Stanford Student Smiles While Destroying Pro-Life Display, Caves When Authorities Are Brought In
An unidentified Stanford University student is going viral in all the wrong ways after video of him vandalizing a pro-life display was posted on social media.
According to The Daily Wire, the incident involved a “Cemetery of the Innocents” set up by the Stanford Students for Life. The national Students for Life website describes it as a way to dramatize the victims of abortion by setting up small crosses or other memorials for those who were killed before they were born.
“Does your school need a wake-up call?” the national website reads. “Most campuses do, so you’re not alone. Hosting a display that shows the magnitude of lives affected by abortion, is a gentle and peaceful way of informing your campus of why it’s important to take a stand for life. Sometimes our peers just don’t understand the extent of lives taken by abortion each day. It’s our job to remind them!”
Sometimes, being reminded can be a bit too much, as was the case here.
The video begins after the student was caught picking up the flowers the Stanford Students for Life were using for their display. He was asked several times to give up the flowers and informed they were private property, but he kept smiling and refusing to either put them back or put them in a box carried by one of the Students for Life members.
“It’s as simple as just putting it in (the box),” said a young woman identified by The Daily Wire as Students for Life regional coordinator Anna Bakh.
Nevertheless, he persisted, waving them off and asking not to be recorded.
“I understand,” he said. “It’s also as simple as taking those down and respecting people’s choices, being a decent human being.”
Because only one side should be able to protest, right?
“Also respecting other people’s opinions and their property, and their display,” Bakh said.
“It’s a couple of flowers,” the student said. “I don’t know if it’s that deep, especially to you guys if you just tell people to like to get an abortion and leave as soon as you convince them of that. You’re not going to like think about the consequences are for their lives.”
“Well this table is here, so you can talk about that,” another student said.
It’s worth noting there wasn’t much stridency among the Students for Life, who offered repeatedly to engage in dialogue with the student. He wasn’t having it, instead demanding that the display get taken down.
Eventually, authorities were called, at which point he became strangely contrite. He even offered to put the flowers back; the group declined, simply asking him to return them.
When asked why he was “hurting himself,” the student replied, “It might be worth hurting himself for.”
Bakh told The Daily Wire he walked off without incident, but not before “kick(ing) a few of the lawn stakes as he walked away.”
“The SSFL’s memorial of the lives lost to abortion was a beautiful display that sparked many mind changing conversations,” Bakh said in a statement. “It is sad to see a student not only attempt to destroy such a beautiful memorial, but to also refuse to converse with us.
“It is unacceptable that students resort to vandalism when they disagree with the prolife viewpoint. We encouraged this particular student to dialogue with us and participate in an open conversation, rather than resorting to destruction. Unfortunately, this has become a theme across the nation and even Stanford University is no exception.”
There was no physicality here, but it’s a potent distillation of everything wrong with how the left treats pro-lifers.
To the left, the opinion of those who are against abortion is nothing, as is their right to have it heard. I have no doubt this young man thought he was doing something moral by pilfering the property of Students for Life. There are probably millions who agree with him. And that’s a very distinct kind of sickness — one that we’ll have to deal with, as a country, for decades to come.
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