Disturbing Trend of Attacks on Pro-life Displays on College Campuses

Violent attacks against pro-life displays and demonstrations on college campuses are on the rise.

In the last month nearly a dozen pro-life displays on campuses across the country have been vandalized, according to Students for Life, the nation's largest pro-life youth organization. The group recently released a video showing pro-life displays being attacked on college campuses.

 "Since the election of President Trump last year, we've seen a huge spike in vandalisms Student for Life groups are facing on campuses across the country, said Kristan Hawkins, President of Students for Life in an interview with CBN News.

"Our crosses that we plan in the ground, representing children who die from abortion every day, they're being stolen, being stomped on. Our human rights display which just shows fetal development, how the child develops in the womb, those banners are being stolen," said Hawkins.   

The video (WARNING OBSCENE LANGUAGE) shows one man hurling profanities and violently punching and overturning pro-life signs that depict aborted fetuses. 

Another man can be seen pulling crosses representing the lives of aborted babies out of the ground in a makeshift cemetery.

A Fresno State University professor is also seen trying to stifle the free speech of pro-life students by erasing pro-life messages from a sidewalk.

According to Hot Air, a pro-life group had a permit for a demonstration on the school's campus.  The messages, written in chalk on a sidewalk read, "Women need love, not abortion."

Greg Thatcher, a professor of public health, claimed the messages should be allowed only in a designated "free speech area" on campus and says in the video that "college campuses are not free speech areas."

"You have permission to put it down and I have permission to get rid of it," Thatcher can be heard telling a pro-life student as he used his foot to erase a chalked message.

Hawkins explained, "There's no longer a dialogue on the campuses. There are students who just fundamentally disagree with our pro-life views and instead of coming up to us and seeking to understand why we feel so strongly against abortion, why we dedicate our time to fighting abortion, they just would rather shut down the conversation."

The two students sued and a court sided with them ordering Thatcher pay them $1,000 each in damages and $15,000 to the Alliance Defending Freedom, which filed the lawsuit.

Another video taken at George Mason University also shows chalked pro-life messages being washed away by opponents. 

Campus police told pro-life students that they had the right to write their messages on the sidewalk, but the pro-choice students had the right to erase them.

Meanwhile, the attacks on pro-life displays have become so common that Students for Life has complied a map of vandalizations nationwide. 

The map covers more than 40 incidents and counting, including stolen pro-life signs and vandalized crosses.

The group says it will not back down to adversity while fighting to save the lives of the unborn.

Hawkins said school administrations need to do more to protect the rights of pro-life students.

She cited "In October for example, several schools where our crosses were trampled on, there is school footage, security footage that we know was taken and we know the vandals were recorded on that footage, yet the schools had not even gone out to try and find the students, the perepetrators of these crimes."

"Schools have to start getting serious," Hawkins said.