Written By Sade M. Patterson President of Students for Life at the University of New Mexico, pictured here with her precious Daniel. 
Sponsoring this rally on Tuesday were the Student Alliance for Reproductive Justice and the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance. Over 50 supporters of Planned Parenthood stood outside of the University of New Mexico Student Union Building-dressed in bright pink shirts, holding signs that read, “don’t take our care away” and a large banner in bright pink that displayed the common hashtag, “Stand With PP”. It appeared to be a peaceful group of supporters coming out for “a great cause.”
Preparing for the Battle Field
As President of Students for Life at the University of New Mexico, I knew this would be an amazing opportunity for us to reach these supporters as well as passerby’s with information on Planned Parenthood’s statistics, alternative health services, and quotes from past and present abortion workers at Planned Parenthood that should baffle any human being to read. My amazing team and I made around 20 signs, planned to distribute educational flyers, and hoped to be a peaceful and informative presence.
Nearly 20 of us gathered inside of the Student Union Building to go over talking points, take a group photo, and say a prayer for our hearts to be in the right place, and for the hearts of the women we would speak to. Even though Students for Life is a secular organization, many of us are believers and know the power of prayer. At last, we set off on our mission-into the battle field! I say “battle field” in the most humorous, but honest way that I can.
The Rally
Heads turned from the crowd as the 20 of us approached-all in black-with smiles on our faces. This was a new experience for many of us, but after seeing two TV stations setting up their camera off in the distance of the rally, we decided to let the world see our small, but important presence. Without engaging with the Planned Parenthood supporters, we gathered around-in full view of the camera. Immediately, men and women in pink pushed themselves around us-blocking the camera from seeing us or our signs. When we rose our signs to be visible above theirs, they responded by blocking our signs again. Behind and in front of me, I could hear comments like, “you have no right to be here,” and “you don’t know what you are talking about” (referring to our signs). The poor camera man had to back up about 15-20 feet to get the shot because of the interaction between us and them. Some Planned Parenthood supporters struck up conversations with us. Several asked about the 13,000 Federally Qualified Health Clinics, some demanded the need for “safe” and legal abortion. Employees of Planned Parenthood urged them to not speak with us and to join the rally.
Speakers from Student Alliance for Reproductive Justice and the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance revved up the crowd: one woman boasted about her past abortion at age 19, a man praised Planned Parenthood for changing lives by giving away condoms, and another woman gave her testimony about how Planned Parenthood helped her with contraception.
In attempts to get to the front of the crowd, my arm brushed up against a Planned Parenthood supporter’s arm. Now, I am 5 foot tall. I have not completely lost my baby weight, but I am less than 10 lbs away! The point is-I’m small and could not inflict pain on a larger person by just walking by. Immediately, she yelled at me, “Stop touching me! You are harassing me and I will report you!” And she was not the only one with this attitude. Another man blocked my face with his sign for a few minutes. When I asked him kindly to show me the same respect I was showing him he responded by throwing his sign back and hitting me in the face. I’m not one to exaggerate these things. Being a journalism student I understand ethics and the dangers of elaborating. Which is why I can honestly say that he did not hurt me, but he did disrespect me as a woman and a human being. Several other members of my group had similar hostile encounters. When trying to grab literature on the Planned Parenthood table, my friend was turned away and was not allowed to take the information because she is pro-life.
After the rally we were able to have an interview on two local TV stations: Univision and KOB. Then we took the next 20 minutes to strike up conversations with Planned Parenthood supporters. On a college campus it is very common for people to talk about their beliefs and opinions. It is also very common to have conversations with people who are uninformed or uninterested in talking about abortion. Nearly every person we spoke to today turned us away with no interest in discussion or to even take a flyer with information from Planned Parenthood’s annual report.
A Call to Awakening and Action
Why is our generation so numb and distant from important issues such as these? My husband constantly reminds me of a quote he loves from Edmund Burke: “All it takes for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.” For the ones in support of life-life before, during, and after pregnancy-we need to not remain silent. Have an opinion! Get involved! For those in support of abortion: I would encourage you to get involved in discussions and be willing to open your mind to education and statistics about what organizations like Planned Parenthood does with their time and money-your money. Nothing is more upsetting than asking men and women realistic and informative questions and hearing that they don’t have an opinion-just because it is controversial. They do have an opinion-an its color is pink. They are just too afraid or unmotivated to share it. We need to get the ball rolling with these conversations. They are important and vital for our lives and the lives of generations to come that are relying on our words and action to end abortion and the hurting of women.
There is talk of more rallies on campus, and we plan to be a presence again. However instead of confronting the crown, we will focus our efforts on passerby’s who want to have educated, informed, and mature conversations.
I would encourage all of you in support of life to get involved in someone’s life every week who supports abortion. Have a loving and calm conversation with them. See where they are coming from. See how much they know. Almost every supporter today of Planned Parenthood was speaking from a script that is false. The lie is that women will not have health services if Planned Parenthood is defunded. I believe they say theses things because they do not want to examine if it is true or not, or because no one has ever told them otherwise! That is where we need to step in! We need to take advantage of our freedom of speech before it is taken away from us one day. We need to engage in these conversations and bring education to ourselves and people around us. What they do with it is up to them. Let’s continue to bring truth and love to our nation.
Resources
For more information on Students For Life’s research on Planned Parenthood visit:
https://studentsforlife.org/plannedparenthood/
To find a Federally Qualified Health Center near you visit: https://www.fqhc.org/find-an-fqhc/
To see the story on KOB visit: https://www.kob.com/article/stories/s3920344.shtml#.VgtxvHYQ7z7
