With candles in hand, roughly 20 students sat in silence Thursday night on Hayden Lawn to honor those who died during a mass shooting at a Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs on Nov. 27.
The shooting, which killed two civilians and one police officer at the clinic, triggered a debate between those who do and do not support the non-profit organization that offers reproductive health services.
Civil engineering junior Emily Lauber is the president of Vox: Voices for Planned Parenthood, the club that hosted the vigil.
“We try to create dialogue for what reproductive justice means and how we can reach for that,” Lauber said. “For me, it makes sense to support Planned Parenthood. I want to support access to healthcare and sexual health and contraceptive education.”
However, when Lauber first heard of the shooting on Twitter, she said she feared for those she had met at a youth leadership retreat for Planned Parenthood two weekends before.
“My first thought was, ‘Sh-t, are my friends OK? What’s happening to my family, the people that I care about?’” she said. “I was glued to my phone until they actually captured the shooter.”
Lauber said the shooting makes her feel less safe while advocating for the organization.
“What if I’m being a greeter at the local Planned Parenthood and someone else decides to be a copycat?” she said. “My life is now at risk because I support healthcare, or access to healthcare.”
According to the National Abortion Federation, abortion providers have received 429 recorded death threats and 17 attempted murders since 1977.
However, women and gender studies junior Grecia Magdaleno said it’s still crucial to support Planned Parenthood.
“It is time to unapologetically stand up for organizations like this,” Magdaleno said. “We absolutely need a voice. It takes a little bit of courage and discomfort but … it’s time to be uncomfortable.”
Magdaleno said the shooting served as an attack not only on the clinic in Colorado, but also on the supporters of Planned Parenthood.
“When we have people losing their lives in an area where we give reproductive care, that is an attack on me as well,” Magdaleno said. “That is my family. That is an attack on my rights and my body.”
Daniel Sanchez, a community director for Barrett, the Honors College who once worked at the clinic in Colorado, said he hopes the vigil triggered a conversation about what it means to be pro-life and pro-choice.
“It’s preaching to the choir tonight, and while I think that’s all fine and well, I think what we need it to move past these ideologies of what we think medicine should or should not be,” Sanchez said. “We need to start a frank conversation.”
Sanchez said the people he worked with at Planned Parenthood were passionate about their job as caretakers.
“The people who work at Planned Parenthood go on to be great people,” Sanchez said. “They go on to be nurses. They go on to be physicians. They go on to be an employee at ASU. They do great work, but no one should have to work behind bulletproof glass.”
Reach the news editor at aplante@asu.edu or follow @aimeenplante on Twitter
Like The State Press on Facebook and follow @statepress on Twitter.
