Post by Jesse Morrell on Oct 22, 2006 23:39:31 GMT -5
(Jason Storm send out links to these two articles in an email)
WEB UPDATE: Pro and anti-abortion rights protesters square off near Kogan
by Brandon Butler
Senior News Editor
An abortion demonstration broke out on campus Thursday when three anti-abortion organizations came to Foggy Bottom as part of a nationwide tour.
Nearly 150 GW abortion rights activists gathered throughout the afternoon to counter-protest several dozen anti-abortion activists outside Kogan Plaza. About 10 University Police Department officers monitored the scene during the conflict, though UPD Chief Dolores Stafford said no one was written up or arrested. Stafford added that Metropolitan Police Department officers arrived at the scene mid-afternoon.
The anti-abortion activists, including several children, stopped at GW as part of the "Face the Truth" tour of the Virginia, Maryland and D.C. region, which began Monday. Activists traveled from as far away as Wisconsin, Arkansas and Florida to participate in the week-long tour.
Some students used signs, chants and megaphones to counter the protesters, who also had megaphones. The anti-abortion activists used large posters and graphic images of aborted fetuses as well as read scriptures from the Bible.
"It's a shame that there is not more discussion about this subject," said Nathan Buchinger, who traveled to D.C. from Wisconsin to participate in the tour. "We try to give a rational viewpoint from the Bible, with reason as well."
In the early afternoon, the number of students reached its peak with about 150 anti-abortion activists standing on the North side of H Street, directly across the street from where the anti-abortion demonstrators stood.
"These images are inappropriate," said Amanda Bates, a senior on the executive board of Voices for Choices, a student organization.
"I found out they were on campus at 11:30 and sent out an e-mail and said anyone with a pro-choice t-shirt ? should come out and show support."
She said several dozen members from Voices for Choices counter-protested.
-Eric Roper and Kaitlyn Jahrling contributed to this report.
SOURCE: www.gwhatchet.com/media/storage/paper332/news/2006/10/19/News/Web-Update.Pro.And.AntiAbortion.Rights.Protesters.Square.Off.Near.Kogan-2377894.shtml?norewrite200610230035&sourcedomain=www.gwhatchet.com
Impromptu abortion protest fires up campus
By Andrew Springer
KOGAN PLAZA—Tensions ran high yesterday afternoon when H Street became the center of an impromptu protest with a pro-life group on one side and pro-choice students on the other. What some estimate as hundreds of students turned up just outside the Marvin Center and Crawford Hall to counter speeches and signs by a religious Pro-Life group with chanting, homemade posters, and a bullhorn.
Students began congregating around 1 p.m. and eventually, by word of mouth and cell-phones, the crowd had swelled to a full-on protest by 2 p.m..
Fueling the fire was a non-student group called Life and Liberty Ministries out of Richmond, Virginia. Ben Bloedorn was one of those behind the pro-life group’s bullhorn; the 18-year-old Wisconsin native said he’s here to preach the Gospel and tell people about abortion.
His message: “Life really does start at conception and it’s an amazing process and these children deserve a hope, a voice for the voiceless," he shouted.
Bloedorn said the group of 35 came to have a discussion with students. “But it doesn’t work well when nobody listens," he said.
Amanda Bates ’07 is on the Executive Board of the student organization Voices for Choices. Members from the pro-choice group lined up to stand front of the speakers from Life and Liberty Ministries with pro-choice signs. She said, “We don’t engage in debate, we don’t see the point.”
“We won’t stand for this kind of behavior on our campus,” said Bates who had been there since about 1 p.m. “We’re just showing that we’re on campus, we’re a loud voice, and that we don’t need to say anything, we can just stand there.”
Students on the opposite side of the street however took a more vocal approach. They cheered slogans such as “Out of My girl thingy, Out of My Campus” and “My Body, My Choice.”
