A group of protesters sabotaged an anti-abortion “graveyard” created by conservative students at the University of Florida, and police were forced to get involved.
Students with the Young Americans for Freedom chapter at the school commemorated the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion nationwide, by setting up an “abortion graveyard” last month. The students claimed they were granted permits by the university to place 1,000 pink flags on campus in a previously marked “free speech zone.”
Philip Smith, the chairman of the conservative group, told the Washington Examiner that the flags were placed by the group’s “pro-life committee.” Each of the 1,000 flags represented approximately two pregnancies that end in abortion, to symbolize the total of more than 2,000 abortions that occur each day.
Each year, more than 1.7 million unintended pregnancies occur in the United States, and an estimated 860,000 pregnancies end in abortion.
Smith said his group spent 45 minutes setting up the display one night. After most of the student activists left the display, a video shows a group of 10 people sabotaging the project. The protesters allegedly uprooted and took the flags.
“We have a permit to put them there. So can you please give them back?” student witness Haley Rosel can be heard asking in the footage.
“Anyone can say they have a permit,” the student who allegedly took the flags responded.
“So should I go steal that bike since I don’t have any proof that it’s not supposed to be there?” said YAF member Christopher Rill.
“Go do it! Go do it,” the protesters responded.
“It’s not free to vandalize someone’s property and steal it and then run away,” Rill can be heard saying before the video ends.
Smith filed a police report for vandalism with the University of Florida Police Department and received a case number. Police confirmed an open investigation into the incident to the Washington Examiner but were unable to provide copies of the police report because it was being investigated.
“It is so disappointing to see that the First Amendment is still not a priority to UF. One would hope that a lawsuit would show administration there is a need to foster a community of tolerance for diversity of opinion. But maybe this incident will remind UF of their duties,” Smith said. “We try to give a somber memorial to these poor babies, and we’re met with a student body that’s so averse to opposing ideas that they would steal a thousand flags before hearing us out.”
In response to the incident, University of Florida spokesman Steve Orlando told the Washington Examiner that the university “supports the First Amendment right to freedom of expression.”
“UF encourages the free exchange of ideas and embraces its role as a place where people from all walks of life come to debate, agree, or disagree and express themselves without fear of censorship or reprisal,” Orlando said.
The university paid $66,000 in legal damages to the campus chapter last year to settle a lawsuit brought by Young Americans for Freedom. The group filed the suit against the university in December, claiming the school arbitrarily instituted a new rule that blocked its funding to bring conservative speakers on campus, a change it says only affected YAF and violated students’ First and 14th Amendment rights.
The college divided student groups into two monetary classifications, budgeted and nonbudgeted, and then created a new rule that denied funding for speaking engagements to nonbudgeted groups.
“UF and YAF have reached a mutually agreeable resolution of the lawsuit after determining it was in the interests of both parties to do so,” Orlando told the Washington Examiner after the settlement became public.
