Ethical Reform? Try Again.

Once again, an anti-abortion group (the Center for Bio-ethical Reform -warning: disturbing photos and videos) has deemed it necessary to grace our fine campus with pictures of disfigured fetuses. This time, there's a different twist. They're calling it the "Genocide Awareness Campaign." And this time, they're not driving around in a truck with the pictures on the sides, they're not flying by with a banner hanging from a plane, they've set up shop in the "Designated Free Speech" area in the Union oval. I find this offensive and insulting.

As someone who is against abortion in nearly all cases, even I find it to be in poor taste to pull such a stunt. There is no reason why people walking to class across campus should have to be faced with such images against their will. There are better, more effective ways to prove a point.

Not only are they showing pictures of the results of abortions, they are comparing it to numerous historic 'ethnic cleansing' genocide campaigns. As pedestrians approach the display they first encounter signs that read "Warning: Genocide Photos Ahead." Several of the banners bear symbols of the Nazi movement in Germany. One reads "Different motives, different methods, same results." This banner has a photo of a mass grave from an 'ethnic cleansing' catastrophe in former Yugoslavia next to a picture of the remains of an aborted fetus. I think their own caption really says it all, though, "Different motives, different methods."

Dictionary.com defines genocide as "the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group."
A woman choosing to abort a fetus - for whatever reason - can hardly be equated to the targeted, systematic and willful destruction of an entire group of people. To do so is to insult the intelligence of the average passer-by and to de-emphasize the incredibly tragic and catastrophic nature of such genocide campaigns as the Holocaust, the conflict in Kosovo and the ongoing conflicts in Africa.

Furthermore, the campaign is apparently using the term 'hate crime' to describe the act of abortion. Again, this is a blatant attempt to use a loaded word to sensationalize their demonstration and elicit an emotional response in lieu of an intelligent, informed one. To compare abortion to hate crimes is to do a disservice to those people and families effected by such tragedies as the Matthew Shepard case.

Finally, I find it offensive that the group would engage in such actions for another reason. Imagine if you were someone who had been forced to deal with the decision to abort a pregnancy because the birth would have risked the life of the mother, or if the pregnancy was the result of a rape or similar traumatic abusive experience. Now imagine walking by those images and being reminded not only of the guilt you might feel from the decision, but also the pain of the original experience. Does this seem fair? Does this seem ethical?

I think not.

I think the Center for Bio-ethical Reform needs to seriously re-evaluate its priorities and methods and think very hard about exactly what their display is doing. The goal should be to educate, not to shock and disturb. Coming from someone who falls mostly on the anti-abortion side of the issue, even I find it offensive, and I think if they continue to communicate their message by such means, they risk alienating the very people they are seeking to educate.