I’m sure you all got a glimpse of the pair of crazy pro-life trucks circling campus Monday and Tuesday. Their graphic displays of first-term aborted fetuses and the word “choice” were nothing but a cheap ploy.

Not only were Reversing Roe’s billboards tasteless and offensive, but they also seemed to be ineffective. They were driven entirely by shock and lacked any informational value.

Calling the trucks a “campus tour” is hardly appropriate. The group would have been more effective had advocates actually gotten out of the truck to interact with students. They could have given people pamphlets with facts, or they even could have talked to people about the issues. But instead, they simply showed a graphic image of pro-life propaganda, void of any tangible information.

The shock approach might be good at attention-grabbing, but it lacks any deep thought on the subject matter. It ignores the seriousness of the issue. Most people I saw noticing the truck lightheartedly brushed it aside. The whole abortion debate was traded for a cheap, “Wow, look at that! Is that a chicken wing or just a bad piece of pizza?”

If the truckers think they should use explicit images to shock people, then by those standards it’s only fair for others to drive billboard trucks featuring photos of dead soldiers’ bodies in Iraq or crying women laying next to a back-alley “doctor,” using dirty tools with the word “life?” next to it.

The trucks essentially promote misunderstanding of the abortion debate.

Some people mistake pro-choice for pro-abortion when in fact most pro-choice women haven’t had and/or wouldn’t have an abortion. Being pro-choice doesn’t mean you think abortion is the right or best choice, but instead, that abortion shouldn’t be made illegal because of the negative consequences of doing so.

Taking away decades worth of women’s reproductive rights would be devastating and cause more harm than abortions themselves. Women would surely still have abortions – only they wouldn’t be safe procedures done in a doctor’s office.

We’ve all heard of women shoving coat hangers up into their vaginas or going to uneducated back-alley “doctors” who use dirty tools. Women can die of improper abortion procedures or from complications related to infections.

Other alternatives, such as adoption, can be great. But forcing someone who doesn’t want to have a baby to have one is absurd. If a woman is dead-set on getting an abortion, she can find a way, even if the government tries to control her body. According to about.com, 61 percent of the world population lives where abortion is legal. Let’s not go backwards in the progression of human rights.

Ultimately, if abortion becomes illegal, abortion won’t stop – it will only become unsafe.

Making abortion illegal won’t fix anything. Revamping sex education, helping to raise the standard of living and just educating people in general can help prevent unwanted pregnancies from the start.

I urge pro-lifers to reevaluate their stance. Like myself, you may not personally believe in getting an abortion, but by encouraging lawmakers to reverse Roe v. Wade, you are opening doors to infection, disease or possibly death to other women. You can be pro-life, but politically be pro-choice to save those other women from unsafe procedures.

Allison Pritchard is a junior electronic media production major and a columnist for the Daily Kent Stater. Contact her at [email protected].