The controversial Genocide Awareness Project has caused conflict and debate at UCF this week. The project consists of large signs and posters depicting unborn or aborted fetuses along with more commonly recognizable forms of genocide, including Cambodian killing fields, the World Trade Center attack, the Holocaust and other massacres and forms of violence.
The group was on campus from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday in the free speech areas near the library and in front of the Student Union.
The Genocide Awareness Project is one of several projects funded by the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, which is, according to their Web site, a privately funded nonprofit educational corporation. The anti-abortion UCF organization, Students for Life, requested SGA funding to bring the project to campus.
The message of the Genocide Awareness Project is not only that abortion is immoral, but also that it is a form of genocide. The general definition of genocide is “the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group” or "the murder of a whole group of people.” It is the latter definition that the project uses to explain their regard to abortion as genocide as they consider the unborn to be a group of people who are murdered through abortion.
“Killing the unborn is as immoral as genocide,” said Ryan Wilson, a volunteer with the Genocide Awareness Project.
Though the group’s mandate is against surgical abortion, much of the student disapproval was with the way the project chooses to convey their message, not necessarily the message they were conveying.
“They’re just using shock and imagery and they’re going about it all wrong,” said junior Mike Rosenblum, who wrote, “the stupidity of the masses is boundless” on the free speech board located outside the demonstration.
Freshmen Danny Perez and Mark Baker, who are also roommates, held different views about the demonstration.
“I’m glad to see people speaking out against abortion,” said Perez, an English major. “It is a little sensational but they need to get people’s attention.”
While Perez could see the correlation between abortion and genocide, his roommate felt differently.
“Why do you have to single out abortion as genocide?” Baker asked a volunteer with the project. “Why not just be against genocide in general?”
“People respond to things differently,” said Genocide Awareness Project volunteer, Alanna Campbell, in response to Baker’s questions. “The project has been really successful at exposing the truth of what abortion does to an unborn baby. We use the genocide association to put into perspective the magnitude of the issue.”
On the other side of the free speech zone, VOX: Voices for Planned Parenthood held signs advocating a women’s right to choose and passed out pregnancy prevention information and aids, including both male and female condoms, “just wear it” stickers and personal lubricant.
Planned Parenthood of Greater Orlando’s mission statement is to provide affordable, quality healthcare and relevant information in support of every person’s right to make voluntary, informed decisions about family planning, healthcare and responsible sexual behavior.
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