On November 18-19, Respecting Life, a registered student organization at Sam Houston State University, will again present the national Justice For All photo exhibit to the SHSU community. This human rights exhibit will be set up daily from 8 AM to 4 PM, Monday and Tuesday in the Mall area. Opposition to abortion is not tolerated in academia. Valuable information and dialogue about bio-ethical decisions that many of us will likely face is being omitted from our educational experience. Herein lies the need for the Justice For All Exhibit. Injustice is hardly ever visually appealing. Yet some injustices have to be seen if they are to be believed. Sadly, some will complain about seeing the pictures of abortion violence more than they protest the violence itself. Others will choose to simply ignore this injustice, or refuse to engage in a rational discussion.
We in Respecting Life regret the need for the disturbing nature of many of the photos presented in the Exhibit. Yet free speech by definition is the right to unpopular speech.
Some will say, “You care more about fetuses than women.” Did Susan B. Anthony care only about suffrage (a woman’s right to vote)? Not at all. We likewise want women to be spared the physical and psychological perils associated with abortion, as well as the violence of abortion that takes the lives of their unborn children.
Nearly one in three children conceived in America are being violently killed in the womb, not because they did anything wrong, or because we cannot afford them, or because no one would adopt or love them. Rather, it is because they are unwanted, though ironically now in the 21st century their tiny bodies are deemed vital to human research.
Why would the most affluent society in history kill off so many of its youngest and most vulnerable members? The answer: selfishness, fueled by ignorance. We hope through this exhibit to at least end the ignorance at Sam Houston State University, and call our campus community to higher ideals.
Is it worth upsetting thousands? If this exhibit saves only one life, we think the answer is “Yes!” In the words of Mahatma Gandhi, “[We] must make injustice visible”
Members of Respecting LifeSHSU Brooke McGuire, President