It’s happened to all of us.
Because your friend wants to meet you in front of the Union for lunch, you walk from one end of Free Speech Alley to the next. Within a span of 30 seconds, you have an armful of resources ready for the trash with an occasional sweet that you keep.
One organization, Students for Life, stands apart from the rest by posing a question with the intent to educate.
“Is abortion morally wrong?”
The group is headed by painting senior Elizabeth Pendleton, and uses a chart based on basic embryology and logical conclusions to support its case against abortion. If you were to only stop and listen, you would see the effectiveness of their approach and the engaging conversations they hold.
They filled Echo Circle Monday and Tuesday with their “Exposing Planned Parenthood” exhibit that reveals unpopular facts about its history of racism, negative eugenics, abortion statistics and even videos of Planned Parenthood representatives urging abortion.
This is a response to Planned Parenthood’s new facility being built on South Claiborne Avenue in New Orleans, a 7,000-square foot building.
Just last week, Rep. Jose Oliva of Florida asked Alisa LaPolt Snow of the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates, “You stated that a baby born alive on a table as a result of a botched abortion that that decision should be left to the doctor and the family. Is that what you’re saying?”
“That decision should be between the patient and the health care provider,” Snow said.
Planned Parenthood has since stated that the child should be provided medical care despite Snow’s response.
Students for Life created the exhibit due to lack of education on Planned Parenthood.
Life Issues Institute found that 79 percent of Planned Parenthood’s abortion clinics are located in or within walking distance of black and Hispanic communities. This is unsurprising, because a National Vital Statistics report from June 2012 revealed black women in the U.S. experience about 1.6 times more pregnancies than white women, but have five times as many abortions.
Under Planned Parenthood’s handout for the new facility, it says it wants to “reduce the number of unintended pregnancies in Greater New Orleans.” Planned Parenthood just doesn’t tell you it intends to target minority groups to accomplish its goals.
In Baton Rouge, Students for Life protests daily at the local abortion facility, Delta Clinic. Delta has its own history of violations and allegations that keep peaceful protesters such as Students for Life at their facility daily.
Kermit Gosnell, formerly an abortionist at Delta, is now being tried for eight counts of murder – seven of those for botched abortions. Of course, the media isn’t covering this because it would appear to be anti-abortion, an unpopular stance today.
Students for Life is making an impact at Delta, where young women regularly leave out of conviction due simply to the sheer numbers of willing pro-life advocates to speak and pray with the women in difficult situations.
They might be the ones in Free Speech Alley worth listening to.
Landon Mills is a 21-year-old international studies senior from Sunshine, La.
