A pro-life student group at Purdue University has apologized for a controversial campaign against abortion that used the “hands up; don’t shoot” slogan from Black Lives Matter protests and changed it to “hands up; don’t abort.”
The campaign also included chalk drawings on sidewalks and flyers that claimed abortion makes black children an “endangered race.” Other slogans included “Womb = most dangerous place for black kids,” “Civil rights begins in womb” and “Planned Parenthood targets minorities.”
A representative for Purdue Students for Life has since penned an apology in the Purdue Exponent.
“First and foremost, we would like to apologize for the pain this campaign has caused. It was never our intent to shame or condemn any group of people, either the black community or post-abortive women, or to make any person feel discriminated against,” they wrote. “Rather, we sought to draw attention to how abortion inflicts disproportionate harm onto the black community (including both its born and unborn members) through factors such as misinformation, targeting from the abortion industry, discrimination and racial inequality.”
“The flyers were posted to draw attention to a uniquely cruel way the black community has been discriminated against by the abortion industry through generations of mis-education and deliberate targeting. We spoke of black children being ‘endangered’ not because black women are hostile toward children, but because Planned Parenthood is hostile toward them. We want to protect black lives.”
The group has apologized for the tactics but still stands by the idea that abortion is a “gross civil rights injustice,” they said.