This story first appeared in the October 2017 edition of The Hilltop.
The Students for Life Club invited the national “Stop the Violence Tour” to come to campus to show students that abortion is a violent process to the mother and the unborn child.
“My club and I decided to bring the ‘Stop the Violence Tour’ display to campus in hopes of raising awareness of the effects of an abortion to both baby and mother,” Annabel Guptill, the club’s president, said. “The tour has been traveling the nation to different states to visit life clubs, so I was thrilled to have it on our campus.”
The display featured four large posters that depicted abortion medical diagrams, statistics and resources. The display also had a petition to end taxpayer-funded abortion in Oregon.
Baskets of children’s socks sat next to the posters to represent the number of abortions performed each week in the United States.
“There are 6,246 socks, and these socks are actually some of the socks that were dumped on Capitol Hill in D.C.,” Nichole Bentz, the Pacific Northwest regional coordinator, said about their “#Sockit2PP” rally. “I’m just hoping that students take the time to read [the display] and start the conversation, and baby socks help do that really well.”
Guptill hopes students are inspired to take action because of the display.
“I would love more students to respond by getting involved in the pro-life movement,” she said. “That could be anything from joining our club, setting time aside to pray for women suffering to volunteering at a pregnancy resource center. I also hope the Students for Life Club will be seen as a safe place for anyone suffering to open up and share.”
Anita Huffaker, a member of the Students for Life club, volunteered to help with the display.
“I’ve been passionate about the pro-life cause since I was about 10,” she said. “It’s exciting to be able to actually do something and speak out. I think as citizens of a nation that allows abortion and Planned Parenthood, we should be informed about what is going on.”
Tools used in an abortion process and baby models that match the developmental stages of a fetus were also available for students to look at and hold.
If students wanted to stand in solidarity with the movement, they could have a sock pinned to their backpack.
“I believe anything related to violence should be cared about,” Guptill said. “Violence is not something acceptable in our society, and yet abortion is. Also, it is important to realize that many women our age are suffering from this violent act, so it is a relevant issue. If we, as Christians, believe God created everyone in His own image, then why would we turn our backs when His own creation is suffering? We are here to support and help each other.”