Thursday Oct 10, Created Equal, an anti-abortion activist group, set up camp at the North Quad outside of FLITE.
The group is based out of Columbus, Ohio, and their primary mission statement is “be a part of this historic battle for equality.”
They erected a giant billboard-like screen that flipped through multiple graphic images showing different fetal abortion outcomes.
A specific picture was shown multiple times, and it was a picture of Martin Luther King Jr. during his “I have a dream” speech. The monitor would constantly cycle through the graphic images with MLK’s speech playing in the background.
The group also put up about a dozen signs around the North Quad, creating a base for their workers to move around and make it easier to talk to someone who walked through their demonstration.
Created Equal had around six workers plus their own security guard posted under the monitor that were in attendance for the event.
“We are out here to educate people and show people what abortion does,” one of the Created Equal reps said. “There is no way of showing abortion without being graphic because abortion is a graphic procedure that brutally rips apart a human being limb for limb.”
The representative went on saying how they had to show people what abortion looks like to make others feel bad about getting an abortion because “it is an action of killing another human being.”
Some students engaged while others tried to avoid the display by staying in the University Center. While trying to avoid the north quad, the monitor was big enough to still see the graphic images inside the building.
Even when in The Quad Café some patrons were disturbed having to see the images while eating.
“I just became aware of [the demonstration] when I came into the UC and looked out the window.…I am very uncomfortable with that,” Ferris professor of communications Dr. Sandy Alspach said.
The demonstration was set up around 8 a.m. and lasted until 3 p.m. Students have been talking about the controversial topic on either if it was right for them to show up and display the graphic images or not and the display will likely be talked for days to come.