Photo display elicits mixed responses

Students traveling past the Palmer Museum of Art yesterday encountered disturbing images of emaciated bodies, hanged corpses and identifiable parts of dead fetuses.

As part of United in Christ Week, members of the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform situated themselves and their anti-abortion picture show, the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP), in front of the museum. The group was brought to the University by several student groups, including Campus Crusade for Christ, Christians in Action, Christian Student Fellowship and Navigators.

The display included images of the Holocaust, violence against African Americans by the Ku Klux Klan and aborted fetuses. The display will be exhibited on campus and downtown until Sunday. This was not a protest, but a way of raising awareness of abortion as an act of genocide, said Greg Cunningham, director of the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform.

"Everybody knows about the Holocaust in Nazi Germany and the violence against blacks -- those examples of genocide are very real to us," Cunningham added.

- Tuvia Abramson, executive director of Hillel Foundation

"The purpose of this is to help educate students, faculty and community persons as to the abortion genocide that's currently taking place in America," Lee said.

However, linking important historical events to a legal medical procedure is an incorrect comparison, said Kenneth Clarke, director of the Center for Ethics and Religious Affairs at the University.

"It is comparing oppressive systems against an issue of choice. Oppression is not the issue -- this is an issue of reproductive choice. Many people find all three of these things morally reprehensible, but to lump them all together is to oversimplify these issues," Clarke said.

Members of the Jewish community found the display very upsetting and offensive, said Tuvia Abramson, executive director of Hillel Foundation.

While he did not see the display himself, Abramson said he found the use of the Holocaust in conjunction with abortion appalling.

"The notion that someone would have the audacity to use the Holocaust as part of a political agenda is insulting. Abortion is an issue between a woman and her body, between a woman and her conscious," Abramson said.

President of Black Caucus Luanda Johnson, who also did not see the display, did not want to comment until she saw the photos.

While the Catholic community supports the pro-life movement, it does not support the tactics used by the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, said Father Fred Byrne, director of the Penn State Catholic Community.

"That kind of in-your-face, gross depiction of cut-up, broken fetuses is not supported," Byrne said. "The Catholic understanding of being pro-life has distanced itself from that kind of demonstration. It's unacceptable."

The display was not meant to anger students or other members of the University community, said Julia Harper (senior-elementary education), a member of Christian Student Fellowship.

"I think that the subject needs to be addressed and pictures address it in a way words can't," Harper said.

Students narrowly understand genocide and overlook its occurrence in their lives, Cunningham said.

"Lots of people have strong opinions but little understanding of the abortion issue," he said. "Most people aren't getting all of the facts -- they're just blindly making decisions."

Responses to the display were varied, Cunningham said.

"Some people are very angry, some people project an aura of indifference, but some you can tell are being made to think," Cunningham added.

Rory Serrano (sophomore-accounting) said he was not pleased to see the photo display on his walk to class yesterday morning.

"There are so many ways to prove a point and this is not one of them," he said.

The graphic images serve as a wake-up call for abortion awareness, even if they are offensive, said Patricia Hunter, a volunteer who travels with the center to spread its message.

"We are speaking through the pictures," Hunter added. "In this case, a picture is worth a thousand words."