Good news! I got an email from the Women's Center and NARAL-NC is going to be in the brickyard tomorrow.

Right now I am the only student volunteer, and if by chance you are an NCSU student, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Usually the Women's Center gets prior notice about such events, but not this time. Justice For All was invited by the camups group Students for Life. They seriously must have set up camp in the dark.

YAY on the update! I hope you all reach a lot of people tomorrow.

Ew, this happens at my campus, too. Every year. Unfortunately, I go to a school in the South, so the outrage is pretty mild compared to northern or west coast schools.

I also go to a southern school. One with a BIG football team/program/cult.

My "favorite" anti-choice tactic from around here is when they rent a private plane to trail a message which consists of a big picture of an aborted fetus and then the plane (almost) buzzes the stadium during a home game.

Honestly it annoys more people (on both sides) than anything. Those conservatives aren't too keen on explaining the whole thing to their 5 year olds.

I was out there at the brickyard and spoke out loudly. What did I get for it? Well, they tried to have me arrested, which the campus police wouldn't do, so instead they referred me to the the Campus Disciplinary Committee for damage to their property (I tried to pull down one of the horrible posters, which is a tarp, attached by rope) and for something similar to inciting a riot.

I was the only person to speak out and was surrounded by a circle of campus pro-lifers 5 deep shooting questions to me right and left. I was on my way to math class and this is how my day ended up. There were a couple of girls agreeing with me in hushed voices, but mostly, those kids look petrified to go against it. It made me absolutely sick.

Oh, they have also banned me from "trespassing on the brickyard" despite the fact that I have a Chem exam in Dabney tomorrow and math lab in Harrelson.

This is my first semester at State. I am a 30 yr. old transfer student and have seen some things in my life, but nothing like this. It was so horrible. The mob that went with it was equally horrible, not to mention the street preacher screaming too.

To add insult to injury, the cops asked me if I was "mentally unbalanced" and if I needed to see a counselor. No seriously. I could only think "Having an opinion means that you are mentally unbalanced? What happened to our civil liberties and the women's movement?"

It saddened me to see so many young people doing nothing, not speaking out and apparently, being so supportive of this provocative, disturbing display. They will be at the school for the next two days, btw. I'm banned from the brickyard until the 23rd.

There was no one speaking out but me, and I would have loved to have you there. It has ruined my week and I really don't think that I want to go to school here anymore.

The thing that disturbs me the most about this is the signs.

On what planet are 20 foot depictions of bloody fetuses acceptable? That's just... there are no words for how insensitive, cruel and inhumane that is. Wouldn't campus police take down 20 foot pictures of, say, horribly mutilated corpses?

It's very upsetting to me that anti-choice activists claim that abortions are psychologically damaging, and then create that psychological damage by displaying pictures of aborted fetuses.

Hey Rain, I also go to NCSU and I happen to be the original poster's roommate. I wish I was on campus when you were, I would have been right there with you!

When Anna called me this morning and told me to go to the brickyard I was completely astonished at the 20 foot billboards and the crowd. I wanted to stand up for my right to choose, but I felt too scared; I felt like I would be surrounded and attacked.

I'm really sorry that this has soured your view on the school but not everyone is a narrow minded neo-conservative christian, in fact there are a lot of liberals. But it is almost always the right wing fundies who have to scream the loudest because they feel they are so oppressed. I mean you know how much discrimination those white male christians go through.

Rain,
I am sorry to hear about what happened to you. It's crazy that you are "inciting a riot" by pulling a rope, yet the brickyard preachers yell at girls for being whores. No one says anything to them. It is insane...and I wish Becky and I had been out there. Power by numbers...I bet others would have spoken out, too.

Thanks to everyone for their comments. I am so super excited about being out with NARAL tomorrow! Justice for Life will still be out there, too, so I think we should get a lot of turnout at our booth.

Demimonde,

Everyone was too scared, and yes, I was surrounded and attacked and yes, I have to go to the Disciplinary Committee for it.

You had a right to be afraid. I'm kind of fearless when it comes to things like that. I'm strong, but it does take so much out of me. I have been completely depressed all evening. I cannot concentrate on my Chem. homework and have given up on studying tonight. I even forgot about the Hort. Club meeting tonight until the last minute and dragged ass in there looking like I lost my best friend.

My boyfriend was upset when I told him about what happened. He wants me to write the chancellor about it and to write to someone even higher if I can. I don't know if it could do anything really, I mean, they let those horrible fetus pictures be on our campus, they must think that such a horrifying display is okay.

I did bring up the point that we don't make huge pictures of the soldiers blown up in Iraq, but maybe we should. I wonder how well THAT would go over.

I wish that I could be out there with you guys, I'm a huge NARAL supporter and used to be on the email list until I went through this "clean out the email box" phase (i was getting so much mail from different causes that I didn't know what to do with it all for a while).

I can't believe that I'm banned from the brickyard and they can go out there and be despicable. This sucks. Good luck to you guys, though, and watch out for those crazies, there are lots of older "Moms" that come with the group that are obviously not students and they try to start conflicts.

ooops, that post I addressed was Becky (new to site, thought names were above, not below.

I'm so glad that I found this forum and am looking at everything on it right now. Makes me feel better.

I DEFINITELY think you should write someone. Being banned from the brickyard is ridiculous! If anyone should be banned it should be Justice For Life and their billboards.

I am all for free speech but those images are in poor taste and it's not even like you can avoid it as almost every student has to walk through the brickyard at some point in the day.

I wish we could do something similar pointing out that anti-choicers try to (and have) killed physicians who perform abortions. Justice For Life could have used the money they wasted on their brickyard aborted fetus barbecue and put it towards something useful, like actual sex education classes for teens. That would prevent unwanted pregnancies and by default prevent abortions.

