Students who happened to pass Geisel Library on Nov. 7 saw
quite an eyeful: large photographs featuring grotesquely distorted and bloody
limbs, chopped and cut up in an array of tiny legs, arms, heads and torsos,
befitting of any horror film. Accompanying the graphic display were chalked
phrases littering the ground that loudly asserted, “If you’re pro-choice,
you’re for death,” and “real women don’t kill babies — some choices are just
wrong.”
Alongside the disturbing posters were students dressed in
bright red t-shirts, holding signs which proudly proclaimed, “Fuck you means
no, but fuck me means yes!” and “My voice is pro-choice,” all the while
chanting messages like “Stand up for choice!” and “Girls heart boys who are
pro-choice!” to both students and faculty.
The radical anti-abortion group Survivors of the Abortion
Holocaust — an off-campus, religiously unaffiliated organization — made its
biannual trip to campus to hold an informative, if not disturbing, protest
against the legalization of abortion. In an effort to persuade passers-by to
support their cause, group members distributed flyers, brochures and handbooks
designed to inform readers about abortion’s dangers (including diagrams
demonstrating exactly how abortions are executed) and the alternative options
available to pregnant women.
But when Stephanie Moody-Geissler, co-president of the
pro-choice student organization Voices for Planned Parenthood (or VOX, which is
Latin for voice), discovered that SAH intended to protest at UCSD, she
immediately coordinated a counter-presence at the opposite end of Library Walk.
“We don’t want any fights to break out or for there to be
confrontations between the groups, even if it’s tense,” said Vanessa Cooney,
grassroots coordinator for Planned Parenthood. “We just want to let students
know that we’re an honest on-campus resource and that we’re here for them.
Planned Parenthood of San Diego and Riverside Counties is proud of UCSD VOX for
being a strong pro-choice presence on campus.”
VOX is an on-campus group dedicated to informing students
about reproductive health and choice, and has worked to spread sexual tolerance
and awareness throughout campus. VOX regularly organizes several events
throughout the academic year, including information tables on Library Walk,
free movie screenings of reproductive health films and the annual
Sextravaganza, a fair focused on issues of sexual health. The group also passes
out holiday-themed condoms throughout the year and celebrates the anniversary
of Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade during the first week of January.
Last year, SAH visited UCSD as part of its Southern
California college and high school campus tour in order to sponsor their
message.
“They came last year during spring quarter, and we had no
idea that they would be on campus, but earlier in the year we had decided on a
plan of action in case an anti-abortion group decided to show up”
Moody-Geissler said. “Within minutes of a VOX member noticing [SAH], our plan
was put into effect and an impromptu counter-presence occurred,”
Whether improvised or not, the presence of VOX members
countering normally tense SAH protests did not go unnoticed by students.
“When I saw the disgusting images that SAH showed, it was
shocking,” John Muir College sophomore Lina Dajani said. “No one wants to see
that. But I felt more comfortable with the student organization, because their
information was easier to handle and to trust. People were even avoiding
eye-contact with SAH, but didn’t mind approaching VOX.”
Moody-Geissler agreed that SAH’s literature and presentation
was a little hard to swallow.
“[The posters] serve no purpose but to be used for their
shock value,” she said. “[SAH is] not just content with presenting its side of
the debate over choice, it has decided to falsify information or use other
material that is in no way backed by the scientific community. We were not
going to stand by idly and let these lies be spread on our campus.”
Kortney Blythe, the SAH campus life tour director, believes
that the posters and images her organization used are nothing different from
those depicted during the Vietnam War.
“Graphic images have been used throughout history to fight
injustice,” she said. “Civil rights activists used pictures. We live in a
visual society. And for that matter, this is a procedure that is legal and
happens 4,000 times a day in our country. Why do people get so offended at
pictures of it? If it’s too hard to look at, maybe we shouldn’t be tolerating
it.”
Some students did find the anti-abortion material to be
informative and eye-catching.
“I’m against abortion; for me, there’s no way to justify
sacrificing life for one girl’s night of pleasure,” Eleanor Roosevelt College
freshman Sarah Figueroa said. “This group wants to spread that message. People
are entitled to their own opinion, though, so the pro-life group can say what
it wants.”
VOX members alleged that SAH broke several campus procedural
rules during their protest, including their location directly in front of the
library and their use of a table, and contacted Judicial Affairs to report the
violations. Although university personnel later came to investigate the
reports, no complaints were officially filed.
“We understand that the university may have its own rules
about free speech,” Blythe said. “But we follow the first amendment, and that
states that we are allowed to assemble on all public spaces. We promote
free-speech advocacy — otherwise, both ourselves and the pro-choice groups
could not demonstrate.”
Blythe said that although SAH does assemble at high schools,
it protects the rights of minors by remaining on public sidewalks and
offcampus. She also noted that while she has led protests at more than 260
schools during her term as director, there have only been five arrests due to
trespassing charges.
But Moody-Geissler found the groups disregard for campus
policies to be aggravating, and believes its presence on campus did little to
further its cause.
“It is not appropriate for a non-affiliated group to
disregard policies that other groups that are affiliated with the campus are
required follow,” she said. “In the end, [SAH] being on campus only brought
more people over to the VOX counter-presence for information and to give us
support. We almost doubled our e-mail list in just one day.”
