It was about 10:30 a.m. and sunny last Friday when Director Tom Raddell and five other members of Life Link, an anti-abortion group based in Cleveland, arrived in Oberlin, walked to the south end of the Science Center, staked their 4’ by 8’ shiny black signs into the ground and waited for students to come.

“We’re trying to bring the truth to the streets,” said Life Link member Mary Laquyea.

This particular street was West Lorain, on either side of which Life Link could be found until 2 p.m., speaking with students and handing out yellow pamphlets titled “Why are You Here with those Awful Pictures?”

The pamphlets addressed both the graphic nature of the posters and the group’s mission: to change the minds of women who might wish to terminate a pregnancy and to provide contact information for pregnancy care centers. As the pamphlet anticipates, Oberlin students reacted strongly to the images.

“The pictures are very insensitive to someone who may have gone through [having an abortion] before,” said Maria Landy, College sophomore and treasurer of Students United for Reproductive Freedom.

The signs, which displayed such graphic images as late-term aborted fetuses and first-term limbs shown proportionally against a nickle, can be purchased through the Center of Bio-Ethical Reform for $79 each, although Life Link makes some of their own.

Raddell explained that one particularly graphic poster was supposed to be from the point of view of “voiceless victims.” The victims in each case — a holocaust victim, a lynching/racism victim and an aborted fetus — have been dehumanized by society.

“One [situation] took a world war to solve and the other a civil war. God only knows what it will take for this one,” said Raddell.

Jessica Barber, a College first-year and member of SURF, said she spotted the signs on her way to her 11 a.m. class. SURF organized quickly and was out on the sidewalk next to the protest by 12:30 p.m.

“We’re responding to this protest. We feel that there needs to be some sort of response from the community of Oberlin,” said Barber.

In addition to handing out Naral Pro-Choice America stickers, emergency contraception, birth control pamphlets and condoms while they lasted, part of SURF’s response included a blue recycling can in which students could deposit Life Link’s literature.

“A lot of students took stickers. There’s a lot of support here,” said Landy.

Around 1 p.m., a male student who was not associated with SURF arrived at the demonstration and staked up four posters of his own. The posters, which consisted of computer paper stapled to wooden stakes, proclaimed, “Sodomy is Great!!!” beneath an image of five men apparently engaging in the act.

Raddell said that the posters did not shock his group. Other demonstrations they have been involved with have elicited more violent responses: eggs have been thrown and their signs have been torn.

Life Link is a primarily Christian-based organization that was founded in the early ’90s. It has demonstrated on the campuses of Cleveland State, Baldwin Wallace, Notre Dame and John Carroll, and has taken to the streets of Cleveland, St. Louis and Dallas, among others.

Laquyea, a former employee of a maternity home for young mothers, emphasized that Life Link is sympathetic to the choices women have to make.

“A lot of abortions are from desperate, fearful young women who don’t think there is any help for them, but there is help,” said Laquyea.

Laquyea was attending the protest with her adult son, Pat, who made a point to tell the Review that he was once Laquyea’s fetus.

Raddell expressed how much he enjoys demonstrating at colleges and universities because they are places to exchange ideas.

“It’s a great chance for education, debate and response,” said Raddell.

Life Link member Tony Lavrisha spent much of the protest speaking with students. He is a former attorney on medical discourse who was very involved in representing individuals who were arrested for protesting abortion clinics. He thought it was productive to talk with the students.

“It’s very helpful, having been a college student myself — I was pro-choice back then. I tend to find college students are conformists, [as] I was [back then],” he said. “I found [Oberlin students] to be very bright and open to what we had to say. We had lively discussions.”

The students themselves were less enthusiastic.

“It’s like talking to a brick wall,” said College sophomore Rafael Martinez.

“People who do this kind of protesting believe that they have the right to legislate to everyone else what they believe,” said College junior Elizabeth Burke.