It’s that time of the semester again.
This past week we were graced with the presence of the usual enlarged and mutilated fetus pictures splayed across our campus for a total of two days.
Walking through Turlington Plaza on a regular afternoon is often a bit of a chore. There are students packed into it like sardines, and you can’t walk five steps without being handed a flier. Personally, although I love the University of Florida’s appreciation of free speech, and I make a point to pass through Turlington just to feel like I’m really part of the school spirit, the fact is that sometimes it can all become a little … Too much.
Especially that day (or two days) every semester where the anti-abortion campaigners from a self-proclaimed civil rights organization called Created Equal decide to invade and subject us all to their self-righteous “protection of the preborn.”
Everyone is entitled to their own opinions regarding controversial issues, but it’s one thing to have an opinion, and it’s entirely another to force your opinion onto others in the form of graphic, disturbing imagery that is literally everywhere people look.
The pictures even spread onto the Plaza of the Americas this time. Want to grab a nice, refreshing coffee from Starbucks and study at Library West? Think again! There will be larger-than-life photos of bloody fetus limbs right outside your window. I mean, that’s the perfect atmosphere for academic growth, right?
For those lucky people who haven’t been subjected to these callous and potentially triggering pictures, here are a few examples: a tiny severed hand paired with a neon peace sign. Mangled legs in front of the American flag, with the word “Obama” in big block letters in the left corner. (Got to hand that one to them ― subtlety at its finest.)
These photos do more than disturb me; they make me angry. Created Equal argues that abortion is wrong because it is an instance of “ageism,” and therefore is unacceptable as a form of discrimination.
Well, I hadn’t heard that one before. Okay.
Frankly though, the spiel of why Created Equal is doing what they are doing doesn’t make that much of a difference to me. It’s their fear-tactic actions taken to childishly grab and shock bystanders into paying attention to them that are truly appalling. (Maybe I would take the time listen to their arguments if I wasn’t extremely distracted by the horrifying maimed fetus image behind them.)
If this organization believes fetuses are people, and are being discriminated against because of their age and inability to defend themselves, why would Created Equal parade around their “corpses” in such horribly contrived and disrespectful ways?
If these are authentic pictures of actual aborted fetuses, as Created Equal claims them to be, did they really pose these corpses with peace signs and political messages and then photograph and display such poses on blown up posters? How much personhood is Created Equal allowing fetuses to possess by exploiting their bodies in this way?
Persuasive tactics motivated by fear and shame are emotionally manipulative ways to make a point that allow no chance for individuals to critically evaluate information and make their own decisions, and the hypocrisy with which Created Equal perpetuates these tactics is sickening and disrespectful to all human life.
The only thing Created Equal has made me think recently is that I should probably avoid Turlington and the Plaza of the Americas for a good, long while.
