'Abortion positive' tour takes extremist message to campuses
The activists are also soliciting support for the EACH Woman Act, which would repeal the Hyde Amendment and enable federal funding for abortions.
Pro-abortion advocacy groups spent the entire month of April visiting college campuses for an “Abortion Positive” tour to promote the idea that “abortion access is a social good.”
Pro-abortion advocacy groups spent the entire month of April visiting college campuses for an “Abortion Positive” tour to promote the idea that “abortion access is a social good.”
Two groups, URGE: Unite for Reproductive Gender Equity and All* Above All, are currently wrapping up a five-state, 11-campus tour that celebrates abortion and seeks to end the Hyde Amendment, which prevents federal funds from being used for abortions.
[RELATED: Another Catholic university buses students to pro-abortion rally]
URGE held a similar tour last year that spanned 10 campuses in five states.
“Complete with giveaways and speakers, students all over the country will get the opportunity to take action and proclaim abortion access as a public good,” URGE said on its website for last year’s tour. “We don’t believe abortion is a bad word, and we know that youth everywhere are ready and willing to proactively support EVERY healthcare option available.”
The 2017 tour kicked off on April 11 with simultaneous rallies at Wichita State University and the University of Alabama, followed by a stop at the University of Alabama Birmingham, where students held posters reading, “mind your own uterus!” and “Abortion: no shame” and wore black t-shirts with the phrase, “I got ninety-nine problems but pregnancy ain’t one.”
Other photos of the event show students and URGE staff members cheering for an abortion doctor.
Last week, the tour swept through Texas, visiting the University of North Texas along with the El Paso and Rio Grande campuses of the University of Texas.
“You should have a basic right to choose when to start a family and if you want to start a family,” declared Juanita Rivas, URGE chapter chair at the University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley. “I think not seeing abortion as something negative and seeing abortion as something positive and as a right that we have access to.”
[RELATED: VIDEO: Women’s marchers say pro-lifers can’t be feminists]
In addition to rallies, photo booths, and speakers, the pro-abortion tour is promoting a petition to support the EACH Woman Act, a bill authored by All* Above All that would overturn the Hyde Amendment, thus allowing federal funds to be used for abortions.
A September poll by Politico found that 58 percent of likely voters do not believe Medicaid should pay for abortion services.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @amber_athey
