Issue date: 3/22/04 Section: Opinion

Graphic by Ruben DeLuna/The Battalion

In the summer of 1955, a young man named Emmett Till took a trip to Mississippi to visit relatives. His mother warned him of hostility toward blacks in the South, but he failed to heed her warning. In August of that year, Emmett was beaten and shot to death by two white men, and then his body was thrown in a river. His crime was speaking to a white woman in the grocery store.

After the body was recovered, Emmett's mother held an open-casket funeral so everyone could see the heinous crime done to her son. His face and body had been beaten beyond recognition, and he had a bullet hole through his head. This crime and the case that followed are considered by many historians to be a major turning point in the struggle for civil rights.

On Monday and Tuesday of this week, there are setups at Rudder Fountain and Academic Plaza by an organization called Justice for All. These setups show graphic, often difficult to look at pictures of aborted fetuses. A common question asked by passers-by is, "Why do they have to show this?"

At the University of Colorado-Boulder, a black student asked this question. One of the volunteers told him the story of Emmett Till. The next day he returned, asking for help to defend the pro-life movement. When asked about his sudden change of heart, he responded that Justice for All is simply "opening the casket" on abortion.

So, what should be seen once the casket is open? First, one should be able to decide from the pictures if the fetus is indeed an innocent human person. If it is, then the question of how, if ever, it is justifiable to end an innocent human's life must be answered. One must either conclude that there are times when it is OK to end an innocent human life or that abortion is murder and must be stopped.

Second, if abortion is nothing more than a simple medical procedure, then the aftermath should not be a problem to look at. If the panels contained pictures of pulled wisdom teeth or of women and men with stitches, although it might seem odd and disgusting, one would not object to this as fiercely as he might the Justice for All demonstration.

What is the difference? Having stitches and having teeth pulled are just mere medical procedures, but, as the Justice for All panels show, abortion involves the dismemberment of a human being. Making a trip to the local abortion clinic as being comparable to a trip to the local dentist masks the true reality of abortion; Justice for All's goal is to unmask this illusion and expose this heinous crime.

Continued...

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