Use of children at pro-life march raises concerns



By Louis Fine
Murphy News Service

An anti-abortion rally held on the University of Minnesota campus in late January featured a large group of children carrying signs and singing, raising concern from some of those watching the protest.

The Northrop Mall event was organized by the Maranatha Christian Fellowship to mark the 42nd anniversary of the historic and still controversial right-to-life U.S. Supreme Court case, Roe v. Wade.

The children, who sang hymns such as “Amazing Grace,” carried signs that conveyed saying, “Stop unborn pain” and “Protect life,” while others seemed to indirectly refer to the young marchers for a dramatic effect.

Some of the signs quoted from the Bible (“Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.”) and others to children’s author Dr. Seuss (“A person is a person, no matter how small.”)

One sign featured pictures of unborn fetuses with the words, “Pretend I am a tree and save me.”

Some who saw the march said they were uncomfortable with the way the children were used.

“I don’t think most of those kids know what they’re marching for,” Alexandra Lunde, 20, said she watched the march. Lunde said she is a pro-choice junior at the University of Minnesota.

“Sometimes I don’t really think it’s fair for kids to be involved in such controversial things when they don’t have an opinion on it yet,” Lunde said.

Dana Holm, a 37-year-old pro-life mother of five who saw the march, said, “They want there to be a face … that people recognize, that this is what we might be taking away by making a choice for abortion.

Holm added, “But I don’t know that it’s necessary to put the young children out there to make that statement.”

Grant Buse, an advisor to and a former president of the Maranatha Christian Fellowship, a student group at the University of Minnesota, lead the march with five of his six children.

Buse said he understood why people might have felt uneasy about having children march with such signs, which is why he said he “explained” the issue to his children, and let them “choose” whether to participate.

“Children shouldn’t be used as pawns,” Buse said, “they should understand what they’re marching for, and that’s what I do with my kids.”

Buse added that the subject matter of the signs was fairly age appropriate for the children, seeing as how they weren’t graphic.

“There wasn’t really a focus on abortion,” Buse said, “The focus was on what life is. I think it’s good for all ages to celebrate life.”

Reporter Louis Fine is studying journalism at the University of Minnesota.

 

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