By: Mira Costello and Rafael Tortolero
Editor-in-Chief, Photographer
After their fall chalking event at Planned Parenthood, Hoosiers for Life brought their chalk back to campus to write pro-life and anti-abortion messages in the Wiekamp courtyard. The event took place early in the morning on March 27, 8:30-9:45 a.m., and the messages were vandalized by approximately 1 p.m. At around 2 p.m., the club posted pictures of the defaced words on Instagram and in a news article Titan Atlas titled “Chalk the Campus Event Destruction & Vandalism.”
The posts (which share the same text) said that the vandalism – including rinsing and rubbing chalk away, crossing out words and writing opposing messages – silenced the club’s fundamental right to free expression. The statement addressed one message (pictured in the Instagram story screenshot) whose words were left legible but shaded in with a slightly darker color.
“This act is especially troubling on a female-majority campus, targeting the message, ‘You are loved. You are strong. You are not alone. You can do this,’ which should be unifying,” the post reads. “This act is inherently anti-woman.”
Note: the club’s Instagram page, @hoosiersforlifeiusb, was tagged in and commented on a post alleging that the chalk was defaced by “IUSB staff”. The Preface is not aware of any evidence of staff or faculty involvement in the response to the chalk. Accounts from students who witnessed or participated in the vandalism support the idea that the response was student-led.
EQUATION. Hoosiers for Life President Anne Wolfe writes “Location + Size + Age =/= Personhood”.
“A TRUE FEMINIST”. Hoosiers for Life members wrote a range of messages expressing general encouragement, support of the pro-life movement, disapproval of abortion and support for the belief that personhood begins at conception.
Hoosiers for Life posted this Instagram story upon learning of the vandalism.
In a subsequent Instagram story, Hoosiers for Life claimed, “Pro-choice IUSB students/educators have depicted that they believe: You are NOT loved. You are NOT strong. You ARE alone. You CANNOT do it.” Note: The Preface is not aware of any involvement by faculty or staff in the vandalism of the original chalk.
GRAFFITI GRAFFITI. Messages were changed, rinsed away and crossed out. “Pro-Life is Pro-Science” (top center) was smudged, with “science” changed to “stupid” and the addition of the words “it is not.” “Unborn Lives Matter” (top right) was changed to “Black lives matter”, with the phrase “women deserve better than abortion” below it smudged away. The center left and right messages – “a person’s a person no matter how small” and “pro-life: the crazy idea that you should not kill human beings” – were rinsed away with small amounts of liquid, potentially from water bottles. Other words and phrases, shown on the bottom row, included “be gay & do crime,” “their choice” and “healthcare.”
