Pro-life group defends GAP Project

IU Students for Life held a press conference Monday to address "The Truth About Genocide Awareness Project" -- an organization preparing to set up a graphic anti-abortion display outside the Sample Gates.\nThe press conference focused on the GAP display, which will be set up Wednesday and Thursday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The display contains a number of 6 by 12 foot photos of aborted fetuses as well as photos depicting the Holocaust and early American racism.\nStudents for Life claims pro-choice organizations at IU and in Bloomington have launched a campaign to discredit their organization as violent and to stop GAP from bringing its display to campus.\nSophomore Karl Born, president of Students for Life, responded to the attacks by emphasizing that GAP and Students for Life is an entirely peaceful program.\n"We simply want to contribute to the debate on abortion by showing photos of what the procedure really is," Born said. "Many students have become desensitized to what abortion really is: the murder of a human being."\nStudents for Life mentioned the IU group Campus for Choice as one of the leaders in the attacks against GAP.\n"They say we promote hate and violence," Born said. "This is nothing but a witch hunt."\nBorn said that in the past, acts of violence that have taken place at GAP were brought about by pro-choice protesters who have thrown coffee on GAP workers. Born also said that there was an incident where a protester drove a car into the display.\nHere, opponents plan peaceful protests.\nIU React to GAP, a new coalition that opposes GAP's methods, plans to set up an area across the street from the display to provide a place where students can gather information or talk to members about abortion issues.\n"We're not going to protest, we're merely reacting and peacefully opposing," junior Sarah Marvell, president of IU Campus for Choice and IU React to GAP, told the IDS earlier this month.\nThe pro-life press conference addressed the issue of the display's location. Initial plans had GAP in the area between Woodburn and Ballantine Halls. University officials said that location was unacceptable and offered Dunn Meadow as the display site. \nStudents for Life fought back, saying that many other controversial protests have taken place near Woodburn Hall, including anti-Gulf War demonstrations and a protest concerning smoking inside IU buildings. After a year and a half of debates, the University agreed to let GAP set up in front of the Sample Gates.\n"We fought so hard for this because we have an ethical and a spiritual duty to protect lives that are unrepresented in the American public," said senior James Poeppelman, Vice President of Students for Life.\nStudents for Life also came under attack for comparing abortion to the Holocaust and racism in America.\n"A major underlying theme in GAP is violation of civil rights," said freshman David Sherfick, Students for Life's Publicity Director. "We believe that abortion, which is murder, is the ultimate civil rights violation."\nStudents for life members and GAP workers will be on hand when the display is set up. They have signed agreements with the University saying that they will not harass any person on the street and will only speak when directly asked a question by a member of the public.\n"We take very seriously our role in promoting peace," Born said. "We are not professional agitators, like Campus for Choice said."\nPoeppelman said he hopes a lot of people see the display.\n"My reaction to the display is anger as to how people tolerate something that is so clearly and act of violence," he said. "I hope we shock people into seeing the truth"