Small, wooden crosses dotted the grass of Academic Plaza today in an effort by the Pro-Life Aggies to raise awareness of abortion statistics. Members of the organization placed the crosses in the ground early Thursday morning and stood in the plaza with signs throughout the day to talk to passing student.
According to signs held by the students, one cross represented two babies out of a total of three thousand aborted every day.
“We are just trying to raise awareness and show people a visual representation of the whole thing,” said Luke Vannorman, finance junior and active member in Pro-Life Aggies. “I know we aren’t going to convert a lot of people, but I hope students like myself even look at this and impacts them deeply.”
The Pro-Life Aggies have put on a similar event every year since their organization was founded in 2009.
“Today, we are raising the realities of abortion and that if you picture two babies lying at each one of these crosses that really hits hard,” said Allyson Hunter, president of Pro-Life Aggies. “For a lot of people I don’t think they necessarily realize how common abortion is in America.”
Laura Reid, former president of Feminists for Reproductive Equity and Education (F.R.E.E) and class of 2016, said the Pro-Life Aggies demonstration focused on the numbers instead of the emotions involved in abortion.
“When you focus on numbers of abortions that they’re claiming happening instead of the experiences people go through when having abortions, it can really skew the picture,” Reid said. “I think it’s meant to be a shock value thing, but I don’t see any positive impact from it.”
The Pro-Life Aggies got the idea for the demonstration from other campuses that participate in the event nationwide including Southern Methodist University.
“A lot of campuses around the nation have done this, so we aren’t the only campus that does it,” Vannorman said. “It’s a nationwide thing to raise awareness about abortion statistics.”
Members of Pro-Life Aggies stood in Academic Plaza throughout the day to speak with students that passed by, and Hunter said it was generally a positive response.
“We’ve actually gotten more positive responses than bad, a lot of people saying ‘Thank you for what you are doing,’” Hunter said. “Some people read the sign, and they [said] ‘Wow. That is really sad.’”
However, Reid said Pro-Life Aggies has done this event in previous years and she says it is only diversion from a more comprehensive conversation about abortion.
“I’ve seen that particular set-up before in previous years,” Reid said. “I think that it’s a way to distract from needing to talk about abortion in an empathetic way.”