 "Photo: Greg Elliott")
On Wednesday morning, members of Justice For All: Students for Bio-Ethical Equality set up massive 18-foot displays featuring images of aborted fetuses. Any student walking by the Gregory Gym couldn't help but notice the displays, which will remain standing through Thursday.
"We want to take something that's really an abstract issue and make people talk about it, and get people to voice their opinions," said Daniel Susong, JFA president.
To promote dialogue, JFA paid people to approach students gazing upon the enormous displays and engage them in a discussion about their beliefs on choice.
JFA first brought the display to campus in 2001 and then again in 2003.
"It's too expensive to have every year, and we figure by having it every two years, everyone will get to see it," Susong said.
On Wednesday, as in the past, many students took issue with the graphic nature of the images. Some students covered their eyes, while others kept focus on the ground in front of them.
"I think that it's a factually dubious, misleading, grotesque display that doesn't achieve what they think it will," said Voices for Choice president Ali Puente, a government junior. "I think they're hoping to disgust people enough to convert them to their side."
Susong, however, maintained that displaying the images in such a manner is absolutely necessary.
"The images depict the act, and if you don't like the images, maybe you need to rethink the act," he said.
His opinion was affirmed by a number of students.
"It kind of gives you the reality which you don't get to see," said Daisy Reyes, a textile and apparel junior. "The images speak for themselves."
One panel in the display likened abortion to genocide, showing an aborted fetus under pictures of the Holocaust, Native-American slaughter, the Cambodian genocide and lynchings of African-Americans. Susong justified the image by referring to fetuses as an unprotected class.
"It's not only wrong to call it genocide, it's completely abusive," said Puente. "It trivializes the Holocaust and the Cambodian genocide and what happened to African-Americans."
Justice For All also set up a number of white marker boards to allow students to express their opinions.
Most of the comments involved students making contentious arguments, but not all. Some of the less serious responses included "Go read 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles,'" and "Babies are the new white meat."
Down the street on Speedway, Voices for Choice set up their own giant banners as a protest to the Justice For All display. They provided information about the legality of abortion and discussed the issue of legal versus illegal abortions.
Puente emphasized that the point of their display was to provide a peaceful protest that stood apart from the Justice For All message and added that ignoring them is probably the best way to handle the issue.
The campus chapter of the International Socialist Organiz-ation, however, chose a different approach, standing beside the Justice For All display with signs featuring slogans such as "Keep your rosaries off my ovaries."
"We want to show them that they're no more welcome now than they were before. We don't think ignoring them will make them go away," said Law Library staff member Kelly Booker. The socialist organization announced plans for a more large-scale protest on Thursday.
A large contingent of police officers stood on hand to ensure that demonstrations remained peaceful.
UT President Larry Faulkner expressed his confidence that the event will be handled safely.
"We worked through all this quite carefully with a Task Force on Expression and Assembly that developed a code for the University that I think is one of the soundest in the country," Faulkner said.
He also expressed the importance of allowing people to engage in the discussion that they need to, as long as they follow University principles.
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