Graphic abortion photos shown at Yuba College

"The extreme anti-abortion groups tend to exaggerate what happens during an abortion," said Carrie Ozeran, community health educator for Planned Parenthood of Yuba City.

Don't think that is an accurate statement....regardless of what you think about showing graphic pictures of aborted fetuses on college campuses.....they are accurate. This is what abortion does to the baby....I have changed my opinion of these events....college campuses are where you are supposed to be learning to think critically and look at all aspects of the issues. IF the truth of abortion is supressed...then the students, who by the way have abortions in the highest numbers,  are being denied information that is useful to them as they make a life/death decisions.  Most people who complain that the pictures are vile to look at have to ask themselves if this is too offensive to look at how can we allow this to go on and do nothing....

April 07, 2010 11:15:00 PM

By Ryan McCarthy/Appeal-Democrat
Yuba City, CA

Movie-sized posters of aborted fetuses were displayed Wednesday at Yuba College by a anti-abortion group — photographs that a woman at a nearby Planned Parenthood booth said "trigger pain in people."

"The extreme anti-abortion groups tend to exaggerate what happens during an abortion," said Carrie Ozeran, community health educator for Planned Parenthood of Yuba City.

Don Blythe, a member of Project Truth, a group of Northern California volunteers that provided the anti-abortion exhibit at Yuba College, said the graphic photographs accurately depict aborted fetuses.

"What's the most graphic picture in history?" Blythe asked. "We just celebrated it," he said in reference to the crucifixion and Easter. "God himself put a graphic picture in front of all mankind."

Yuba College, where the exhibit ended Wednesday, is the next-to-last stop by Project Truth among seven colleges, Blythe said.

"We tend to find a more receptive response from the smaller community colleges," he said, recalling that the anti-abortion group was once shouted down at the University of California, Berkeley.

Olivehurst resident Kimberly Shuman, 40, a veterinary tech student at Yuba College, wasn't receptive to the photographs.
"They're grotesque. They are vile," Shuman said.

Shuman, who identified herself as anti-abortion, questioned Project Truth's tactics.


"They're going about it the wrong way," she said. "They could hand out brochures."

Marysville resident Sandra Gilbert, 31, who attends Yuba College and had her 18-month-old daughter with her, welcomed the exhibit and said she'd want her other daughters, ages 14 and 11, to see it.

"They'd know what an abortion is," Gilbert said.

Student Kevin Hecker, 20, of Linda called the pictures "very disturbing" but agreed with Keith Lampe, 28, of Marysville that "people need to see what's going on."

Miriam Root, Yuba College spokeswoman, said the same exhibit began in March at Bay Area community colleges and that the district's procedures on free speech governed the display.


Student Lisa Robarge, 18, of Yuba City, said she and her boyfriend walked by the exhibit and its graphic photographs.

"He wishes he wouldn't have seen them," Robarge said.
She said anti-war activists don't show photos of dismembered bodies.

"This is so wrong," Robarge said. "I don't agree with their methods."

Carol Marie Siedenburg, participating in the Project Truth effort, said she had an abortion decades ago when she was a 17-year-old in high school in the Bay Area and again as a 23-year-old college student.
"I regret both," Siedenburg said. "These are children I will never hug."

She said she had a long conversation Wednesday with a man whose child was aborted against his wishes and that tears were streaming down from below the man's sunglasses. Siedenburg said community college students who are beginning post-secondary school study may be more receptive to Project Truth's message because, "the more we become educated, the more we believe we can decide what's right and wrong."

Yuba College student Bethany Short, 24, of Marysville, termed the exhibit "terrible" and Marysville resident Timberly Mason, 27, agreed.
"It upsets people emotionally," Mason said.
Project Truth member Blythe said the group also demonstrates in front of high schools, sometimes just handing out literature but other times with the fetus photographs as well.
"Your high schools are out this week so they missed our presence," he said