But then again that's an idea that actually makes sense.

Rain,
If I were in your shoes I'd be in that Brickyard with bells on tomorrow.

Banned or not, you have the right to be in a public community environment at the university you attend. Further, you have a right to have an opinion and speak your opinion.

I'd use this as an opportunity to get your voice heard for the PC movement AND for student rights.

Of course, this is just what I would do. How you feel may very well be different, but the fact is that you should not have to refrain from speaking your opinion on a public demonstration at the school you attend simply because it is an opposition to said demonstration.

To be honest I can't even comprehend how this must feel. I go to a very liberal university in Canada - extremely diverse, and not even a pro life group in sight.

Hello fellow Wolfpack ladies,

The moment I saw those absurd...billboards out on the Brickyard, I was like, "I gotta get on feministing!"

We really are not exaggerating. Those things were over twenty feet tall, hoisted on huge stands. There were three that I could see, and they made a triangle that was fenced in with security bars. The photos were graphic, and accented with much smaller signs that read, "Graphic images ahead". Of course, by the time you saw the warning, it was already too late - you were staring up at the photos of giant aborted fetuses. All this, in a popular student dining area.

I didn't have much time to read all the sections, but the section titled "This is what abortion does to your breast" jumped out at me.

I have never seen such absurd propaganda.
And I'm SO glad to see such a strong feminist reaction from my Wolfpack girls!

Those same people will be at UNC-Chapel Hill tomorrow and Thursday paid for WITH STUDENT FUNDS FROM STUDENT CONGRESS (mainly because the anti-choice agency members on campus got to vote on the student org. $$ distribution). Here is a plan that some of the pro-choice groups have come up with...

"Here's the plan:

On Wed. and Thurs. at 11:00 we'll be meeting in the pit. We're going to head over to the quad and just make a quiet, peaceful circle around the display, handing out information, condoms, etc. DO NOT ENGAGE THE DISPLAY PEOPLE! That's what they want, and they will try to argue with you. Please stand your ground because you won't make any progress, you'll just draw more attention to them. Wear Carolina blue, white or a Carolina shirt if you can, because this is a demonstration to show that we, as Carolina students, not necessarily Choice members, are upset with this program."

Good luck NCSU folks! Fight the powers that be!

Good luck, vkh and co!

This display was at the U. of Arizona a year or two ago and oddly enough, I was talking about this display with my students today before I saw this post.

As a purely imaginative exercise, I was trying to think about what kinds of images would make a counter argument to the display. Maybe pictures of all of the lost, neglected, or abused children in the world? So often it seems like the "pro-life" folks are all hopped up about fetuses but turn a blind eye to the suffering of the living. Or perhaps, images of strong confident women who were able to move forward with their lives because of their choice?

Of course, these ideas are trite because there isn't a reasonable counter visual. The anti-choice displays are so much about fear and shame and hyper-rhetoric that too often a "reasonable" counterpoint is lost in the noise they create or is forced to the opposite extreme to gain ground.

I wish you all luck with trying to voice your concerns with these displays. You're doing good work.

The "Genocide Awareness Project," an anti-choice group, comes to my campus every year with similar displays. Thanks for the counter-protest ideas, ladies!

At Georgetown (still Jesuit), the anti-choicers held an annual "candlelight vigil" on the huge front lawn, with thousands of pink and blue candles, signifying abortions. Not a 20-foot fetus, but still pretty in-your-face.

Pro-choicers were only allowed to set up a table in the much smaller 'free speech' area. They could not distribute condoms anywhere else, and RAs were forbidden from offering free condoms outside their dorm room.

And we had to *wink wink* get birth control pills for our cramps *wink wink*. Hey logic professor -- if you want to prevent abortions -- maybe make it easy for people to use contraception! Grr...

Good for you for standing up for yourself and for choice. Sometimes, it does feel lonely!

Regarding the pictures- they have been discussed here and several people mentioned that they aren't even aborted fetuses, but stillborns. The anti choice crowd loves to put up bloody pictures, but would a period or heart surgery be any less bloody or graphic?

Also, I don't necessarily agree or disagree with graphic images, because they are effective to some extent.. but images of women dead from illegal abortions would be pretty disturbing as well..that is, if you have any sort of decency and agree that WOMEN are people, too. Or, as people mentioned above, poverty-stricken BORN children, mothers on the street trying to make money to support their kids..it's sad stuff.

I agree that standing right next to them, being peaceful as can be, and being cheerful and distributing literature to educate is a great strategy.

That group or a similar group (Genocide Awareness Project maybe) also came to my school last year, with huge pictures and tables set up in front of the main student center building. It's a state school and the student anti-choice group invited them and paid for them with money from the student government association.

I don't think they've been here recently, but I may have just missed the event because I found a printout of a Genocide Awareness Project FAQ on a table in the student center where student groups can leave flyers for events and meetings; although a student could have printed it out and left it there. I read the whole thing, trying to see their side of the issue. Most of it was typical, but some things jumped out at me.

"9) Why are you calling this the Genocide Awareness Project? Abortion isn’t genocide.
There are several dictionary defi nitions of “genocide.” One is the extermination of a national group. The national group is
unborn American children. They are being genocidally killed because of the fact that they are unborn and unwanted. Gays
are using the term genocide to describe abuse and neglect of homosexuals in this country."

a) I don't understand how unborn children qualify as a national group. b) From the phrasing, I can almost guarantee that this group has some choice views about gay rights as well.

"There are very few babies available for adoption because they’re being aborted...Many of our colleagues are on waiting lists now to adopt children, but they aren’t available. They’re being killed by abortion. "