On Wednesday, October 26, Cecilia Knox, vice president of Northern Right to Life and students in her pro-life club set up a display of crosses at Northern Kentucky University as a memory to preborn children who were never given the chance to live. A few days later the students discovered that their pro-life display had been destroyed.
Northern Right to Life placed 260 crosses in the grass beside the Student Union Plaza. According to the student newspaper, The Northerner, members of the pro-life group were shocked to find that “[d]ays after Knox stuck the crosses into the grass beside the Student Union Plaza, someone pulled the crosses out of the ground and tore the sign that read, ‘Each cross represents 10 babies that die by abortion each day.'” A similar incident happened to the group after they set up a cross display on campus in 2013. Student Hannah Jackson posted this status on Twitter:
Before…After @nkuedu are you going to do anything about this? pic.twitter.com/JshVJP9SAQ
— therealhannahjackson (@han__ban) October 28, 2016
Freshman student Michael Bailey, upon discovering that the display had been vandalized, tried to fix it as best as he could because “it felt like the right thing to do.”
The Northerner also detailed students’ reactions. Some, like Knox, observed that some advocate for tolerance but aren’t willing to extend that tolerance to those who publicly express pro-life beliefs. Knox also said she felt that both she and the display set up by the students were disrespected. The Northerner also noted:
“People always talk about, ‘Please respect other people’s beliefs,’ and I don’t know, it’s scary,” Knox said. “Clearly [they] do not respect others’ beliefs by vandalizing property. I was taken aback.”
Instances of vandalism against pro-life displays, especially on college campuses, seem to be on the rise. Just last week, on the same day that the Northern Kentucky University pro-life display was destroyed, Georgetown University’s Right to Life pro-life chalk display was also destroyed.
Earlier this year, Campus Reform also reported instances of aggression towards pro-lifers at the University of California-Davis. On that campus, Students for Life were distributing pro-life materials and polling students on whether or not later term abortions should remain legal in California. Counter-protesters were quick to disrupt the pro-lifers, throwing pro-life materials to the ground and even harassing the pro-life students.
The vandalism of peaceful pro-life displays contradicts abortion advocates’ claim that they are in favor of “choice.”
