A University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) student and supporter of a feminist studies professor who has been charged with battery against pro-life demonstrators said pro-lifers who display images of aborted fetuses are “domestic terrorists.”
Sophomore Katherine Wehler, a theater and feminist studies major at UCSB, told Austin Yack at The College Fix, pro-lifers “are domestic terrorists, because the definition of a terrorist is someone who terrorizes.”
“That’s exactly what those girls were doing,” Wehler said about young prolife campus demonstrators. “They were making us feel very unsafe on our campus outside one of the busiest places during the busiest week of the quarter.”
As Ashley Pratte reported for Breitbart News in March, Dr. Mireille Miller-Young, an associate professor of Feminist Studies at UCSB, confronted a group of pro-life campus activists and engaged in an angry exchange with them. Members of the pro-life group, Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust, were distributing flyers of graphic images of abortion procedures. Miller-Young reportedly proceeded to tear down their banner and assaulted one of the pro-life demonstrators. She was subsequently charged with battery, misdemeanor theft, and vandalism, and has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Wehler is one of a large group of students who have expressed support for their professor, Miller-Young. Wehler stated she feels strongly her professor did the right thing because pro-life activists made the campus uncomfortable for students.
“The last thing we need are these people invading our community,” Wehler said. “I have a lot of feminist friends that went to them [pro-life protesters] with an educated academic response, because they were extremely triggered by these images, and the activists were saying this is for ‘women’s rights.'”
“As feminist scholars and activists, we were insulted to hear that their cause is for women’s rights, because we felt personally attacked as women,” Wehler said. “Then, we were repeatedly called murderers. That is not okay.”
“In my opinion, Professor Miller-Young would never attack anyone as the media suggests unless feeling an invasion of her own personal space like anyone else would in a fight or flight situation,” she continued. “If the university did decide to revoke her employment, there would be a large uproar because she is so celebrated.”
Nevertheless, as The College Fix reports, a petition that calls for the termination of Miller-Young states, “This is about someone who violated the law in several ways, disregarded the idea of freedom of speech, and tarnished the image of UCSB.”
Katie Devlin, a UCSB student, said she sees hypocrisy in the students supporting Miller-Young.
“They talk about prioritizing the safety of our campus involving activists, yet it’s our professor that attacks somebody,” Devlin said. “I think it’s just the contrast that she is a feminist professor and stands for protecting women, yet she attacks a young girl.”
In a comment to Breitbart News, Kristan Hawkins, president of Students For Life of America (SFLA), said, “To call pro-life students, who are peacefully standing up for the greatest human rights atrocity our nation has ever faced, a ‘domestic terrorist’ is patently absurd.”
“To do so in defense of a professor who attacked those peaceful students is downright insulting,” Hawkins added. “We expect that UCSB will do the right thing and ensure that this type of bullying and intimidation by pro-abortion activists does not happen again. At a taxpayer-funded university, the right to free speech must always be protected.”
Lila Rose, president of national pro-life organization Live Action, also commented to Breitbart News, “The reality is, many people – especially college students – need to see the victims of abortion in order to comprehend the injustice. When the victim is hidden, the atrocity can continue. A whole history of social justice movements proves this point.”
“It’s the height of irony to call images of abortion victims a means to make women feel ‘unsafe.’ These women have the full protection of the law on their side,” explained Rose. “Meanwhile, who could be less safe than the little girl in the womb, on the verge of being torn apart by clamps, or cruelly broken and twisted by a vacuum extractor? No one will protect her.”
“The fact that these images make people uncomfortable is not ‘terrorism’ – it’s the point. People know, even if it’s only deep down, that abortion is a horrifying thing,” Rose added. “That’s why these images ‘trigger’ them – because it forces them to come to terms with their own support for the greatest human rights abuse of our time.”
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