seen what it actually is or what it does to the unborn child," Paladinetti said.

Paladinetti, who requested to book event space on The Green in March, said unborn fetuses are often dehumanized in the same way Jews were during the Holocaust.  

Burgess said even though Pro-Life Vanguard members might not equate abortion with genocide, the group they are bringing to campus does.

"I think everyone that was there last year would say that there was really no budge room in what they were saying," Burgess said. "They weren't saying, ‘Have you ever thought about this?' They were saying abortion is a form of genocide."

Senior Sarah Foster, who also plans to participate in the counter protest, said the group has decided to have a sit in-type demonstration, displaying signs and passing out information about sex and abortion to students, instead of verbally confronting Pro-Life Vanguard.

Foster, a self-proclaimed feminist, said she was personally offended by last year's display.

"I think that it's important to have free speech, and people can say what they want, but when it causes harm to people, I think it should be regulated," Foster said.

Michael Gilbert, vice president of Student Life, said all students and RSOs are permitted to book space on university property to hold events, though the university does follow specific guidelines in determining the feasibility of some events.  

Individuals or groups wishing to hold events on campus must fill out comprehensive paperwork, describing their event, the desired location and timeframe, he said.

Before approving a space request, officials consider whether an event would affect the health and safety of the university community or interfere with the normal business of the university, like classes and office activity, Gilbert said.

Per university policy, groups requesting space do not have to explicitly show or demonstrate to university officials what their event will entail. Movies shown on The Green or music played by groups on university property do not have to be pre-approved, and this same principle applies to the Genocide Awareness Project's posters.

For the second year, officials determined that Pro-Life Vanguard's request would not disrupt university life, Gilbert said.

Paladinetti said she provided the Genocide Awareness Project's website, whose homepage contains the display's graphic imagery, on her space request form. She said this year's display will be identical to last year's, though the size of the display may be slightly smaller.

To address the concern that the posters were unavoidable last year, officials have moved the display's location closer toward the center of the lawn, away from the sidewalks and steps of Gore Hall.

After last year's display, many university community members questioned why school officials permitted the Genocide Awareness Project to demonstrate on campus.

However, outside groups and initiatives are permitted on campus if sponsored by an RSO. Gilbert said university officials strive to be unbiased when determining which groups hold events on university grounds.

"The point that we make […] and what we would want other people to understand is that when student organizations ask for space on campus to educate or express a viewpoint, we are content neutral," Gilbert said. "That's what we endeavor to provide—because we want there to be an environment and a climate on campus where speech is allowed and where there's an opportunity for people to engage, to express their own viewpoints, but also to engage others in debate and discussion."

Paladinetti said her group welcomes student opinion and reaction to the display.

"I already know that people are going to be protesting, and that doesn't bother us at all," Paladinetti said. "They're allowed to express their free speech rights, just like we are."