Statement on Vandalism of Pro-Life Display
Louisville, Kentucky and Fredericksburg, Virginia (1-31-18)–
On Monday night, vandals at Bellarmine University, a Catholic university in Louisville, Kentucky, destroyed a Cemetery of the Innocents display on campus put up by the Bellarmine University Catholics.
The students openly bragged about it on social media. Lauren Kasdan, a student at the school wrote on Facebook, “Christians can have their crosses back when they learn what it stands for.” It’s unclear if Kasdan herself participated in the vandalization.
Vandals wrote on the display things like “Support Planned Parenthood” and “Abortion is legal and an unalienable right in all 50 states” on the signs.
Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life of America condemned the attack, saying, “The attack is another example of the hostility on college campuses to free-speech, especially those of pro-lifers. The situation has gotten so bad that Students for Life has started tracking vandalizations against pro-life displays on high school and college campuses. Nevertheless, pro-life students are resilient and will not let this dissuade them from continuing their life-saving work. The students who vandalized the displays should be ashamed of themselves and the university should take swift action against them.”
Brenna Lewis, Appalachian Regional Coordinator for Students for Life said, “This is a tragedy that students, at a Catholic university of all places, would so callously destroy what was meant to be a loving display, memorializing those lost to abortion.”
Students for Life has been tracking vandalizations on college campuses and posting the results on a map on our website.
For interviews or questions about what happened, please e-mail Kristi Hamrick and khamrick@studentsforlife.org.