Mellisa Houle ’09 came out of her room in Crawford when she heard that there were protesters. After one of the pro-life demonstrators yelled at her, she says she went and got a drum to drown them out. “They’re trying to use these signs as propaganda; they’re not even pictures of aborted fetuses…that’s not even what an aborted fetus looks like,” said Houle.
Many students first noticed the pro-life demonstrators earlier in the day. Members of Life and Liberty Ministries stood at the corners of various intersections on campus holding large posters with graphic pictures of allegedly aborted fetuses. Bloedorn claimed the pictures on the posters were not fake, and that the man who took the photos would not eat for days “because he was so disgusted by what he saw.”
“I’d say 80 percent of the people here are pro-choice, and that most people in our school are pro-choice, " said Lindsay Wadman ’09, a pro-choice student who served as a clinic escort at Planned Parenthood and one of many who felt offended by the posters and came to protest.
The pro-choice students brought out their own bullhorn to match the pro-life speakers across the street. One student to take the bullhorn was Student Association President Lamar Thorpe ’07 leading chants and cheering on the crowd.
While he went on the record with no comment about the protesters, Thorpe added, “I’m a Democrat and these are the causes I believe in.” When one student started to yell at one of the pro-life demonstrators who had approached them, Thorpe responded into the bullhorn, “Don’t pick fights people, because the President is on your side.”
Other pro-choice students rushed to make posters. Samantha Diercher ’10 was out running errands when she ran into the protest. When she saw what she describes as mayhem, she went to the bookstore, bought poster board and a marker, and made a sign that read “Choose Choice.”
Joshua Lederman ’08 also held up a homemade sign, his reading, “How dare you exploit your children to save someone else’s fetus,” in reference to the children that were part of the Life and Liberty Ministry’s demonstration. “They’re essentially brainwashing their own children, and it’s exploiting and perverting them,” said Lerderman. “They don’t have a choice whether or not they want to believe in this and kids shouldn’t even see these kinds of images.”
Faith Defgrio, one of the pro-life demonstrators from Life and Liberty, acknowledges that families were a part of the demonstration. Against chants of “go home” from students across the street, Defgrio defended the group’s mission. “We’re here… to raise awareness of the sins, the murder of these unborn babies called abortions and also to preach the love of Jesus Christ.”
She says, and Bloedorn confirms, the group was met with a similar response at a similar demonstration Wednesday at Virginia Commonwealth University. “We come from many different areas, we’re not all from around here,” adding that no GW student is a member of the group.
Peter Glessing ’08, director of public relations for the student pro-life organization, Colonials for Life, was at the protest yesterday, and said that he had no idea there was going to be a demonstration.
“I’m really saddened by this,” said Glessing. “Our organization has worked so hard to try and elevate the debate on the issue of abortion.” He points to last week’s debate as an example of his organization’s efforts to do so.
“While we’re strongly pro-life, we don’t agree with the tactics of shoving these images in people’s faces…. This is absolutely counter productive to the pro-life cause,” said Glessing.
GW College Republicans Chairman Gary Livacari ’07 sent out a statement late Wednesday night criticizing not only the demonstrators from outside the GW campus, but also the student pro-choice protestors.
“We believe today’s graphical exhibition of slain unborn children was gratuitous and insensitive,” reads the e-mail statement. “However, we strongly condemn the malicious display of rhetorical force that was demonstrated by GW’s radical feminist community. On a college campus, all opinions and all points-of-view should be allowed a fair and respectful hearing. Sadly this was not the case on Thursday afternoon in Kogan Plaza.”
University Police Chief Dolores Stafford sent out a statement to student media saying that the protest went smoothly, and that no one was written up or arrested. She added that since the event occurred on a public street, the Metro Police Department was the lead agency and allowed the protests to continue without a permit as long as they agreed to not block thru traffic.
By 4 p.m., the crowd began to thin out said Deicher as the pro-life speakers had stopped. She said that toward the end, the protesters broke into smaller groups—some to debate and some to argue. By 6 p.m., H Street had returned to its somewhat normal state.
