“We've seen increases in vandalism, in death threats, in rape threats, that our students face,” Kristan Hawkins, who leads SFLA, told American Family Radio this week.
Hawkins is currently on a college campus tour called “Make Abortion Illegal Again," which puts her in front of a hostile audience to explain the pro-life view and to answer questions.
The last stop of the campus tour is Clemson University, where Hawkins is scheduled to speak Nov. 16.
On the Clemson campus, the SFLA chapter “Tigers for Life” called campus police last week when students passing by their table threatened to kill them, pro-life student Alivia-Grace Talley recounted in a firsthand account. She also recounted how a female student, who passed Talley in a hallway, recognized her as a pro-life leader and said she wanted to slam Talley’s face into concrete.
“I have no idea who she but it concerns me nonetheless,” Talley wrote. “Who else on my campus wants to harm me?”
The answer is, unfortunately, lots of her fellow students. Those left-wing students consider an unwelcomed conservative point of view "hate speech" but can also rip up pro-life posters and defend that as First Amendment-protected free speech.
Back in 2017, Fresno State professor William Thatcher and his students were recorded on video vandalizing a Students for Life event. The professor, who was later sued for his actions, told the pro-life students he was exercising his First Amendment right to rub out their chalk demonstration.
In the radio interview, Hawkins told host Walker Wildmon she was not surprised at the left-wing backlash after Roe v Wade was overturned earlier this year. It is ultimately a good thing, she said, for the issue to be discussed and debated even if there is a fear of violence.
“Any time that happens, that is fundamentally a good thing,” she said, “because we know truth is on our side, and science is on our side, with this issue."
