I tried to find a Memphis blog with a report on the graphic anti choice display at the University of Memphis, but no luck so far. College Republicans are really getting in people's faces these days.
Why aren't they in Iraq?.
This report is from the Memphis Commercial Appeal:
Campus display depicts abortion as genocide
A graphic anti-abortion display triggered some heated exchanges on the University of Memphis campus this week. The large signs with images of fetuses next to photographs of victims of lynching, the Holocaust and Rwandan genocide, caught the attention of most who passed by.
At least four university police officers were posted around the "Why Abortion is Genocide" display sponsored by College Republicans and Tigers 4 Christ. One person was apprehended for throwing tomatoes at the display Monday.
Since 1998, the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform has carried the display to roughly 50 college campuses nationwide, said C. Fletcher Armstrong, Southeast region director. Armstrong said the nonprofit organization focuses on college-age students because of their incidences of abortion. The group's message is that abortion is an act of violence.
"These pictures are disturbing, but only because abortion is disturbing," Armstrong said. The display showed a man hanging from a tree, a dead child in rubble, a pile of dead bodies and the bloody arm of a fetus on a dime.
Protestors from the student group VOX (Voices for Planned Parenthood) and other students held pro-abortion rights signs nearby. "It's very insensitive to students," said Christy Swatzell, with VOX, adding that she found the display racially offensive.
"Keep your laws off my body," said one woman walking by. "I can make my own choices, thank you," said another. Graduate student Ian Clay listened as opposing sides debated the issue Tuesday. "I believe abortion is wrong," Clay said. "And I respect people for standing up for what they believe in."
Allison Brooks said she found the images disturbing.
"It shouldn't be in my face when I'm trying to get an education," Brooks, a sophomore, told Armstrong. "I don't think this is the right approach." Students at Campus School, an elementary school, were kept inside for recess to keep them seeing the display, said U of M spokesman Curt Guenther.
The display, which was shown Monday and Tuesday next to the University Center, is headed for the University of North Carolina Asheville.
See: Memphis Women to Rally for Reproductive Rights
Reproductive Rights Feminism Abortion Pro Choice Roe v. Wade SJR 127 Memphis Tennessee University of Memphis
