GUEST POST: Students for Life of America (SFLA) President Kristan Hawkins recently visited the University of South Florida for a tabling event, and to say the pro-abortion opposition was wild would be mild. It seemed that both the university administration and abortion-supporting students on campus were determined to complicate Hawkins’ visit and make it almost impossible to have simple conversations about abortion with students. Here’s what happened:  

While we were setting up our table, signs, and cameras for the tabling event, the university administration came to tell us that we couldn’t have a table. After we obeyed and took down the table, they told us we couldn’t have an A-frame (a style of advertising board that stands on its own). We took that down, and we were told we couldn’t have an easel — but maybe we could have an A-frame. 

Confused by these rules that didn’t seem to make much sense, we asked for clarification. Their answer was that we needed prior event approval and a permit to have these items out. We told them that we had been trying for weeks to get these but were continuously denied by the university. To keep the peace, however, we started to take things down.  

We weren’t quite fast enough, though, because the administration actually called the police on us because we were taking too long to pack up.  

On top of that, when another group began to set up their table, we learned that they had no permit, and the administration didn’t bother them at all. It wasn’t until after I noted that it didn’t seem fair that they were only hovering around our table that they actually cared about the other group not following the rules. It is sad that, without nudging them, they would not have treated everyone equally. 

When the event finally got started, the conversations escalated quickly. At one point, an angry male pro-abortion student equated Hawkins’ personal value to that of a cockroach. Several minutes later, he also admitted he was okay with infanticide.  

More conversations took place with lots of yelling from the pro-abortion students. Another student asked if we help women in crisis pregnancies financially. We said yes, of course, and she aggressively asked, “Well, what’s her name?” 

Knowing that one woman in particular was fine with me sharing her story, I responded with the mother’s name, the name of her child we saved, what town she’s in, and that she is still being taken care of by pro-lifers to this day.  The student was taken off guard that we practice what we preach and tried to change the subject. She maintained that a miscarriage is abortion, and Hawkins quickly and gracefully refuted that no, there is a huge difference between the two.  

Abortion is the purposeful killing of a preborn child for convenience’s sake. A miscarriage is an unintentional death of a preborn child by natural bodily causes. 

During the event, protesters also came over to us and played the saxophone loudly in attempts to drown out our event.  They were from the Tampa Abortion Fund and were also yelling, as well as giving out free condoms and Plan B pills. Thankfully, they were not successful because the number of pro-life students was significantly greater than the pro-abortion students. 

Many students did ask genuine questions and reportedly learned a lot from talking with Hawkins. They shared that they were grateful for her sharing her knowledge with them, and that made all the craziness worth it!  

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