Abortion display obscene, wrong

After leaving Wells Hall for one of my classes I was astounded by very explicit images. All around me were signs declaring “Genocide Pictures Ahead” and not knowing what was going on I moved closer to the display. I was completely shocked at the subject of the images. The MSU right to life group had many walls of pictures showing aborted fetuses along with lynching photos and pictures from Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Surrounding the displays were guardrails and police officers to make sure protesters were kept safe.

I am a huge First Amendment supporter, but the images I saw were obscene. While the right to lifers do have the freedom to express their views, I felt it is in very bad taste to display those pictures in a place that has a very large traffic of students and faculty. I would be very angry and at a loss for words if I was with a young child and had to explain to them what was happening and why it happens.

I asked a police officer how the group was allowed have a protest in such a manner and she explained that the university had authorized the group to demonstrate. If I had known such a graphic description of abortion would have been given the opportunity to voice its opinion, I would have liked to be at the hearing committee of the university to give mine and others’ opinions on the matter. I cannot fault the group for exercising its free speech right, but I can fault the university for not allowing the student body to know this would have happened and let a hearing on the subject be held.

computer science junior

Important to see ugly photo display

The truth is ugly, but the reality of abortion is important for people to realize. The displays near Wells Hall showed the gruesome truth of abortion in a way that words cannot easily reveal. I think the displays will help by at least bringing conversation to a topic that has not been discussed enough on campus.

College students have opinions and we are certainly allowed to express them. My opinion is that abortion is the selective murder of innocent children. I think “The Genocide Awareness Project” is an important issue to bring to campus. We are responsible for the quality and respect for life in our nation.

civil engineering junior

Disgusting exhibit out of place at ‘U’

This is an open letter of disgust to all members of the MSU Students for Life organization. What in the world did you hope to achieve with your disgusting photos outside of Wells Hall? That is the sickest thing I have ever seen.

As a student at this university, I do not believe the cost of my education includes being assaulted on my way to class. Those photos of aborted fetuses were an assault on every student. There is no reason to show a picture of a baby’s head in a petri dish. There are other ways to get your message across.

I had been contemplating bringing my nephews and nieces up here, but after what I saw there is no way they will ever set foot on this campus.

How would I have explained those images to them? There are young children on this campus every day and there is no reason for them to see anything like that - ever. You people are sick and disgusting.

The plain fact that you could stand outside and look at those pictures all day makes me wonder about the sanity you may possess.

“Oh cry for the unborn, cry for them.” I cry for you and your ability to stomach the horrors you displayed for all to see.

human biology junior

Genocide not an appropriate analogy

The comparison of abortion to genocide is outrageous and completely inappropriate. Of course it is true that both genocide and abortion are graphically disturbing to witness, but are two completely unrelated controversies.

Are these activists trying to achieve more support in the battle against abortion or are they just trying to stir controversy and start skirmishes with no goal in mind? In protesting issues and promoting one’s opinions on a civilized college campus, it is important to be tasteful and reasonable, otherwise all voices are wasted and even despised.

I am very disappointed with the attitudes of these activists. We need to understand why abortions and genocide occur, even though they are completely unrelated in the context of these protests. Instead of these pro-life radicals wasting time fighting these so-called “murderers,” why don’t they fight for birth control and the education of our young people so that unwanted pregnancies leading to abortions aren’t so widely exercised?

finance and economics junior

Pro-life exhibit

I was shocked and disgusted Monday to be subjected to such an utterly and ignorant one-sided display in front of Wells Hall. And I’m not just talking about the graphic photographs of aborted fetuses.

That’s right, I said fetuses - not babies.

Aside from being unnecessary, vulgar and completely disgusting, these pictures were blatantly uneducated propaganda. Putting up pictures of severed heads from partial birth abortions next to images of lynchings and the Holocaust is trying to say genocide is equal to an abortion which is insulting and downright ludicrous.

I am sure fundamentalist pro-lifers would not display photographs of dead physicians from blown-up abortion clinics in an effort to educate. If you would like to force a woman to bring an unwanted child into this world that they are not equipped to take care of, both emotionally and financially, that’s sad.

Sing all the self-glorifying pro-life songs and pass out all the pamphlets you desire, just keep in mind when you are erecting those despicable photographs that you’re making everyone deaf to your cause and repulsed from your tactics.

psychology junior

Presentation does

I would like to commend you on the editorial on the pro-life presentation by Wells Hall.

As a person generally against abortion, I typically sympathize with the sentiments of pro-life advocates. Yet it seems that I can never support the actions of these same people.

The display was not to generate a heightened awareness of the issue, but propaganda that left me extremely disappointed. In all of their pamphlets with graphic photos and emotional literature, I found not one single piece of paper that actually presented facts without blurring it with opinion, nor were all of the sources given for the multitude of statistics. I believe the presentation was counterproductive.

Perhaps opinions can’t be avoided, but if these pro-life advocates really wanted to solve the problem, then they should present a viable solution that isn’t militant; perhaps then those supporting pro-choice (which is exactly that, not “pro-abortion”) could find a common ground. I did not see ONE pamphlet supporting counseling centers; nor a single pamphlet encouraging the use of birth control; nor a fund that may help provide the financial means to ease the burden of hospital bills; not even a request that day care be more available and less expensive.

Their proposed solution of making abortions illegal will never work. The entire country is not Christian, Jewish, nor Muslim. The beliefs of one group cannot change the behavior of another group that are not under the same religious rule.

To prove this, I need only give two examples: Prohibition and the war against illegal drugs.

Did people stop drinking?

Do we no longer have “crack babies?” I’m afraid not.

animal science senior

Infanticide far from

While I was pleased to see the staff editorial from Oct. 24 (“Bad Display”) reflected the opinion of many of my fellow students I have discussed the exhibit with, I did take issue with the statement “Supporters of abortion are not out to kill babies just because they are babies.”

Abortion by definition is the expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An embryo, according to The American Heritage Dictionary, is the prefetal product of conception from implantation through the eighth week of development and a fetus is the unborn young from the end of the eighth week after conception to the moment of birth.

Infanticide, quite different from abortion, is the killing of a newly born or young child. I feel it is safe to say those on either side of the abortion issue do not advocate the killing of born children. While it seems an issue of semantics, it would be wrong to say those who support abortion support the choice to kill babies when they support the right to choose.

English sophomore

Pictures of fetuses won’t help cause

So there were all these people with disgusting pictures standing in front of Wells Hall on Monday. Give me the Wells Hall preachers any day. Heck, those guys are kinda interesting.

Monday’s species of preacher (shock-your-senses pro-lifer) was just not cool at all. Why do these people rely on making your stomach turn to change your opinions on what is, at bottom, an issue about morality and economics? Disgust factors should really have little to do with it. I don’t care to have images of an aborted fetus rammed down my throat on an otherwise beautiful day.

Values are values. People will believe that abortion is wrong. People will also believe it is permissible given certain circumstances. In some sense, both sides are correct.

There is nothing pleasant about abortion; nobody wants to have one and nobody throws a party when one is performed. It is a serious and grave event and is a fact of contemporary American society and abroad.

No amount of twisted, horrific photographs are going to change that.

Please, please, put them away. Write, argue, debate, whine, complain, whatever. Just put those horrendous pictures away.

philosophy senior