Students for Life hosted an anti-abortion demonstration Sept. 20 on the Quad. The demonstration, titled ‘The Graveyard of the Innocents,’ displayed 670 wooden crosses hammered into the dirt to represent the number of chemical abortions taking place in the U.S. daily, Adam Bishop said, the risk manager for Students for Life.
Members of the organization began hammering the crosses into the ground around 10 a.m. As people walked through the Quad, the members answered questions and started discussions.
“We really just want to start conversations. I think a lot of people assume that it’s just an abortion here and there, and we do believe that every single one of these crosses, every single one of these lives that have been lost were valuable,” Haley Wilson said, the vice president of Students for Life. “We just want to invoke a little bit of emotion in people, show people that this is not just a here and there thing.”
The planning for this demonstration began last week when the organization’s regional coordinator contacted them with the idea. After getting approval from the U&I two days before the demonstration, the coordinator drove from Columbia, MoO to give the organization the crosses.
Whitney Pavely, a member of Students for Life, was glad to see the demonstration as she walked by, echoing Wilson’s sentiments. Pavely said she hopes people will think about how big the matter is once they see the number of crosses.
Another passerby, sophomore Peyton Cheek, thought the demonstration was unnecessary.
“I’m pro-choice personally, just because everyone’s personal values have a say in things. Visually looking at it, it kind of caught me off guard. The representation seems very unappealing,” Cheek said. “I feel like there are better ways to express your voice on matters like that.”