UNCW's “Students for Life” chapter launches weekly protests outside of local Planned Parenthood.
March 2, 2023
With North Carolina being one of the remaining southern states to allow abortion access, pro-life groups, such as UNC Wilmington’s “Students for Life” chapter, have felt an applied pressure to change the minds of the women who travel from interstate to receive abortion care.
“It definitely makes [protesting] all the more crucial for us,” said Benjamin Cederberg, president of UNCW’s “Students for Life” chapter.
“Students for Life,” one of the nation’s largest pro-life advocacy organizations, has almost 1,300 student groups on high school and college campuses. Some of their initiatives include political engagement, supportive services, and peaceful protests. This past Saturday marked the UNCW club’s third week protesting outside of Planned Parenthood.
While UNCW’s “Students for Life” have found others in the Wilmington community with similar goals, they prefer not to associate with certain church groups, such as St. Matthews Evangelical Lutheran Church on College Road, due to their extreme methods, which include the use of megaphones and graphic posters.
“The point of us trying to be peaceful and prayerful is to combat the preconceived notion that others have [of us],” Cederberg said. “We are not trying to offend or be hateful; we are trying to be loving, and we want to show people that we aren’t always angry in our approach.” Cederberg continued, “We recognize that these are women who are in tough situations. We want to give support to them so they don’t feel like they have to abort in the first place.”
Despite their peaceful intentions, however, Planned Parenthood employees still argue that the presence of anti-abortion protestors poses a negative threat to women’s mental and physical health.
“Going to reproductive healthcare centers, whether it’s to get birth control pills, a pap smear, or a termination of pregnancy, is a very personal decision,” said a local Planned Parenthood employee. “It is very intimidating for vulnerable women who are going through a crisis to enter a medical facility in front of a crowd. It should be a very private matter.”
To combat the increasing size and frequency of protestors, there has been an influx of volunteers who help escort patients into clinics to limit their engagement with protestors. However, it isn’t just patients who are concerned for their safety.
“Whenever I walk to my car after work, I look around to make sure no one is hovering around the parking lot,” another Planned Parenthood employee said. “When you have people protesting your occupation outside of your workplace almost every day, you tend to worry about your safety. Not all groups have peaceful intentions.”
While Cederberg claims their efforts help change people’s minds, Planned Parenthood employees aren’t convinced. “Protesting mostly doesn’t affect the decisions of the women entering the facility,” the employee said. “It just adds to the shame, guilt, and trauma of the woman involved.”
She continued, “In the fear of being labeled a ‘murderer,’ women may avoid Planned Parenthood clinics, which causes a delay in their care, regardless of whether or not they are seeking an abortion. The intimidation factor of protesting can outright prevent women from discovering cancer, preventing fertility issues, or treating STIs.”
“What we want anti-abortion advocates to understand is that abortion is not always an elective procedure. People don’t choose to have a baby with major abnormalities. They don’t choose to discover an autosomal recessive disorder in their genes. They don’t choose to be raped. Couples don’t choose for their contraception not to work. They don’t choose to be in an abusive relationship or to live in poverty. These are not choices that people are making, and they don’t need a reminder of that from people who protest their faux concerns outside of our clinics.”