Anti-abortion display spreads ignorance, not scientific fact

Anne Douglas is a student at UCLA.  

By Anne Douglas

On Monday, June 3, and Tuesday, June 4, there was a group of
anti-abortion demonstrators on campus. As a student, I have many
complaints regarding why they were on campus at all, why they were
allowed to display such graphic and overblown photographs in an
area where everyone must walk and why they were allowed to remain
there for two days under the guise that they were displaying
“scientific facts” rather than moral opinions.

I am appalled that the university allowed such an exhibit to be
displayed. It served absolutely no purpose other than to
demonstrate the ignorance and callousness of many anti-abortion
organizations. It was displayed in a manner and in a location where
it was impossible not to see it. With 30-foot boards and 6-foot
photos in the middle of Bruin Plaza, between Ashe and Ackerman,
there was no way not to notice it.

The signs warning of “genocide photos” were false
and misleading. According to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate
Dictionary, genocide is, “the deliberate and systematic
destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group.” A
woman who chooses to get an abortion is not trying to exterminate
any of the aforementioned groups. She is making a choice based on
the circumstances in her own life which are not anyone else’s
business unless she gives her permission.

I decided to engage in a conversation with one of the women
working the anti-abortion exhibit. I asked her why she thought she
had a right to tell another person what to do about something as
important as having a child.

Her response, the only one she gave no matter what I said, was
that they weren’t there to tell people not to have abortions,
they were there sharing scientific facts. When I pointed out that
all the writing on the boards behind her was opinion, not
scientific fact, she had no response.

I then told her that I had chosen to have an abortion when I was
20 years old. I told her that there was a very real possibility
that if I had had that child, I would have died. She then said that
of course there were medical reasons that made abortion acceptable,
and she asked me what mine was. I told her that I was bipolar, but
not diagnosed at that time, and that I was already manic and out of
control when I found out I was pregnant. I am fairly certain the
pregnancy would have sent me over the edge. She then told me that I
had a psychological problem, not a medical one. Not only was this
woman playing God by deciding what situations were acceptable for
having abortions, she was also playing God and deciding which
illnesses to consider medical and which to disregard. It bothers me
immensely that such an ignorant human being was allowed to stand in
the middle of my university and make claims about things she knew
nothing about. It bothers me that the university allowed this to
happen.

On a less personal, but perhaps more important note, I am upset
about the display because of the large number of children that are
on the UCLA campus every day. Children are impressionable and
ill-equipped to handle or understand the display that was in front
of Ackerman Union for two days. It is one thing to teach children
about the anti-abortion versus abortion rights debate. It is quite
another to subject them to pictures that blow the truth about
abortion completely out of proportion. Obviously, a picture
enlarged so that a fetus looks life-size is a bit disturbing. But
it says nothing of all the thoughts and decisions one must make
when faced with an unplanned pregnancy.

The bottom line is that UCLA acted inappropriately when they
allowed this group to come onto campus. I am an advocate of free
speech, but I am not an advocate of advertising ignorance. The
group that put the exhibit together attempted to manipulate many
young and perhaps confused women who might have had to walk right
past the monstrosity to go to Ashe for counseling due to an
unplanned pregnancy. They also successfully manipulated the powers
that be at UCLA in order to get their very unscientific message
out. UCLA should not be advocating the anti-abortion statement they
so clearly displayed by allowing the exhibit to stand for two
days.