THIS ARTICLE WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED BY THE COLLEGE FIX
Students for Life national spokeswoman Lydia Davis held a public tabling event at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on Monday, October 5. She defended the rights of the preborn in debates with progressive students and bystanders.
Davis came to UW-Madison as part of her “Abortion is Anti-Woman” college tour through Students for Life, a national pro-life organization that serves more than 1,600 campus groups across the country. It advocates for policies that would protect human life from conception. The campus chapter of Students for Life helped host the event.
Davis argued that protecting life means more than simply opposing abortion. “We do care about families. From the moment of conception through adulthood. I’m against suicide, I’m against euthanasia.”
Davis said she is against the death penalty, but does not view opposition to the death penalty as necessary to be pro-life. “We have put to death lots of innocent people,” she said. “There have been people that have done terrible things that God has used to do amazing things later on.”
One man rode by on a bike and flipped her off. Davis said that action was not very “pro-woman.” Another man rode by and yelled, “You suck!” A third man walked by and simply booed.
Another man set up a blanket near the table and repeatedly heckled the event. He occasionally walked up to the microphone and asked questions, mostly unrelated to abortion. However, he suggested she may support “fascism.”
Davis spoke about how to effectively communicate the pro-life cause. “You don’t have to be a Christian to be against killing babies,” she said. “I lead with the biology that life begins with conception.” She said that most people agree that “killing babies is wrong,” but they need to be convinced that a preborn child is a baby.
One man suggested that nothing is “objectively immoral,” specifically including slavery.
He used this position to justify his support of abortion. He initially stated that he believed murder should be illegal, but also stated that preborn children are human beings. Davis then asked if it should be legal to murder “some people,” and he said “yes, under the right context.” He said he does not believe in “inherent rights,” and “nothing gives me the right to life.”
Another man attempted to justify his support for abortion by comparing a preborn baby to a caterpillar and an adult to a butterfly. He said a “butterfly was once a caterpillar,” but “they weren’t the same exact species.”
Davis pointed out that butterflies and caterpillars are the same species, just in different stages of development. She told him that life objectively begins at conception and challenged him to find a biology textbook that says otherwise. He returned shortly after and admitted he could not do so.
One man argued that abortion “makes life a lot easier.” She said, “You can have irresponsible sex and objectify women, I’m sure.”
He responded, “Exactly.” After Davis said 50 percent of women who have abortions were on birth control, he asked, “Where are your sources?” Davis then started to pull up the source, and he said, “Oh, now she has to pull out her phone.”
As he walked away, he yelled, “You’ll never be Kirk.”
In the afternoon, demonstrators started writing over the chalk messages that Students for Life had put down for the event. A message that said “Pro-Life or Pro-Choice? Tell Us Why” was written over with “Women Rights Aren’t A Debate.”
On YikYak, an anonymous messaging app that requires a wisc.edu email address to join, students made many posts in response to the event. “Who wants to grab a coffee and get an abortion with me?😍” read one post. Another said, “Charlie… Charlie is it you🥹,” in reference to the late Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk.
“Genuinely can’t go over there today or I’ll lose my shit,” another poster wrote. One YikYak post referred to the organizers of the event as “anti abortion shitheads.” Another anonymous poster said, “Oooooh imma slime her out,” an apparent threat to kill her.
Not all challengers came from the left. An abortion abolitionist group — which believes that incremental pro-life laws are morally wrong — protested the event. Abortion abolitionists advocate for an immediate and total ban on abortion.
One abortion abolitionist challenged Davis. He said that pro-life laws were “evil” and those who support them are “disobeying God.” Davis compared the situation to a burning building: Even if it is impossible to save everyone inside, a bystander should try to save as many people as possible.
That evening, Davis delivered a lecture and held additional Q&A. She spoke about the importance of reforming the foster care system, recognizing the potential dangers of hormonal birth control, and engaging with public policy to protect life.
In a discussion with an animal rights activist, Davis stated her opposition to animal cruelty but said it is not a moral imperative to become vegan. She said that she values human life more than other species. The activist expressed some sympathy toward the pro-life cause.
She discussed the impact of abortion on women. “Women are told that abortion is going to empower them, that it’s going to be exercising their freedom, their bodily autonomy. And then when women are left hurting, they’re silenced because it doesn’t fit the pro-abortion narrative.”
“It all comes back to the abortion industry,” which “doesn’t actually care about women, they care about profiting off of them and killing their babies.”
“That is the opposite of pro-women, that’s anti-women.”