Blue and pink flags dotted the Parade Ground on Wednesday afternoon, catching students’ attention as they walked out of the Student Union.Kristen Gurtner, psychology sophomore and president of Students for Life said the group is sponsoring a Cemetery of the Innocents that continues today to represent the 3,500 abortions in the United States every day.”We want to get people to think about the abortion issue because it often gets glazed over,” she said.Sarah Miller, member of Students for Life and psychology junior, agreed.”I’ve always been pro-life,” she said. “It’s a really important issue that gets sidelined a lot.”The display of flags is accompanied by poster boards labeled “What do you think?” and “When does life begin?” where students are free to write their feelings, Gurtner said.Comments on the “What do you think?” board range from the simple “Abortion is murder” to “Women deserve the right to determine what happens to their own bodies.”Written on the “When does life begin?” board is a personal message of “before I formed in the womb, I knew you,” to “when the child can live independently outside the mother’s body. Before that it’s a parasite — check your bio book.”Laura Lytle, family and consumer science freshman, signed the “When does life begin?” board with “the minute you are pregnant.” She said her church used to do the same type of display in Little Rock, Ark.She said she believes abortion is an important issue to University students.”Once you get in college, it’s kind of OK to have sex,” she said. “But if you get pregnant and you aren’t married you should give the baby up for adoption if you don’t want it. Otherwise you aren’t giving your baby a choice.”Miller said versions of the Cemetery of the Innocents have been held across the country since the first year after Roe v. Wade was passed — 1973. She said it is done at many churches and schools in the United States.But Elizabeth Johnson, another member of Students for Life, said the group isn’t trying to turn the protest into a religious issue because they do not have religious or political affiliations.”We had crosses about four years ago, but they were vandalized,” said Johnson, English literature, Spanish and political theory senior.Gurtner said they took a year off after the vandalism but brought the display back last year.Miller said most of the feedback so far has been positive.”Nobody has been mean,” she said. “Most of the response last year was really positive. If people had negative comments, they didn’t really want to engage in conflict; they just said something as they were walking by.”Miller said there is a silent protest today from noon to 12:30 p.m., and many members of Students for Life are planning on having a strip of red duct tape across their mouths with “Life” written on it.”It represents the children who have been silenced, but also the women who have had abortions and never talk about it,” she said. “We want to stand in solidarity for them.” Miller said if people wish to come and stand in silence without the duct tape, they are welcome to do so. Gurtner said college is the most important time for students to start making their own decisions.”These are the formation years when we start deciding what we believe in outside of our parents’ views,” she said. “We start to influence the government and can get policies passed.”Miller said she wants to open people’s eyes to the facts.”It is an important issue for us because a great amount of abortions occur among 18- to 25-year-old women, which is the age of most of the women on campus,” Miller said. “Plus, our generation has grown up with it and are very used to it, so we want to bring attention to abortion.”—-Contact Ellen Zielinski at [email protected]