Anti-abortion protesters stir up debate on campus

By Fabian Mayer, January 21 2016 —

A group protesting abortions with graphic images of aborted fetuses provoked discussion on campus Thursday. The group set up with posters and pamphlets between MacHall and the Taylor Family Digital Library.

Alex vande Bruinhorst was one of three individuals holding posters and handing out pamphlets from the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform.

“We ask people what they think, we hear them out as to why they support it or why they’re against it and we try to obviously change their mind,” he said.

Vande Bruinhorst claimed showing people the images makes them less likely to have an abortion.

“We’ve found when people wanted to fight an injustice the most effective way was just to show people the evidence of both the injustice, as well as the victims who are being harmed by that injustice,” he said.

Vande Bruinhorst was confronted by students who believe the group should not force students to look at the images. He argued that students have the option to disregard the posters.

“We’re not grabbing anybody and forcing them to look at our signs,” vande Bruinhorst said. “They could just turn away.”

Abigail Barth was one of the students who stopped to speak with the protestors. The masters of social work student believes showing these images at universities is irresponsible.

“We know that there is a high prevalence of sexual assault on campuses continent-wide and it runs the risk of retraumatizing these women and men who have been in a vulnerable situation and in the case of the women, might have had to have an abortion,” Barth said.

First-year masters of science student Douglas Doyle Baker also engaged with the protesters. He was upset by the images for other reasons.

“What I mostly took issue with today was being filmed. I didn’t know I was being filmed until I glanced over,” he said.

The group says it films only for security purposes and claims the footage has been deleted.