March For Life creates welcoming environment for pro-life students. Back on campus? Not so much.
Being pro-life on college campuses isn’t easy.
Just ask any of the thousands of protesters showing up Friday in Washington, D.C. for the annual March for Life. While the environment at the March for Life is welcoming to pro-life students, they face a much different reality back on their college campuses.
Here are just a few examples of pro-life discrimination and pro-life display vandalism stories that Campus Reform reported last year.
1. Vandals destroy crosses at Ohio campus pro-life display
The Miami University of Ohio Students for Life chapter organized a pro-life display that was vandalized four times in five days.
The “cemetery of innocents” display contained 250 white crosses with a sign reading “each cross represents 10 babies that die by abortion each day.” After each instance of vandalism, the pro-life students set up the display again.
“I believe this incident demonstrates a lack of civil discourse on college campuses, and it is a direct result of a lack of respect for the Constitution, and particularly, the First Amendment,” the pro-life club president told Campus Reform.
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2. College admin warns students of ‘disturbing’ pro-life display
North Dakota State University Vice Provost Laura Oster-Aaland sent out an email to all students warning them of a “disturbing” display by the Students for Life club.
“It is possible that this display may contain images that could be disturbing to some members of our community,” the provost’s email said. “This email serves to inform you that these activities will be taking place, should you desire to avoid the area.”
Provost Oster-Aaland was then serving as a district chairwoman for the Democratic Party. The “disturbing” display, which was approved by the university, contained literature about late-term abortion.
3. Christian college bashes pro-life speech by guy conceived by rape
Wheaton College, an Evangelical Christian institution, publicly denounced comments made by pro-life, African-American Ryan Bomberger, who had been invited to speak on his experience of being conceived through rape and later adopted into a multiracial family.
During his speaking event at Wheaton, Bomberger, the founder of the pro-life nonprofit Radiance Foundation, criticized the Black Lives Matter movement, which he believes is not supportive of the black community.
Sammie Shields, the executive president of community diversity at Wheaton, sent out an email to students criticizing Bomberger’s speech, claiming that “his comments, surrounding the topic of race, made many students, staff, and faculty of color feel unheard, underrepresented, and unsafe on our campus.”
4. Vandals dismantle pro-life display at Clemson
In March, another pro-life “cemetery of the innocents” display, organized by the Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) chapter at Clemson University, was vandalized after student outrage surfaced on social media.
“My YAF members and I knew it’d be a possibility that our display would be torn down but we didn’t think it would actually happen,” Morgan Bailey, YAF chairwoman told Campus Reform at the time, explaining that the vandalism “shows that conservative views and beliefs aren’t always welcomed on campus even if you go to a school where the student body is fairly conservative.”
5. VIDEO: Angry student attacks pro-life display
In April, Campus Reform reported on an enraged student who was caught on video at Miami University vandalizing a pro-life display. The young man can be seen kicking and throwing the crosses set out in commemoration of aborted babies.
This incident came on the heels of a settled lawsuit between Students for Life and Miami University. The college, per the settlement, agreed to revise several policies that required student groups post “trigger warnings” for certain displays.
As of April, Miami University campus police had identified the individual in the vandalism video and was investigating the occurrence.
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