The University of Wisconsin-Madison Students for Life chapter hosted speaker and Students for Life of America spokesperson Lydia Taylor Davis for a series of campus events titled “Abortion is Anti-Woman” on Oct. 6.
The event was funded by the national chapter of Students for Life of America as part of a larger tour led by Davis.
On Library Mall, Davis invited students and community members to “prove her wrong,” and later that evening she hosted a Q&A and talk at Union South.
Throughout the day, students approached Davis’s microphone set in the middle of Library Mall, ready to defend their claims and debate various topics surrounding abortion.
Clara Wagner, a biochemistry major at UW-Madison, passionately debated Davis for over ten minutes regarding Wagner’s stance on abortion.
“They definitely just want to get reactions out of people,” Wagner told The Daily Cardinal. “They have clip channels, and they're trying to get people to argue poorly.”
Every student who debated Davis was filmed. Davis has an Instagram account with over 200k followers where she posts clips of her debating people with differing views on abortion.
“I'm glad that we are a campus that values free speech,” Wagner said. “I hope just that is granted to other groups across the aisle.”
The event marks just one of the conservative-leaning demonstrations that have graced UW-Madison this fall, with Sister Cindy visiting last week and the Missionaries to the Preborn demonstration the week before.
Grace Durham, president of Students for Life: UW-Madison, emphasized that their organization was not affiliated with the abolitionists.
“We are pro-life in the way that we want to hear all opinions,” Durham told the Cardinal. “So bring your questions, bring your opinions, bring your opposition. We want to hear that.”
After the debates on Library Mall, Davis and Students for Life of America hosted another open forum for students and community members at Union South that evening.
“I believe abortion is the intentional killing of an innocent human being, and I believe that's always wrong,” Davis said. “Science shows life begins at fertilization. That means every abortion ends the life of a unique, living, human child.”
Davis then discussed how to further the pro-life message and what Students for Life of America had accomplished thus far, citing some of their policy work regarding abortion pills.
“If you drink normal water, it is the equivalent of taking one abortion pill per year. Which is crazy,” Davis said. “So we're actually using environmental laws to go after the chemical abortion pill, calling on the EPA to investigate these drugs, which they now are, thankfully.”
“We're using the left's environmental laws against them, which I love,” Davis said.
Scientists have not yet found concerning levels of mifepristone in water supplies, and no evidence links it to environmental or health concerns.
