Students For Life of America displays panels criticizing Planned Parenthood. Image courtesy of Aydan Land.
This summer break marked the second anniversary of the Dobbs decision that overturned the precedent set by Roe v. Wade about the constitutional limits of bodily autonomy — most notably, the right to abortion.
Since 2022 when the decision was made, 14 states (most of which are clustered in the South), have overseen a total ban on abortion, even in cases dealing with protecting health of the mother. Amber Thurman, a 28-year-old woman, was one victim from lack of care in Georgia; in lieu of the shift in Georgia's law, medical professionals hesitated to perform an emergency abortion that would have saved her life.
Her story is not the only instance of a worst-case scenario coming to fruition, or even in Georgia alone. Outraged pro-life advocates have been stirring the pot with pro-life supporters all over America in the wake of Dobbs. A heated debate on the topic was brought to Salisbury University students' own backyards Sept. 24 when members of the anti-abortion group Students for Life of America came to Red Square.
Set up with cardboard panels asserting messages like "planned parenthood is toxic," the SFLA group seemed keen on getting across their very particular message about the nonprofit, with the basis of abortion in mind. One of their representatives, Lori, spoke openly about the points they were trying to communicate while being on campus.
"...Planned Parenthood does offer adoption services, they'll give you a pamphlet on what adoption is — but when 97% of women walking in who are pregnant, leave not pregnant, it kind of shows what your mission [really] is," she said. "I think they definitely could be biased since that's what they make money off of."
In regards to one of the organization's panel, she also had much to say on a perceived relationship between racism, eugenicist agendas, and abortion. "[Planned Parenthood] was founded as the Birth Control League, and they were founded to give birth control to minority communities... if you look at it on a map, [their clinics] are near colleges, they're near minority communities. That's the population they're trying to reach and they're doing the same thing... they're stopping them from having more children, they're killing their children when their children are conceived. I still think they're targeting them."
Ultimately Lori, as well as her partner in the demonstration, emphasized the need to generate discussion on the topic. "We're not here to judge anyone, obviously.... We're just here to present the facts and have conversations. We wanna help to relieve the societal pressures... I'm also not afraid to say abortion is wrong, but we're here to have a conversation and if that's gonna stop the conversation, we'll talk through it before we get there. We're providing food for thought."
Many on campus, however, were less than impressed with the conversation trying to be had, and plenty disenchanted with its presentation. Various students found a lot of the information provided to be misguided, falsified, and misrepresentative of specific marginalized communities. In Red Square at the time were Salisbury University students Janna Brickner, Addi, and Gigi, who expressed a widespread discontent with the presence of the organization on campus.
"I don't know who gave them permission to be here, they're not a student organization and don't even have a chapter on our campus," Gigi noted.
"We saw these people and we decided to just stand to hold up our own signs, let people know," Janna said, as her and other members of other SU affiliated groups started to gather around while rebutting SFLA's claims.
Students hold up hand written signs in response to SFLA's demonstration. Image courtesy of Aydan Land.
Cameron Hood, an International Studies major at Salisbury, detailed her own concerns in a statement later on. "I felt that their presence was a little off putting. I believe everyone should be able to exercise their freedom of speech, but that group in particular preys on the vulnerability of college students.. many students need information based resources in terms of sexual health, and that particular group is not giving information that would help students in that situation."
"What stood out to me was [them] trying to find a correlation between racism and abortion. People of all races should have access to healthcare, including reproductive care, without judgement. I personally just did not like the narrative of abortions being 'pushed' onto people of color and putting out the idea of 'population control.' People of color are scrutinized in terms of reproductive and child care, before and after birth."
There is still conversation amongst the student population at SU about whether or not Students for Life of America had rights or approval to be on campus, and if so, who approves them, and whether or not this was the right decision. The organization claims they rented Red Square as it is one of the university's designated Free Speech Zones, but many are inquiring if they had actual approval, and whether the organization should have been denied this approval on discretionary grounds.
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By Anna Belong
Managing Editor
Featured Images Courtesy of Aydan Land