SOURCE: www.dailycolonial.com/go.dc?p=3&s=3248
WEB UPDATE: Pro and anti-abortion rights protesters square off near Kogan
by Brandon Butler
Senior News Editor
An abortion demonstration broke out on campus Thursday when three anti-abortion organizations came to Foggy Bottom as part of a nationwide tour.
Nearly 150 GW abortion rights activists gathered throughout the afternoon to counter-protest several dozen anti-abortion activists outside Kogan Plaza. About 10 University Police Department officers monitored the scene during the conflict, though UPD Chief Dolores Stafford said no one was written up or arrested. Stafford added that Metropolitan Police Department officers arrived at the scene mid-afternoon.
The anti-abortion activists, including several children, stopped at GW as part of the "Face the Truth" tour of the Virginia, Maryland and D.C. region, which began Monday. Activists traveled from as far away as Wisconsin, Arkansas and Florida to participate in the week-long tour.
Some students used signs, chants and megaphones to counter the protesters, who also had megaphones. The anti-abortion activists used large posters and graphic images of aborted fetuses as well as read scriptures from the Bible.
"It's a shame that there is not more discussion about this subject," said Nathan Buchinger, who traveled to D.C. from Wisconsin to participate in the tour. "We try to give a rational viewpoint from the Bible, with reason as well."
In the early afternoon, the number of students reached its peak with about 150 anti-abortion activists standing on the North side of H Street, directly across the street from where the anti-abortion demonstrators stood.
"These images are inappropriate," said Amanda Bates, a senior on the executive board of Voices for Choices, a student organization.
"I found out they were on campus at 11:30 and sent out an e-mail and said anyone with a pro-choice t-shirt ? should come out and show support."
She said several dozen members from Voices for Choices counter-protested.
-Eric Roper and Kaitlyn Jahrling contributed to this report.
SOURCE: www.gwhatchet.com/media/storage/paper332/news/2006/10/19/News/Web-Update.Pro.And.AntiAbortion.Rights.Protesters.Square.Off.Near.Kogan-2377894.shtml?norewrite200610230035&sourcedomain=www.gwhatchet.com
Impromptu abortion protest fires up campus
By Andrew Springer
KOGAN PLAZA—Tensions ran high yesterday afternoon when H Street became the center of an impromptu protest with a pro-life group on one side and pro-choice students on the other. What some estimate as hundreds of students turned up just outside the Marvin Center and Crawford Hall to counter speeches and signs by a religious Pro-Life group with chanting, homemade posters, and a bullhorn.
Students began congregating around 1 p.m. and eventually, by word of mouth and cell-phones, the crowd had swelled to a full-on protest by 2 p.m..
Fueling the fire was a non-student group called Life and Liberty Ministries out of Richmond, Virginia. Ben Bloedorn was one of those behind the pro-life group’s bullhorn; the 18-year-old Wisconsin native said he’s here to preach the Gospel and tell people about abortion.
His message: “Life really does start at conception and it’s an amazing process and these children deserve a hope, a voice for the voiceless," he shouted.
Bloedorn said the group of 35 came to have a discussion with students. “But it doesn’t work well when nobody listens," he said.
Amanda Bates ’07 is on the Executive Board of the student organization Voices for Choices. Members from the pro-choice group lined up to stand front of the speakers from Life and Liberty Ministries with pro-choice signs. She said, “We don’t engage in debate, we don’t see the point.”
“We won’t stand for this kind of behavior on our campus,” said Bates who had been there since about 1 p.m. “We’re just showing that we’re on campus, we’re a loud voice, and that we don’t need to say anything, we can just stand there.”
Students on the opposite side of the street however took a more vocal approach. They cheered slogans such as “Out of My girl thingy, Out of My Campus” and “My Body, My Choice.”
Mellisa Houle ’09 came out of her room in Crawford when she heard that there were protesters. After one of the pro-life demonstrators yelled at her, she says she went and got a drum to drown them out. “They’re trying to use these signs as propaganda; they’re not even pictures of aborted fetuses…that’s not even what an aborted fetus looks like,” said Houle.
