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One Mind Forever Changed
This article by
Assistant Director Bud Shaver
originally appeared March 20, 2009 via email from the the Survivors at
www.survivors.la
This
week at UC Riverside I met a medical student who approached me as I was
holding a graphic sign of a first trimester abortion. He stated that he
was not shocked by the graphic nature of the photo. He also said that
our "shock tactics" were not shocking to him. I told him that the graphic
nature of abortion should be shocking since abortion kills human
beings. However, I also said that our purpose in using graphic photos was not to shock,
but to restore meaning to the word abortion. I explained that when most
people think of the word abortion, they usually think of a political
controversy or a tough and personal situation that a woman or couple
may encounter. I told him that the baby who dies violently in every
abortion is usually ignored. Our
job and goal for being on campuses is to expose the injustice of the act of abortion.
He
said that he did not agree with second and third trimester abortions
but was under the impression that abortion was only legal in the first
trimester. We often hear this assumption. I
told him that many people are not aware that Roe vs.Wade legalized
abortion through all nine months of pregnancy. I also informed him that
some states have laws concerning viability, but California was not one
of those states. Since there is such a lack of knowledge concerning
abortion, the need to educate students becomes more and more evident on
a daily basis.
He
then started to talk to me about rare but real medical situations that
he has to deal with as a medical student working in hospitals. He
argued that when the baby was severely deformed that abortion was the
best solution. I asked him if it is better to kill the child born
handicapped than to love and protect them. He said that they were
"things" not children. I was surprised by his response so I questioned
him further. He mentioned cases that involved severe brain trauma and
claimed that they were not human beings.
Since
he was African American I told him that our country used to have laws
that stated that African American's were "things" and not human beings
because of their skin color. I told him that some people claimed that
African American's had less brain capacity and were not as mentally
capable as other people. That mindset justified many horrible acts of
violence including killing many of them. He understood and stated that
I was making some good points that he had not thought about.
We
spoke for quite a while longer and I established when life begins
scientifically and addressed some of his other concerns. He told me
that his perception about the need for abortion was radically
challenged and that he could no longer justify abortion. He thanked our
group for being there to challenge students and told me that his
position on abortion had completely changed. This is a prime example of
how minds are changed through intelligent conversation on college
campuses everyday.
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