Group displays anti-abortion sentiments
By Daily Bruin Staff
June 5, 2002 9:00 p.m.
JONATHAN YOUNG/Daily Bruin Lynn Ott, who helped
set up the anti-abortion display on campus, talks with fourth-year
economics student Nicholas Navarro on Monday.
By Marcelle Richards
DAILY BRUIN SENIOR STAFFB
[email protected]
Some tried to fix their stare past the 30-foot display of
bloodied fetuses but stole a glance as they walked past the giant
panels on Bruin Walk and the Court of Sciences the last three
days.
A few passerbys stopped to speak with Justice For All members
who were standing behind a metal gate.
The group, invited by Justice For All: Students for Bio-ethical
Justice, traveled from Kansas to UCLA, expecting a more
“heated response” but found the campus’ reaction
relatively tepid ““ photos or no photos of dead fetuses
barraging the walk to class.
Administrative director for the group, Tammy Cook, said,
“The students here appeared ambivalent or apathetic. I
don’t know what to think of that. It actually bothers me that
they can walk by something so horrific and not even
react.”
The issue of abortion, largely on the back burner in terms of
activism at UCLA, surfaced in small spurts as South Campus majors
discussed what makes life on a cellular level, and pro-abortion and
anti-abortion students engaged in discussions around the
display.
“I was frustrated there was no response from the
pro-choice people on campus,” said Kristin Mayeda, a
third-year microbiology student and designer for student media
newsmagazines TenPercent and FEM.
“I feel like all the liberal progressive organizations are
based on other issues,” she added.
A “freedom of speech” board featured various
sentiments:
“It’s a mass of cells.”
“You guys eat meat? Exactly.”
“Just give out free condoms.”
The lines between pro-abortion and anti-abortion arguments are
not clear, though debate often surrounds the rights of the fetus
versus the rights of the woman, respectively.
Dana Jensen, a JFL member, said: “I’ve never been
able to figure out exactly what freedoms would be lost if women
didn’t have the right to an abortion.”
The Supreme Court legalized abortion in its 1973 ruling in Roe
v. Wade, and the courts have received a steady stream of abortion
cases since about what the guidelines should be.
One of the issues targeted by JFL is late-term abortions.
According to 1999 reports from the Centers for Disease Control,
late-term abortions are rare ““ 88 percent of legal abortions
are performed within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy; 55 percent
take place within the first eight weeks; 1.5 percent occur after 20
weeks. Medical concerns, such as the safety of abortions,
especially if performed illegally, is another popular concern.
Common complications include incomplete abortion, tears in the
cervix, fever, infection, septic shock and severe hemorrhaging. An
estimated 80,000 women die each year due to complications from
unsafe abortions, according to 1998 figures from the World Health
Organization.
Cook countered the argument that banning abortion would drive
women to seek out the procedure illegally, and possibly unsafely in
saying that 90 percent of abortions performed prior to 1973 were
done by a medical physician, and must therefore be safe.
She argues that if so many people can seek “safe”
abortions before abortion was legalized, there is no reason to
believe women will seek out “back-alley butchers” to
conduct the procedure if it is banned.
The percentage justifying her argument ironically comes from
Mary Calderone, the former medical director for Planned Parenthood
Federation of America, a traditionally pro-abortion organization.
Calderone published the figure in her 1960 American Journal of
Health article, “Illegal Abortion as a Public Health
Problem.”
Fourth-year physiological science student Walter Osias, who has
not taken a stance on abortion, is still trying to digest all
he’s seen and heard. “What makes human life and what
doesn’t? You don’t know where to draw a clear
line,” he said.
Reports from Amanda Schapel, Daily Bruin Senior Staff. An
abortion rights discussion, sponsored by the International
Socialist Organization, will take place today at 7 p.m. in A74
Haines Hall.
