Dozens of students showed up to the College Republicans tabling event in partnership with Students for Life of America inside of the Digiorgio Student Union Center (DIGS) on Dec. 1st, 2022. The table displayed a sign bearing the words, “Abortion is not right.”
Students for Life Action, “is a national organization that works with students to promote pro-life values on campus.” Winthrop’s College Republicans President, Wesley Thomas said. Thomas, a captain with Students for Life Action and Students For Life of America Southeast Regional Coordinator, Cori Woods were both in attendance.
Many students expressed that they were particularly disturbed by comparisons featured on the posters. A poster titled, “Humans Deserve Human Rights” listed these points, “Slavery = Human beings are owned. Sex-trafficking = Human beings are treated as sexual objects. Women’s Inequality = Women are viewed as less than men. Jim Crow Laws & Segregation = African Americans were not equal based on their skin color. Abortion = Preborn human beings are discarded because they are more dependent and vulnerable.”
In the midst of loud cheers, human nutrition major Thamia Davis and two friends stood a few feet away from the crowd, as they frustratedly spoke amongst each other.
Davis told The Johnsonian, “I think that abortions are going to happen anyway, even if they’re legal or not, and they’re going to be unsafe, … why not have a safe way to do something that’s going to happen anyways? And also you can state your opinion –nothing wrong with stating your opinion on something, but do not compare it to slavery, Jim Crow, or anything that is, you know, against black people, or black oppression.”
The same poster mentioned also included a Martin Luther King Jr. quote that read, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
President of Winthrop’s NAACP Chapter, Samson Demissie said, “I was frustrated by the comparisons made and as a Black man studying social inequality, it was disrespectful to see such terrible delivery of information. You cannot compare such horrific acts that black people were dealt at the hands of white power and supremacy. They all have different social contexts and cause so much pain and suffering that affects the communities of colors today, systemically, institutionally and regularly, still disproportionately being harmed.”
The sociology major went on to say, “And women? We need to be supporting the autonomy and liberty of women. We know America doesn’t treat women or more feminine presenting persons equally. Which means we must push for their autonomy more, not restricting that any further than it is. You know better than to compare things to the Holocaust. But not to slavery, Jim Crow, and sex trafficking. It’s frustrating, and shows me, (whoever) made these posters, just doesn’t understand the experience of racism and sexism. It’s quite ridiculous, but unsurprising.”
Thomas said, “Well, I’m not sure what else there is to say. We said it, we believe it, we stand by it. We think that abortion is a human rights issue. We think that it is an injustice, that it is a discrimination against unborn persons, and much the same way that other discriminations and other injustices have been committed. So we believe that the comparison is warranted, and we stand by it.”
A mass communication student, Gabrielle Turner, was in attendance reporting for The Palmetto Report. Turner said, “The theater and the dance majors showed up in a big group and started singing and dancing them out and they basically got bullied out of DIGS two hours earlier before they were scheduled to leave, they started packing up and on their way out, they had a little parade that they made for them. They made a parade singing them out and followed them outside while they were packing up.”
While the event was originally scheduled for Nov. 21, it had to be rescheduled “last minute,” Thomas said.
“Yeah, it was just a bunch–like they told us they left their class to come here. And like I wouldn’t say harassed because they didn’t actually do anything but they were basically counter protesting them. So it was really wild and they stood outside waiting on them to pack up for like 30 minutes like there were people standing out there while they were packing their car up.” Turner said.
However, according to Thomas, Students For Life and Winthrop College Republicans left the table 20-30 minutes early.
“The notion that we were chased out is just not true. We were supposed to be there from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.. And we were there from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.”
Thomas’ said Winthrop College Republicans and Students For Life “felt like the productive discussions that we had managed to have throughout the day in spite of the protesters –that those productive discussions had ended. And so since the respectful debate had ended, we felt that there was no need to stay.”
“Our goal was to engage students on campus and to facilitate productive discussion and debate. And we did have productive discussions. We have someone who’s on the ground, we did change some minds, we did change some hearts. And we succeeded in engaging people in humanizing ourselves, making sure that,even if when they left, they didn’t agree with us, they at least understood us better, and understood that we weren’t out to get them in any way and that we weren’t these, you know, mustache twirling villains.” Thomas said.
UPDATE | JAN. 15:
As rumors continue to circulate about an alleged possible investigation launched by Winthrop into the Winthrop College Republicans tabling event in partnership with Students for Life of America, the organization’s president Wesley Thomas said, “I have also heard those rumors. However, I have not been requested to comment or anything like that. So I don’t think I would have any more information than anybody else does.”
Thomas also said, “No,” in reference to knowing about any officials from Winthrop reaching out about investigating the event.
Winthrop College Republicans made a statement on their Instagram, “In regards to the protests Thursday, Dec. 1st, we have recently received photos which better show the defacement done to our table by the student protestors. This included stickers and signs attached to our banners, the destruction of our informational pamphlets, and the leaving of what was supposed to be, according to a protestor, a ‘bloody angel.’ Looking over the scene, the same protester comments, ‘As a white woman, you asked for this.”
The post continued, “Needless to say, at a university which claims to support diversity, tolerance and inclusion, these acts of harassment and intimidation ought to not be tolerated. … We want to thank everyone for the outpouring of support that we’ve received. Merry Christmas to all, and we’ll see you next semester!”
Winthrop College Republicans said multiple acts of “defacement” to their banner and pamphlets took place during the event.
“The most obvious one was that someone had taken a sheet of paper and taped it to our banner that said, abortion is not a right. So it just said abortion is a right. That was sort of one of the lighter ones. They put smaller stickers on the smaller banners, although, to be honest with you, we have videos of all that but I don’t think we can, because those stickers were so small, I don’t think that they would show up. That’s been more of an eyewitness thing.” Thomas said.
Along with defacement, Thomas said, “they took pamphlets of some of the informational pamphlets that would link to different apologetics sites, different places where they could learn more about our perspective, some of them were dedicated to non-abortion crisis pregnancy resources.”
While roughly 50+ students showed up to the table in protest, Thomas said “there were a lot of signs that were specific specifically to writing or insulting, especially Cory [Woods] I didn’t get too much of that because I was a little further away from the table. … “The one that I remember most vividly, it was like, ‘eff this bitch, stuff like that.’”
According to Winthrop University’s policy for assembly, assemblies that have not received written approval are only permitted on Scholars Walk, Campus Green, the amphitheatre and the grassy area in front of Byrnes Auditorium.
“We didn’t ask for the crowd. The crowd gathered on its own. And so no one has reached out to us about that. I’m not sure why they would. You know, you can imagine any other situation. We were tabling and people gathered around us. It was not a planned assembly.” Thomas said.
The university’s policy also says, “All such assemblies may be conducted with sound amplification equipment as long as instructional and other university activities are not impeded, including entrance into any university buildings or the free flow of traffic.”
He went on to say, there was no “inciting incident” and “There was no single thing that sparked the fire. You sort of had people start to gather and then coordinate amongst themselves as they arrived. And after that, there was a lot of hostility. A lot of jeering. I couldn’t tell you how many people said to me- something along the lines of, “You know, no one here agrees with you, right?”
According to Winthrop University’s calendar of events page, there is no record of a table reservation for the Winthrop College Republicans or Students for Life.
