Spring Break
GAP does not help facilitate on-campus abortion discussion
Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance
Issue date: 5/29/09 Section: Forum
It's springtime and that means that the arrival of the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) is imminent.
Contrary to its name, the GAP does not address what is commonly thought of as genocide, and is instead an extremist anti-abortion group that tours college campuses all over the country.
Rather than presenting their views through logical arguments or respectful discourse, they spread their message through the use of intensely disturbing images and analogies. You may remember seeing their display in the quad in previous years; the posters include extremely close-up photographs of aborted fetuses as well as images that compare abortion in America with other historical genocides.
We believe that the comparison of abortion to such atrocities as the Holocaust, the lynching of African Americans, the Cambodian killing fields and the genocide in Rwanda is inappropriate and deeply offensive to many students. These historical events killed millions of innocent people, often in an effort to effectively wipe out an entire race or ethnic group. The implication that abortion is in any way another Holocaust or genocide is not only inaccurate, but also deeply distasteful and disrespectful of those whose lives were, and continue to be, affected by such travesties. Abortion is a personal and difficult decision, and whether one agrees with the availability of this choice or not, it is unreasonable to imply that the women who make such a decision are in any way equivalent to Hitler or the Khmer Rouge.
We, the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, have consistently protested the GAP every spring based on our own political convictions and, more importantly, the ways in which they present their opinions. This year, we are working hard to develop a larger campaign against this display. We would love to have as many students as possible, from a variety of backgrounds and political ideologies, join us in voicing our aversion to the ways in which the GAP spreads its anti-abortion message. We cannot bar the group from visiting our campus; however, we can let them and other students know that the GAP's likening of abortion to genocide is hurtful, incorrect and inappropriate.
Contrary to its name, the GAP does not address what is commonly thought of as genocide, and is instead an extremist anti-abortion group that tours college campuses all over the country.
Rather than presenting their views through logical arguments or respectful discourse, they spread their message through the use of intensely disturbing images and analogies. You may remember seeing their display in the quad in previous years; the posters include extremely close-up photographs of aborted fetuses as well as images that compare abortion in America with other historical genocides.
We believe that the comparison of abortion to such atrocities as the Holocaust, the lynching of African Americans, the Cambodian killing fields and the genocide in Rwanda is inappropriate and deeply offensive to many students. These historical events killed millions of innocent people, often in an effort to effectively wipe out an entire race or ethnic group. The implication that abortion is in any way another Holocaust or genocide is not only inaccurate, but also deeply distasteful and disrespectful of those whose lives were, and continue to be, affected by such travesties. Abortion is a personal and difficult decision, and whether one agrees with the availability of this choice or not, it is unreasonable to imply that the women who make such a decision are in any way equivalent to Hitler or the Khmer Rouge.
We, the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, have consistently protested the GAP every spring based on our own political convictions and, more importantly, the ways in which they present their opinions. This year, we are working hard to develop a larger campaign against this display. We would love to have as many students as possible, from a variety of backgrounds and political ideologies, join us in voicing our aversion to the ways in which the GAP spreads its anti-abortion message. We cannot bar the group from visiting our campus; however, we can let them and other students know that the GAP's likening of abortion to genocide is hurtful, incorrect and inappropriate.
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