Taya Flores

tflores@jconline.com

On Monday evening, about 30 Purdue University students and faculty protested last week's anti-abortion campaign by sitting-in on the pro-life student organization's meeting in Stanley Coulter Hall and quietly demanding a public apology.

"We came to put a face to the fact that you hurt a group of people," said organizer Ashley Velázquez. "We realize that was not your intent but what we want is an apology and a retraction."

About halfway through the hour-long meeting, leaders of the pro-life group, which surprised campus last Monday with a blitz flier and sidewalk chalk campaign, apologized for using black lives matter rhetoric such as "Hands up, don't abort," and language such as the "womb = most dangerous place 4 black kids, #blacklivesmatter."

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"We are going to stand behind the fact that we are against abortion and the death of an unborn child," said Kevin Lasher, president of Purdue Students for Life. "We do recognize that we did hurt people and I think the issue lies in how we did (it) and how we got that word out. Our core beliefs remain unchanged. ... (But) we are sorry for the way we put it out there."

Velázquez, a doctoral student in the English department, organized the sit-in as a member of a burgeoning student organization, Purdue Intersectional Feminist Alliance, which aims to address issues of injustice on campus that pertain to women.

At times, the conversation veered into a pro-life, pro-choice debate, but Velázquez managed to steer the conversation back to why students, staff and faculty were offended by the messages.

She said the student group used narratives such as the black lives matter movement that did not belong to them and failed to have a dialogue with members of the black community on campus.

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"My womb is not hostile and calling my womb hostile hurts me because my people are hurt," she said.

For the campaign, the group consulted Ryan Bomberger, an African-American author, and co-founder of The Radiance Foundation, a non-profit that has drawn fire for using provocative messaging such as calling black babies an "endangered species," to highlight abortion rates in black communities across the country.

But Lasher admitted that the predominantly white campus group did not consult any black students or groups on campus or even its faculty adviser prior to launching the campaign.

After hearing from the protesters, the pro-life group decided to delay the release of an open letter to the campus community until it could amend it to reflect input from Monday night's sit-in.