On a chilly, overcast afternoon in October, anti-abortion protesters gathered to set up their graphic posters of dead human fetuses outside of the east gate at Mount Royal University.
During the protest, a group of MRU students came to stand near the anti-abortion protesters holding signs that said, “your body, your choice,” while yelling “we love you” to show their support for rights to abortion.
Anti-abortion protester and second year social work student Robyn van den Hoek says that while she disagrees with abortion, she does not value someone who has had an abortion any less.
“I know that this picture is hard for you to look at, and it’s hard for me to look at too,” says van den Hoek. “But, I just want to let you know that I do care about you and that you do matter.”
Annie Telfer, the co-president and cofounder of the MRU Students for Gender Equality Club would like to find a way to ban graphic anti-abortion protests from MRU.
Telfer says that she might be more willing to have a conversation with the protesters if the graphic pictures weren’t present: “I’m sure it would be an interesting conversation just to see…why they think people shouldn’t have abortions.”
“They would never change my mind on the matter, but it could be interesting.”
lpeters@cjournal.ca
The editor responsible for this piece is Brendan Stasiewich, bstasiewich@cjournal.ca