An abortion education group hosted an exhibit in the Union Oval, drawing student interest and protest.
Created Equal has been touring around the country for 2-and-a-half years going to different college campuses to talk to students about abortion.
The organization puts pictures on display of aborted babies so people who walk through campus can easily see them.
“[Our goal is] to raise awareness on contemporary age discrimination which is abortion,” said Mark Harrington, the executive director of Created Equal.
The argument of age discrimination is that babies are aborted because they are just babies and cannot speak up for themselves, Harrington said.
“Babies aren’t developed because they are younger; we are discriminating based on age,” he said. “Every reason for abortion is they are younger. They aren’t as developed as other people. We don’t discriminate based on age.”
To get people to stop and talk to them, the Created Equal volunteers offered brochures and asked people’s opinions on abortion.
“We respect people’s views,” Harrington said. “We don’t shout … or force people to stop.”
An opposing view present at the exhibit were members of the Feminist Organization Raising Consciousness and Empowerment.
Senior and president of FORCE, Alexandra Lahey, heard Created Equal was coming to the University so she organized the protest.
“It makes me mad that [Created Equal] manipulates people into thinking the way they think,” she said. “They use a ‘social justice’ way to frame their views when in reality what they are doing is not social justice.”
While the group is for abortion, they do not call themselves pro-choice.
“We want students to get pumped about reproductive justice,” Lahey said. “That’s what we really believe in,”
One of the students who stopped to hear both sides was freshman Abby Zerull.
“I talked to the [pro-choice] group and I talked to the pro-life group because I wanted to see the differing opinions of both,” Zerull said.
Since Zerull talked to both of the groups, she was able to make a clearer opinion for herself and what she believes in.
“I think it’s interesting the boldness that Created Equal has by showing all of these [abortion] pictures that aren’t cleaned up,” she said. “They are being truthful about abortion.”
Junior Bill Kennedy protested with FORCE because he said he wanted to stand up for justice.
Kennedy believes women should have the right to abortion because if the government tries to control their bodies, soon it will try to control men’s as well.
No matter what side people were on, Created Equal came to the University to help educate people who weren’t sure what to think, Harrington said.
“Our target audience is the folks in the middle, the people that haven’t given it a lot of thought,” Harrington said. “Those are the ones that generally have questions.”
