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Anti-abortion activists showed up to support the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Ordinance in front of the UNM Bookstore on Thursday.
The anti-abortion demonstrators were from the California-based organization Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust. The volunteers held pictures of an aborted fetus along the streets. A sign over one of the images read “Keep This Legal.”
The protest happened at an event hosted by the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, a UNM student organization. The organization, with the help of Young Women United and Respect ABQ Women, was providing a shuttle service for students from the Bookstore to voting locations for the early special elections.
Lexi Shuman, a volunteer for Respect ABQ Women, said the protesters came in the morning just after her organization arrived.
“I got here about 10:30 or 10:45, and there was one person handing out flyers, but they didn’t have all of these yet,” she said. “They got here shortly after we did with the graphic signs.”
On Tuesday, Albuquerque residents will be able to vote on the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Ordinance, which will be on the ballot for the city’s runoff elections. If passed, the ordinance would ban all abortions in the city after 20 weeks, with exceptions for physical conditions that endanger the life of the mother.
Shuman said a truck with a graphic image similar to those on the Survivors’ signs was driving around when she arrived.
She said she hadn’t expected the protesters to be at the Bookstore.
Kristina Garza, director of campus outreach for the Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust, said the protesters did not have a permit, but were allowed to protest on the sidewalk.
“This is a public campus,” she said. “It’s considered free speech activity what we’re doing.”
Garza said that through the protest, they “were educating” the campus community.
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“We are educating about late-term abortion and the ban and encouraging people to vote for the late-term abortion ban that would protect women’s and babies’ health,” she said.
According to its website, Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust is a “Christian pro-life activist ministry dedicated to educating and activating the youth of America.”
In August, Survivors held a protest at the Holocaust & Intolerance Museum of New Mexico. The group was demanding that the museum include references to abortion in their displays.
Garza said the Survivors worked with the organization ABQ Voters for the Late-Term Abortion Ban to organize the protest. She said the pictures of the aborted fetuses were intended to better convey the group’s message.
“We think it’s important to be as clear as possible with our message,” she said. “We need to all be on the same page here. When we talk about late-term abortion, this is exactly what we mean. It’s much faster to use an image than to use words.”
At the beginning of the protest, the anti-abortion protesters stood in front of the Bookstore next to the station set up by the pro-abortion rights protesters. Later during the protest, school officials and UNM Police Department officers told anti-abortion protesters that because they did not have a permit, they were not allowed to assemble at the site. Authorities told the anti-abortion protesters that if they did not do so, they would be arrested.
As a response, anti-abortion protesters moved to the sidewalk on both sides of the Bookstore.
The Daily Lobo attempted to speak with a UNMPD officer on site, but was instead referred to that officer’s supervisor. The officer’s supervisor was unavailable for comment as of press time.
Shuman said some members of the anti-abortion group had attempted to pose as part of the Respect ABQ Women group.
“They brought their big, ugly sign in here, and the Respect ABQ Women went over and were holding their signs in front of it,” she said. “And then that girl was saying, ‘Keep late term abortions up until birth.’ So yeah, they did pretend that they were with us, a couple of them.”
But Garza said despite the “Keep This Legal” sign over the poster, the Survivors were not pretending to be pro-abortion rights.
“We’re not pretending at all,” she said. “When they say ‘Keep late-term abortion legal,’ that is what they are campaigning for. We’re just illustrating the position.”
Early voting for Albuquerque’s runoff elections ends today.
