The Issue: Abortion display on campus.

Our View: Even though it is a good idea to show students the reality, the display was forced. This week on the campus page, we have a picture of the anti-abortion display that was between Rotunda and Matthews Hall Monday through Wednesday. Though the display is truthful and shows actual real life pictures and statistics, it was forced upon students.One of the main travel points around campus is behind rotunda. Everything behind the building either leads to a dorm or the main eating establishment on campus. The display was approved and went through a long history of battles to get placed on campus. However, we feel the placement of the display was wrong.Students have a choice when it comes to free speech. Students are encouraged to show their point of view on campus through protests, posters and seminars. The difference is that the students don’t force you to attend. They hang up signs to say there will be a seminar, or put a few posters around campus. Standing on the main route around campus was a poor choice on the GAP’s behalf. They were right in getting students talking about it. But students aren’t debating between abortion and genocide. They are debating who let the protesters stand there and why are they showing such vulgar pictures. There is a reason there is a rating on a movie or on television shows that show graphic material. However, this week, students were forced to look at large blown-up pictures of aborted children. Abortion is a very sensitive subject for a lot of people, so we give them props for being bold enough to have such a display on campus. However, their approach wasn’t right. Pictures of the Holocaust, Cambodia killing fields, and Wounded Knee are graphic in their own right. However those pictures were in black and white, while the abortion picture was blood red. We know a point was being made, however we believe it reached an extreme. Abortion issues are sensitive enough without forcing them on the public. Students fill the air with comments about how it was too extreme, or how SDSU should have banned this display from happening. We approve of freedom of speech, we approve of sharing your opinion. What we have a problem with is how the organization chose to display the pictures and where their display took place. The organization got a message across, but was it the right one? Should there be limits on photos used on campus? At the end of the day, the images stay with us, but do they change our minds?