By Robby Knapp and Bradley Keenan

Madison, WI – On September 16, the anti-abortion group Missionaries to the Preborn set up on Madison’s Library Mall, harassing students as they passed by. By 2:30 p.m., a group of students gathered in opposition. Bradley Keenan of Madison Students for a Democratic Society led chants with the student body to drown them out. A band had also joined, drowning out the group’s speakers.

Frustrated at student opposition, the group's speeches devolved into baseless arguments with students, claiming that evolution and abortion are “what Hitler believed in.” Students did not back down, instead they voiced that anti-science claims have no place on campus. As students continued to protest, members of the anti-abortion group became increasingly agitated until they attacked a student, ripping his shirt off. At that point, members of the crowd stepped in and separated the agitator.

Twenty-four hours later, the Missionaries to the Preborn arrived in Milwaukee on the UW-Milwaukee campus. Near 1 p.m., the agitators started to assemble around Spaights Plaza with signs of bloody, fake fetuses and began to try and agitate the student population passing by, which grew a crowd. Members of the Student for a Democratic Society at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee responded to the scene, and began to drown out the agitators, led by SDS member Alejandro Acosta, by chanting, “Our bodies, our lives, our right to decide.”

Other members of SDS Milwaukee, Hannah Grotto and Lauren Sroka, discussed with students who passed by about the frustrations of dealing with a group that was clearly harassing students as they walked through campus. Grotto stated, “I am extremely disappointed with the university allowing an anti-abortion group onto campus utilizing such graphic imagery. She added, “More needs to be done to protect students from these outside groups, especially if they were violent at other schools in the UW System, we need to hold these agitators accountable.”

This impromptu rally was the first for UWM-SDS to have this fall semester as it continues to create a safe and progressive space on campus for all students.

As Trump’s policies against the education system continually turn college campuses into a battleground for student rights, it is also a call to action for all students on UWM’s campus to call for its administration to end its complicity with Trump’s anti-education, anti-student and anti-reproductive rights policies.

#MadisonWI #WI #StudentMovement #WomensMovement #ReproductiveRights #Abortion