With buckets and mops in tow, pro-choice activists walked around the ISU campus Thursday attempting to clean away the memory of Wednesday’s pro-life protest.

A group of 15 students set out on a 35-minute journey around campus to literally scrub the sidewalks where members of the group Missionaries to the Preborn had been the day before. Students began the effort at 12:15 p.m. outside the Margaret Sloss Women’s Center.

Chanting phrases such as, “Clean your bodies, clean your lives, we will not be victimized,” and “Not the church, not the state, women will decide our fate,” the cheerful group cleaned sidewalks outside Curtiss Hall, the Hub, Carver Hall and the Memorial Union.

After a sidewalk had been deemed “clean,” Penny Rosenthal, interim director of the Women’s Center, shouted, “This area has been cleansed!” which was followed by cheers of jubilation.

“We’re trying to revive the spirit that they attempted to destroy,” said Sara Junck, Sloss House employee. “What they did was violent and disturbing.”

Missionaries to the Preborn is a Milwaukee-based organization participating in an “Unmasking of Planned Parenthood” tour. The group stopped in Dubuque and Cedar Falls before arriving in Ames to raise awareness about the women’s clinic.

“Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion provider in the country,” said pro-life activist Sara Trewhella on Wednesday. “They target high schoolers and college students, so we’re here to try to counter them.”

Kristi Johnson, freshman in psychology, was among the pro-choice activists Thursday and said the missionaries’ tactics were distasteful.

“The pictures they were showing were late-term abortions,” she said. “They didn’t show what abortions were really like. They were relating abortion to the Holocaust – that’s just wrong.”

Sloss House employees said they were surprised and shocked by the missionaries’ unannounced visit Wednesday.

“We found out at 8 a.m. and we were not prepared,” said Junck, senior in child and family services. “Those horrible, awful images made you not want to eat lunch. We weren’t used to seeing that. But we were just flooded with calls, people sent us wonderful e-mails of support. We feel that we have a strong community behind us.”

Travis Franck, senior in computer science, later joined the activists at the Hub and proceeded to help the members clean. He said he did not understand the missionaries’ views.

“I thought their point was really unclear; they didn’t have any good reasons,” Franck said. “I was angered that they were targeting Planned Parenthood.”

Thursday’s cleansing made up for the protest the day earlier, he said.

“I think today’s protest is doing a good job,” Franck said. “It’s not so much about murder; it’s about choice, acceptance and our liberation.”

Leslie Custer, freshman in elementary education, also saw the missionaries’ displays while on campus Wednesday. Although she is a pro-life advocate, she said the group could have portrayed their views in a better manner.

“I don’t agree with their approach,” Custer said. “I think it was too violent – it does more harm than it does good.”