By Taylor Doak-Hess (Contributor) –Email
UFV Life Link’s pro-life demonstrations seldom fail to elicit a reaction from students and faculty. Last year’s rally featured speeches from mothers who chose not to abort, small plastic fetuses, and a smattering of pamphlets with “facts” about the dangers of abortion. It was aggressive and loud, and held in front of Tim Hortons; the fact that it hindered my access to coffee was offensive in and of itself. However, the booming declarations and the plastic fetuses somehow paled in comparison to this year’s display, which was (to put it bluntly) a graveyard of small flags.
Allow me to preface what I say next by stating that I fully appreciate everyone’s right to the expression of their opinion — I sincerely believe that debate, when carried out respectfully, leads to great progress. However, I do not appreciate hate speech, discrimination, or psychological abuse, and to me UFV Life Link’s flag display was all of those things, conveniently spread over the campus green. Those little pink and blue flags were deliberately placed in an open, high-traffic space on campus with the intent of forcing an uncomfortable and damning message on unsuspecting people — primarily women, and especially those who have considered or had an abortion — without any of the people behind the display having to say a word.
I was deeply disturbed and emotionally distressed. This was yet another cruel reminder of my lack of agency as a woman: if I choose to terminate a pregnancy, I’m just sticking another pink or blue flag in the ground — I’m a murderer. What I found even more disturbing was the university’s blindness to this act of psychological violence; when asked about the demonstration by the Abbotsford News, UFV’s communications director Dave Pinton indicated that there was nothing hateful or discriminatory about the protest. He spoke about the flags as if they were a point for debate rather than a damaging display created for the sole purpose of shaming women into relinquishing their bodily autonomy.
This protest was not “pro-life,” but it was decidedly “anti-choice.” The graveyard of flags both forced and enforced anti-choice sentiment by distilling it into a distasteful display and thrusting it upon unsuspecting students without their consent. It is disheartening to know that UFV has decided to defend UFV Life Link’s actions on the premise of “free speech,” ignoring students’ rights to a safe and hate-free campus.
