Last week, the Daily 49er printed an article about the Genocide Awareness Project. Contrary to what some believe, the pictures GAP uses are authentic and depict the reality of abortion.
If abortion is designed to terminate that life by vacuuming or tearing up the child, what does it look like? GAP encourages students to see the evidence in these pictures and to challenge them to do their own research. Just by seeing the image of prenatal development, like the one featured in GAP, is enough to see that life is not just a clump of tissue—it is a human life. What abortion does to that human life is saddening and horrifying.
People need to ask themselves exactly why they feel these images make them uncomfortable. The images are uncomfortable and graphic because abortion is uncomfortable and graphic. I remember having the hardest time looking at those images, and what made me uncomfortable was that it was really happening. The event displays graphic images of a graphic realty.
GAP came to share peaceful conversation with students—to show the humanity of the unborn. The media has become a powerful and effective means for communication and that is what GAP does with these images. They were there to inform, spread an awareness of abortion, and back up their claims with scientific arguments—that science teaches that human life begins at conception, that the heart beat begins at 3 weeks, brain waves can be detected at 6 weeks, and once conceived, the child’s DNA is separate and unique to that of its mother. It was two days of trying to break the silence and have a conversation our country needs. What was disappointing was the protesters’ discouragement of any discussion with signs saying, “Do not engage” or “Want to help? Just walk away. Do not engage.” Were they attempting to silence GAP because the prolife side was actually making sense and was more compelling than theirs? Amazing conversations occurred on GAP’s side but what did protesters really gain? High-fives and “support” without any real dialog. As the dozens of students who talked to GAP know, they were peaceful, respectful, and stated their case with reason and logic.
In the United States, there are approximately 1.21 million abortions that take place each year, and since Roe v. Wade in 1973, there have been more than 57 million abortions in our country. That is one third of our generation lost to abortion. GAP seeks to bring awareness to the genocide of the modern day. The word “genocide” by definition, according to the United Nations is, “a denial of the right of existence of entire human groups, as homicide is the denial of the right to live of individual human being.” Genocides, also according to the UN, can be “Many instances crimes of genocide have occurred when racial, religious, political, and other groups have been destroyed or in part.” There are many ways genocide happens, and genocides throughout history are all very horrific tragedies, different and particular in their own way. What these genocides have in common is that a human group is denied the right to exist on the grounds mentioned by the UN. So the question is, who is the group being targeted and on what grounds? By this definition, GAP brings awareness that the human group being attacked is the unborn, and the grounds for which their existence is denied, is their unwantedness.
Dear students, challenge yourselves to see the truth of abortion: research human development to see when life in the womb begins, and ENGAGE and inform yourselves with what is happening today. It may be hard to look at; it may make you sick; it may make you sad, heartbroken, or angry, but channel those feelings towards ending this injustice, towards a future that recognizes the humanity of those in the womb and for a future willing to support struggling mothers.