Anti-abortion advocates push Personhood

Dan Holman paces back and forth waving a weathered Bible with the words “Jesus Saves From Hell” on the cover.

It’s nearly 1 p.m. in the Union plaza, and a growing crowd gathers around the older man clad in solid black as he preaches about the pitfalls of reproductive immorality.

Images of broken, blood-soaked bodies splashed across large cardboard signs surround Holman and his audience, each with its own message of anti-abortion.

Fewer than three feet away, sophomore Lavada Johnston stands silently amid the crowd on the plaza, arms crossed, eyes fixated on Holman as he argues his anti-abortion stance with anyone willing to confront him.

Students take turns presenting Holman with hypothetical situations in which abortion is often considered justifiable even by many who oppose it, with topics like miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy and rape at the forefront.

It didn’t take long for the ensuing argument to finally break Johnston’s silence.

“I have a disease called lupus,” she said, temporarily rendering Holman and those surrounding her speechless. “If I have a child I could die.”

Holman and other representatives of Pro-Life Mississippi visited the University of Mississippi Tuesday as part of a statewide tour to gain support for the Personhood Mississippi Amendment, also known as Proposition 26.

Mississippians will vote on the proposed constitutional amendment this November, which seeks to redefine the beginning of a person’s life as the moment of fertilization as a way of challenging a women’s right to have an abortion as set forth by Roe v. Wade, according to the Personhood Mississippi website.

Mississippi has one abortion clinic located in Jackson, which is considered one of the most protested clinics in the country.

Pro-Life Mississippi is a Christian organization that aims to be “a voice against abortion, infanticide, euthanasia and embryonic stem cell research,” according to the group’s website. Pro-Life Mississippi volunteer Cal Zastrow said the organization is touring Mississippi to educate communities about “fatal discrimination” against unborn children.  

Zastrow, along with many others currently traveling with the organization, is not from Mississippi, but decided to support the cause to gain support for the Personhood amendment.

“Mississippi is a very respectful kind of state that cares about other people, especially children,” he said. “Part of our culture is still in denial, denial that these are children and they’re being called fetuses.”

Zastrow said the advocacy group was focused on distributing information through civilized conversation, rather than disruptive protest.

However, others in the group have resorted to different tactics as a way to stop legal abortion.

Wisconsin native Colin Hudson, who traveled to Mississippi for the Personhood tour, has been an anti-abortion advocate for 23 years.

Hudson, a convicted felon, said he has been arrested more than 30 times for “abortion-blocking,” in which he and other protestors would use whatever means necessary to prevent women from entering abortion clinics.

He said he also opposes in vitro fertilization, a medical process that could also potentially be affected if the Personhood Amendment passes.

“It’s not that I wish to make life difficult for young people,” he said. “People are not supposed to be created in labs by technicians. Each child deserves to be conceived with love. The reproductive process is most intimate of all human functions.”

Another Pro-Life Mississippi volunteer performed anti-abortion songs at the Union plaza, encouraging passersby to sing along.   

Some students and faculty openly opposed the group’s tactics of exposing the campus to graphic images, but the organization was generally met with little opposition.

Dean of Students Sparky Reardon said university officials were not notified about the group’s arrival, but that it wasn’t necessary unless the group had planned a mass demonstration, such as a march or organized protest.

Pro-Life Mississippi left the University at approximately 2 p.m. and held a similar demonstration on Jackson Avenue Tuesday afternoon.