Last month, University of Texas-San Antonio students supporting Planned Parenthood were seen gleefully mocking an on-campus pro-life display called “Cemetery of the Innocents,” a memorial to unborn children killed by abortion.
The incident was caught on video by the Students for Life chapter that created the display.
“Stop, hey, hey, what's that sound, all the fetuses are in the ground!” a female student sang, dancing around in the symbolic cemetery. The student also led various chants in support of Planned Parenthood with the other pro-abortion protesters, and then bragged about getting an abortion herself. "Look, there’s mine right there!” she exclaimed, pointing to one of the small crosses representing a dead, unborn child.
Another female student joked that they should “kiss in the fetus graveyard”, and announced that getting an abortion is her biggest “kink,” according to a report by StudentsForLife.org.
Sarah Zarr, the Texas Regional Coordinator for Students for Life, said the protesters engaged with their display immediately after it was set up, even going so far as to accuse the pro-life group of being racially insensitive.
“Some of the members came to talk to us but would not have dialogue they just wanted to shout their points at us,” Zarr recalled. “One girl told me I was using my white privilege and ‘wasn’t allowed to be out there talking about this issue when it affects black women.’”
The display also featured a table with pro-life literature available for students to take. However, a male protester grabbed three stacks of literature from the table and ran off, said Zarr. Mica, a pro-life student at the table at the time, chased after him and asked for their materials back, but the protester “threw it all in the gutter,” Zarr claimed.
“We then went and filed a police report and the police said they couldn’t do anything because we were handing out the info he didn’t technically steal even though we said not all of it was to take,” Zarr said. “He finally let us a file a police report but said charges can’t be made until they investigate.”
This is not the first time an on-campus pro-life display has been vandalized by protestors.
In March, a Cemetery for the Innocents set up by Students for Life at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor was desecrated by pro-abortion advocates. Video taken by the pro-life group depicts a female abortion activist picking up the small pink crosses from the display, and shoving them into a trash bag.
"Is there a reason why you're doing this?" Kaylena Wiederhold, Students for Life’s Michigan regional coordinator, can be seen asking the activist.
"We disagree with it," responded the protestor.
Wiederhold replied, "Okay, but this isn’t your property."
"We know that having a conversation isn’t going to work," the vandal argued.
But when a police officer approached the activist, she changed her tune, telling authorities she was merely "cleaning up" "garbage” on campus.
"We were just cleaning up this garbage on the school campus, but we've realized that apparently this is someone's property. And you're telling us to leave it, I’m assuming?” she said.
Melanie Salazar, president of the University of Texas chapter of Students for Life, issued a statement after the incident in April.
“Students For Life at UTSA aims to give respect and dignity to every human life at all stages and in all circumstances,” Salazar said. “To persons who are post-abortive, we will love them without judgement and help provide healing.”
“We ARE the Pro-Life Generation and if our event got protested like this, then we must be doing something right and be on the side of truth.”