The Center for Bio-Ethical Reform (CBR) came to Tech this week to present information for its Genocide Awareness Project campaign. The CBR is an organization standing against abortion, and its Genocide Awareness Project display juxtaposes images of aborted fetuses with images of victims of historical and contemporary genocides. According to the CBR’s website, the Genocide Awareness Project has been used to reach college campuses for the past 17 years.
"Our main purpose in being here with the Genocide Awareness Project is to show students two things,” said Maggie Egger, a representative of the CBR. “The first thing we want to show is that the unborn is a human being just like you and I, and the second thing we want to show is that abortion decapitates and dismembers that human being.”
The CBR set up their displays in front of the entrance to the library Wednesday and Thursday. Representatives from the CBR handed out pamphlets about the campaign to students that walked by. While some members of the student body enjoyed having the displays here on campus, others stood around the area to protest against the CBR’s message.
“We’ve gotten a lot of varied responses,” said Egger. “We have a couple of people out here protesting, which we actually like because it creates more of a buzz around campus. We’ve also had several students come by and thank us for being here.”
Dylan Gardner, a freshman chemistry major, said that the displays the CBR had set up on campus were disgusting. Gardner also didn’t like the fact that they were comparing abortion to genocide.
“I understand the comparison to murder since they believe that it is a life, but genocide is simply the wrong word for what they are trying to describe, “ said Gardner. “They believe that it is a life, so they’re comparing what is just one life being killed to the forced labor, mass murder and torture of Jewish people, Africans, African-Americans and other groups. They’re minimizing what those groups of people went through.”
Patrick Kent, a graduate student at Tech studying chemical engineering, said that he believed what the CBR was doing on campus was a good thing, even though the images were not very appealing to look at.
“The images are disturbing, but I like the message they are sending out,” said Kent. “I’m definitely against abortion. I don’t see any reason that is fully justifiable for getting an abortion, so I think that having these people here is a very good thing. The pictures make an impact.”
Some students expressed that they don’t like it at all when organizations with campaigns like this set up on campus.
“They are using scare tactics and lack factual evidence,” said Christa Cody, a senior computer science major. “They set up to become a spectacle and not to actually inform anyone.“
Dylan Duvall, a junior chemistry major, said that he originally thought the displays were food menus, but was disappointed when he realized that it was just another organization on campus trying to push an idea on students.
