Throughout last week, students may have been alarmed by the Genocide Awareness Project exhibit that was set up in front of Tucker Hall.
The project, laden with graphic images of aborted fetuses, sought to bring attention to abortion, which they believe is the mass murder of the unborn.
As a component of the Center for Bioethical Reform Midwest, the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) can be found on college campuses throughout the country, including colleges in Florida. Their unrelenting presence at Florida State University reportedly polarized the social climate at the school, sparking protests by student organizations.
Not the case at FAMU, where students casually walked past GAP’s distasteful exhibition of bloody, dismantled fetuses, which they claimed to have legally obtained from abortion clinics. I always knew FAMU had a largely conservative student body, but I had no idea that we would allow a group with an obviously malicious agenda to set foot on our campus, let alone setup shop for two, uninterrupted days.
Like many students last week, I had the displeasure of walking past the exhibition several times throughout the day, also looking up only to discover a mangled fetus circling my head. And I couldn’t help but think, “Anyone who would spend that amount of money to prove a point has to be short a couple of neurons.” I was able to confirm this notion about GAP, when I walked past the exhibit and was handed a brochure, instead of prophylactics, to curb
this ever-serious abortion “problem.” Discretionary or protected intercourse are the only ways to do away with abortion.
Often, advocates of abortion are ironically hesitant to answer when faced with the question of adopting these otherwise “unwanted” children. They fail to take into consideration the some 40 million aborted fetuses that would’ve grown up in an undesirable situation as a result of their careless conception. They also forget that they could be exerting their energy to fight for the right of living babies to have normal, stable lives. What about solving the proven social ills of children living in single-parent, and low-income homes?
There is nothing worse than a child living in a house where they are viewed as a burden by an unfit parent. And that, most importantly, is what pro-lifers neglect to realize, and it’s because a large number of them haven’t grown up in a situation like the one I’ve just described. A 2010 Gallup Poll revealed that 68 percent of pro-lifers are Republican and they are overwhelmingly Protestant or practice some other Christian denomination.
At the least, they could’ve promoted their ideals in a logical way. Making abortion illegal will not stop the procedures from happening. They are simply driven into an unsafe black market where the social costs of abortions would rise.
Women on campus, no matter their stance on abortion should’ve protested the groups presence because of the apparent assault on women’s rights that was obtained after decades of struggle in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Despite facts and logic, it’s not the safety of women that drives the likes of GAP participants.
It’s simple. If you don’t like abortions, then don’t have one. But don’t use shameless scare tactics to try and muscle women out of their right of choosing not to cheat a child out of a good life. Yes, the Genocide Project has First Amendment rights to free speech, and peaceful assembly.
However, it was the manner in which they went about delivering their foolish, pious message that should’ve been checked by FAMU administrators before allowing them to heckle young women on our campus.