Many students first noticed the pro-life demonstrators earlier in the day. Members of Life and Liberty Ministries stood at the corners of various intersections on campus holding large posters with graphic pictures of allegedly aborted fetuses. Bloedorn claimed the pictures on the posters were not fake, and that the man who took the photos would not eat for days “because he was so disgusted by what he saw.”
“I’d say 80 percent of the people here are pro-choice, and that most people in our school are pro-choice, " said Lindsay Wadman ’09, a pro-choice student who served as a clinic escort at Planned Parenthood and one of many who felt offended by the posters and came to protest.
The pro-choice students brought out their own bullhorn to match the pro-life speakers across the street. One student to take the bullhorn was Student Association President Lamar Thorpe ’07 leading chants and cheering on the crowd.
While he went on the record with no comment about the protesters, Thorpe added, “I’m a Democrat and these are the causes I believe in.” When one student started to yell at one of the pro-life demonstrators who had approached them, Thorpe responded into the bullhorn, “Don’t pick fights people, because the President is on your side.”
Other pro-choice students rushed to make posters. Samantha Diercher ’10 was out running errands when she ran into the protest. When she saw what she describes as mayhem, she went to the bookstore, bought poster board and a marker, and made a sign that read “Choose Choice.”
Joshua Lederman ’08 also held up a homemade sign, his reading, “How dare you exploit your children to save someone else’s fetus,” in reference to the children that were part of the Life and Liberty Ministry’s demonstration. “They’re essentially brainwashing their own children, and it’s exploiting and perverting them,” said Lerderman. “They don’t have a choice whether or not they want to believe in this and kids shouldn’t even see these kinds of images.”
Faith Defgrio, one of the pro-life demonstrators from Life and Liberty, acknowledges that families were a part of the demonstration. Against chants of “go home” from students across the street, Defgrio defended the group’s mission. “We’re here… to raise awareness of the sins, the murder of these unborn babies called abortions and also to preach the love of Jesus Christ.”
She says, and Bloedorn confirms, the group was met with a similar response at a similar demonstration Wednesday at Virginia Commonwealth University. “We come from many different areas, we’re not all from around here,” adding that no GW student is a member of the group.
Peter Glessing ’08, director of public relations for the student pro-life organization, Colonials for Life, was at the protest yesterday, and said that he had no idea there was going to be a demonstration.
“I’m really saddened by this,” said Glessing. “Our organization has worked so hard to try and elevate the debate on the issue of abortion.” He points to last week’s debate as an example of his organization’s efforts to do so.
“While we’re strongly pro-life, we don’t agree with the tactics of shoving these images in people’s faces…. This is absolutely counter productive to the pro-life cause,” said Glessing.
GW College Republicans Chairman Gary Livacari ’07 sent out a statement late Wednesday night criticizing not only the demonstrators from outside the GW campus, but also the student pro-choice protestors.
“We believe today’s graphical exhibition of slain unborn children was gratuitous and insensitive,” reads the e-mail statement. “However, we strongly condemn the malicious display of rhetorical force that was demonstrated by GW’s radical feminist community. On a college campus, all opinions and all points-of-view should be allowed a fair and respectful hearing. Sadly this was not the case on Thursday afternoon in Kogan Plaza.”
University Police Chief Dolores Stafford sent out a statement to student media saying that the protest went smoothly, and that no one was written up or arrested. She added that since the event occurred on a public street, the Metro Police Department was the lead agency and allowed the protests to continue without a permit as long as they agreed to not block thru traffic.
By 4 p.m., the crowd began to thin out said Deicher as the pro-life speakers had stopped. She said that toward the end, the protesters broke into smaller groups—some to debate and some to argue. By 6 p.m., H Street had returned to its somewhat normal state.
SOURCE: www.dailycolonial.com/go.dc?p=3&s=3248