When students walked around Sproul Plaza in the heart of UC Berkeley on the afternoon of October 26th, they were greeted by a huge display surrounding the main fountain. Berkeley Students for Life (BSL), along with the Center for Bioethical Reform (CBR) had set up a roughly 20 feet by 20 feet square cage display about eight feet high with photographs of aborted fetuses interspersed with pictures of President Obama, slavery, Nazis, and quotations about being pro-life, known as the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP).

Initially, there was a dispute regarding the set up of the display on Sproul Plaza. Amanda Carleton, the Director of Student Involvement at the Center for Student Leadership had said the reason BSL’s Genocide Awareness Project was unable to set up their display at Mario Savio steps was due to a previously-reserved time that was placed in the middle of BSL’s requested time slots. Also, CBR had reported that the set-up and take-down of the giant cage was too labor intensive to accommodate on the steps for the other group to be able to host their event in the middle of the day.

Alberto Gonzalez, President of Berkeley Students for Life, had a different interpretation of events. Initially, the campus was accommodating to their display set up, but the space they wanted to reserve was denied by CBR due to the intricate design of the set up, but the northern part of the plaza was deemed acceptable on a “first come, first served” basis. However, there was a conflict about what area that was and due to potential safety  oncerns, it was much more difficult to get that space for the display. CBR was preparing to file an injunction on First Amendment rights, while Gonzalez for BSL was encouraging members to take action by sending e-mails and making phone calls to Ms. Carleton’s office and follow the e-mail sent from BSL alumnus Morgan Figures to her office requesting follow-up information on the issue and why there were excess complications for their GAP. Upon having the dispute turned over to a higher authority, the event was processed through the university, and BSL was granted access to use the plaza for GAP, despite administration later telling BSL they would have preferred CBR had not been involved to begin with. CBR was the forerunner of this display, as they had hosted this on over 100 different campuses across the nation and Canada.

According to Gonzalez, “GAP is intended to raise awareness about the bloody truth of abortion. Photographic evidence of what an aborted fetus looks like is compelling, and opens many eyes to this awful reality for the first time. The display is also intended to show how abortion, like universally recognized forms of genocide, is justified by its proponents by inferring that the victim is somehow subhuman. [BSL and CBR] hoped that GAP would serve as a stimulus for calm and logical conversation on the matter of abortion.” Berkeley’s display was unique from others due to photographs and quotations of Obama interspersed in the display, and Gonzalez says that they “sought to highlight Obama’s astonishingly duplicitous rhetoric, as well as to make his unbridled support of abortion known to those who may not have been aware of it.” People approached the hosts of the events throughout the day and engaged in healthy discussion about the two sides of the abortion issue.

This display did indeed spark conversation around the university and even a sizable counter-demonstration at that. The National Organization of Women (NOW) spearheaded a campaign that included members of a women’s studies class offered at Cal and lined up in front of the display linking arms, chanting, “my body, my choice,” or ‘their body, their choice” in the case of the males participating in the protest. Gonzalez appreciated the active demonstration by NOW, as he stated “bad publicity is no publicity,” and they captured media attention as a result. For the rest of the week, they had a table out and approached people on Sproul to write a letter against the university for allowing for the display to occur and declaring their outrage at the demonstration put on by BSL. Unfortunately, a representative from NOW was unavailable for further comment.

Gonzalez says that “BSL makes it a point to host several on-campus events that raise awareness about abortion and other right to life issues, such as embryonic stem cell research and euthanasia” and that “we [the members of BSL and CBR] were very pleased with the success of this historic event.” This was one of the largest events put on this semester at the university, and it will be interesting to see if there will be more provocative demonstrations conducted during the rest of the year.

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