Members of the Abolish Human Abortion (AHA) organization gathered in protest outside of NIC’s SUB on Wednesday.
The demonstration included members holding signs with various anti-abortion statements and images depicting mutilated fetuses.
“As people walk by, it’s very hard to get their attention. So one thing the sign does is it gets people’s attention,” said Scott Herndon, one of the organization’s founders. “The other thing the sign does is the old saying of ‘a picture is worth a thousand words.'”
Tom Meyer, a member of AHA, stood outside the SUB and quoted scripture which is the foundation of the organization’s beliefs. It garnered various responses from a small number of students, who could be heard arguing with protesters from a distance.
“This was a great nation founded on a Christian-Judeo belief system,” said demonstrator James Muskrat, “We respect the rights of agnostics, atheists, whatever they want to be. We would never come against, hurt or harm them, no more than we would harm the fetus in the womb.”
Demonstrators expressed an awareness that their perspective reflected the views of a minority of Americans, but that they had a responsibility to voice their opinions.
“People don’t realize how much power they have. If they believe something, but they keep their faith private, that faith is not effective,” Herndon said, “So, what I advocate is that if you believe that you have a correct moral position, then you should be vocal about it, you should seek to persuade others, and you should be active about it.”
“We’re trying to get out more and more. We do this pretty much weekly, between here and Spokane, and the group’s growing.”