LAWRENCE, Kan. (September 24, 1998 - Associated Press) -- Anti-abortion billboards on display during this week's Jewish holidays angered students at the University of Kansas, leading to incidents of violence. The billboards compared aborted fetuses to the corpses of Holocaust victims.
The display of cloth signs went up Sunday on the lawn of a dormitory. One student was so angry that he drove his car into the display, nearly hitting a young woman with the group, university police Sgt. Troy Mailen said Wednesday. The student was arrested.
On Tuesday, a student attempted to knock one of the signs over and ended up punching the man holding it, Mailen said.
Simone Fischer, 20, a student from San Antonio, said her first impulse was to tear down the signs when she saw the swastika and a photo of Holocaust victims headlined "Religious Choice" next to abortion photos headlined "Reproductive Choice."
"Being the Jewish New Year, one of the most sacred days, and I see abortion being compared to Jewish graves and the Holocaust, I did not feel welcome on my own campus," Fischer said. "My feeling was shock and then anger. I felt violated."
Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, began at sundown Sunday; Jews observe it for either one or two days. Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, begins at sundown Tuesday. The period between the holidays is also considered to be a sacred time.
The man who organized the weeklong display said he would make no apologies for the Holocaust comparison. He also said the timing with the Jewish holidays was not planned.
"Abortion is genocide. That's the whole point," said Gregg Cunningham, director of the Los-Angeles-based Center for Bio-Ethical Reform. "Frankly, I'm weary of genocide snobs who focus solely on their causes."
The group took the signs to Pennsylvania State University for a similar protest during Passover and has 15 to 20 more protests planned at campuses across the country, he said.
Cunningham and the Wichita-based Heartland Life Network arranged the protest through a club for Christian law students that was formally organized last week.
University Chancellor Robert Hemenway sent a rare e-mail to students and faculty saying the university regretted that the displays had caused "a great deal of distress to many members of our community." But he said the university needed to maintain its role as a forum for free speech.
The billboard also showed a photo of a civil rights-era lynching over the words "Racial Choice."
Jonathan Macklin of the Black Student Union called the use of the lynching image irresponsible and said it trivialized a terrible time in the country's history.
Cunningham defended the use of the comparison, saying it was the same shock technique a professor would use to teach about the Vietnam War or the Holocaust.
Copyright 1998 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
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[posted October 1, 1998]
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