The Wake

Some were supportive, some were appalled but most passersby in front of the Coffman Memorial Union bookstore just stared as they passed an assortment of plastic fetuses, one inch in length, sprawled on a table amongst pro-life/anti-abortion literature as a part of Students for Family Values (SFV) table.

SFV President Martin Andrade and three other members of the self-proclaimed non-partisan conservative group set up their pro-life table near the escalator outside the bookstore for about three hours on Nov. 21. The group says it decided to hand out the plastic fetuses to draw attention to their table and to the issues surrounding abortion.

“There is the abstract concept that some people have that, ‘well maybe its alive, but you can’t really see it,’” Andrade said, “but when you see that this is how big it is and this is what it looks like you get an idea that a fetus is real and it is human.”

The plastic replicas represent a fetus at 11-12 weeks, the first trimester of pregnancy, SFV member Amber Shoemaker said.

“(The fetuses) are just a device to attract people to the table so they can see more of our pamphlets and discuss the issue with us,” Shoemaker said.

Andrade said that SFV wanted to have a table on the abortion issue as a response to the Nov. 5 congressional ban on partial-birth abortion.

“(SFV) is in total support of the (partial-birth abortion ban) because we think it is a step in the right direction for the pro-life movement,” Andrade said.

“What we were shooting for here today with this table is impact,” he said.

Several students debated the members on several aspects of abortion.

One woman argued with SFV members over whether abortions make women susceptible to breast cancer. The woman wore a t-shirt with emboldened with the words “I love pro-choice boys.”

Several students who stopped at the table said they thought the plastic fetuses were offensive and an exaggeration of the issue.

University Choice Coalition (UCC) President Karen Brummond, who did not see the table, said she had heard about it from other UCC members and thought it very offensive.

“Many of our members walked by and were disgusted by the lack of taste and complete sensationalism that Students for Family Values is willing to use to deliver their message,” Brummond said. “Plastic fetuses aren’t what I think of when I imagine what families should value.”

Andrade said he was pleased with the number of people who saw the table as distasteful.

“I want people to be offended that we would even consider challenging their sacred right to kill a child,” Andrade said.

Brummond said the plastic fetuses only cloud the issue.

“It would be nice if we had a campus where student groups would deliver their message in the most positive way possible,” he said. “Unfortunately, negative, insensitive actions like this seem to prevail among certain groups,” she said.

SFV member Shoemaker, a nursing junior, said she was pleased with how many people responded to the table no matter which side of the issue they were on.

“We wanted to attract people to the table and the fetuses did that,” she said.

Joel Flake, a computer science freshman who visited the table in support of the recent partial-birth abortion ban, said he didn’t see anything wrong with SFV handing out plastic fetuses to get their message across.

“This table is only controversial if you hate God,” Flake said.

Philosophy senior Joe Turgeon, who talked with the SFV members at the table, said he wasn’t so much offended by the table as he was discouraged by the method the group chose to convey their message.

“With the abortion issue, like a lot of issues, it seems like different viewpoints on campus have become polarized from one another,” Turgeon said.

Turgeon said that groups, like SFV, that have tables don’t really provide a moderated venue for people with opposing viewpoints to understand each other.

“There is not really a lot of dialogue between groups with opposing viewpoints,” he said.

Turgeon said SFV’s message would be better served if they engaged in a moderated debate with reproductive rights groups instead of just having a one-sided table.

UCC President Brummond said her group has never really considered a formal debate. Instead, she said the UCC is planning an event this spring that will focus on the “so-called ‘partial-birth’ abortion plan.”

Andrade said SFV plans to have more tables throughout the year that deal with family values. He hopes future tables will spark debate like the abortion table.