There is nothing quite like the Free Speech Zone. Because there is nothing quite as ironic as declaring that only a certain space can be used for public displays of opinion – particularly an area that is undergoing massive amounts of renovation and construction that makes speech seem like anything but free.

OK, so I realize that the Free Speech Zone is more symbolic than anything, but what is stopping people from speaking up at say, the sculpture outside Black Engineering? I think it’s because the library is the perfect venue for battle royales to take place. Because nowhere else could you find a place where the LBGTA Alliance, ACLU and the Young Socialists would find adversity in a bunch of little kids handing out pictures of mangled fetuses. I tried as best I could to avoid the rant-fest, since the speech that was occurring was likely counter-productive. However, what I was unable to avoid was the men and women of the Missionaries to the Pre-Born, who felt it was necessary to hand me a picture of a dead fetus lying on a table.

I’m pro-life. I always have been, and I always will be. Some years ago, when I first learned of the horrible tragedy that is abortion, I very well may have agreed with the tactic of displaying larger-than-life size portraits of aborted fetus in an effort to help people understand what an abortion actually is. Fortunately, I learned that this was a largely ineffective scare tactic, something that I hope that Missionaries to the Pre-Born learned last week – as it only causes scolding and immature antics. And just as I object to anti-war activists using their kids to protest the war, I believe that it was wrong for this group to send children out with pamphlets filled with graphic pictures and messages that they truly do not understand.

But the big picture here is not the use of kids or the narrow-minded church goers who think that holding a sign up with a picture of mangled fetuses will get them into heaven, but the fact that this group and many groups like them are counter-productive to the entire pro-life movement. What I have found to get an effective dialogue started is not to focus on the death of the unborn fetus, but rather the life of the unborn fetus – after all, it is pro-life. Many people use the graphic images as a means to get people to understand how an abortion is performed – something that many indeed do not understand. However, what more people don’t understand is the life of the unborn, and that there is, in fact, a living being inside the uterus.

What is misunderstood in the arguments between pro-life and pro-choice advocates is that pro-life is seen by pro-choicers as those who want to take away the rights of women. And pro-choice is seen by many pro-lifers as pro-death. If I didn’t know what I knew about the biology of an unborn fetus, I would probably be pro-choice, too. Nobody wants to take rights away from women, but there is a point where one must step back and study the science of pregnancy. It is not hard to realize that the unborn fetus is a separate, living, breathing, heart-beating human being. It is said that a child can recognize the sound of his or her parents’ voices before he or she is even born, since the fetus has functioning hearing.

What kind of blob of skin cells can do that? And although the fetus cannot easily survive on its own, this is that human being’s only shot at life. If any of you were aborted, that would be it – no childhood, no high school, no Iowa State University, nothing.

Unfortunately, the argument between the two sides has been tainted by aggressive groups like this that constantly shove disgusting images down your throat, people who preach religion to those who will probably never believe, and folks who just don’t want to understand the science of the unborn.

The only way to get an effective dialogue is to debate ethically, and for both sides to actually listen to what the other has to say. Pro-lifers must not focus on the death of the unborn, but rather on the life of the fetus if they want to truly end the travesty of abortion.

– Andy Gionnette is a senior in mechanical engineering from Chanhassen, Minn.