Kortney Blythe, SFLA’s Field Director, was able to visit the University of Miami recently to speak in their free speech area on campus about the truth of abortion. In this week’s SFLA blog post, she speaks about her experience on campus and the apathy she faced on campus.
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It’s called “The Rock”. It’s a stage that sits in the center of campus at University of Miami (U of M) in Miami, Florida. Since U of M is a private school, “The Rock” is their free speech area. The day before my arrival, the VOX group (Voices for Planned Parenthood) occupied “The Rock.” But on Tuesday, April 19, I proclaimed to hundreds of students for nearly two hours the truth that abortion is not pro-woman.
University of Miami Respect Life, the pro-life group on campus, invited me to speak to what they described as an apathetic campus. They weren’t kidding. From 11am to 2pm, I spoke to crowds of students shuffling to class or lunch who barely acknowledged my voice booming from the sound system.
Yet they heard. A few students walked by and gave me a “thumbs down.” Two students mumbled under their breath that oh-so-empty and meaningless term “pro-choice.” But their response means they were listening. They knew I was speaking on behalf of preborn humans and their mothers. But no one challenged my words.
“Abortion hurts women. It ends the lives of preborn human beings. Society’s message that a pregnant student must choose between her child’s life and staying in school is not empowering or feminist. Saying a woman must deny her very biology in order to be equal with men is the opposite of freedom.”
These messages and others like them resounded during the busiest time on the U of M campus. And although no one aggressively opposed me, many sat nearby listening or stopped mid-step to pay closer attention to my proclamations.
Doing this event made me reflect on the importance of perseverance, even in the apparent face of apathy. Human rights activists throughout history have been both mocked and disregarded. But because of their tenacity we’ve seen an end to legalized slavery, the Holocaust, government-mandated racism, and many other injustices.
Whether our protests result in furious or outlandish pro-abortion responses or create barely a noticeable ripple, we must never be discouraged. Icebergs can seem innocuous on the surface while underneath they are powerful forces of destruction; similarly, it’s what is going on in the hearts of those who hear the Truth that is truly important.
If being ignored is our only complaint, we have it easy. How often were civil rights activists jailed, hosed or beaten? And yet they preserved. We live in a country where someone like me can stand with a microphone and assert a controversial message (the implication of which means that our government allows for and celebrates preborn genocide) without fear of reprisal. We have no excuse for our silence.
Our duty is to boldly, thunderously and without hesitance, proclaim the Truth that abortion is a moral evil and must be stopped. To some, we may look like a small chunk of ice floating on the surface of the water that just needs to be swatted away. Just as the “unsinkable ship”, The Titanic, was taken down by a lowly iceberg, the Titanic-sized task of combating the pervasive culture of death (particularly on college campuses) will be sunk by the powerful truth behind our words. A Truth which will pierce the hearts of those who hear it, and ultimately lead to the end of abortion.
First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win -Mahatma Gandhi.