Anti-abortion group plans display

The anti-abortion group that sued IU for not allowing it to set up graphic photos of aborted fetuses behind Woodburn Hall last September plans to roll through the state with billboard-sized images plastered on the side of semitrailers.\nThe Center for Bio-Ethical Reform said it is bringing "guerrilla marketing tactics" to Indianapolis and Bloomington next month.\nThe group is expected to make its way to campus by mid-October, where it will set up a display inside the Sample Gates.\n"Every place we drive these trucks, people are throwing up, fainting, going on and on about what a terrible thing this is," Gregg Cunningham, the center's founder, told The Indianapolis Star.\nThe Mission Hills, Calif.,-based group sued IU in federal court after the school refused to let it set up its photos behind Woodburn Hall. IU settled the civil rights lawsuit during the summer with an agreement allowing the group to locate at the University's formal entrance.\nCunningham said the group resorted to the trucks to make IU pay for its stubbornness and to send a message to other universities who might try to interfere with its efforts.\nWhile the group has used fixed displays featuring the photos for the past four years, it began using the trucks in June, first in the Los Angeles area and later in Florida.\nCunningham wouldn't say when the trucks were scheduled to arrive in Indiana.\nRepresentatives of the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform met with IU officials Tuesday to work out logistics for the visit.\nThe trucks and display will be at IU Oct. 16-18, said Jim Gibson, assistant dean of students and director of student activities.\nThe sponsors asked that a police officer be on site at all times to provide security, Gibson said. The display will be set up at 8 a.m. each day and taken down at 4 p.m.\nDespite the impact of the display, Gibson said he hopes the issue can be discussed in a civil, academic dialogue.\n"It's a very emotional issue for lots of folks given the nature of the display," Gibson said. "I'm sure there'll be folks that have pretty severe reactions to it."\nDean of Students Richard McKaig said the group will set up its display between Franklin and Bryan Halls, inside the Sample Gates. He said no one at the University is trying to interfere with the group's First Amendment rights.\n Bloomington Mayor John Fernandez said it was difficult to predict how the community would react to the trucks, though he said the city has a history of tolerating offensive speech.\nIt's one thing for a group to spread its message in ways that give people the option of paying attention, Fernandez said.\n"It's something else entirely to use a process that forces that message on people in unsuspecting ways," he said.\nCunningham said his organization does not advocate violence.\nBut Dinah Farrington, vice president for public policy of Planned Parenthood of Greater Indiana, said Cunningham's stance is disingenuous.\n"They can say that, but their intent is to make people very angry," she said.\nJunior Sarah Marvell, President of Campus for Choice, said she considers Cunningham's group "trained agitators."\n She said her group would be nearby to watch when the center displays its exhibit, but will not protest.\n "I hope people on campus keep a clear head," Marvell said.\n The display's the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform sued over were part of the group's Genocide Awareness Project. GAP is comprised of 25 six-by-13-foot photo murals, weighing 50 pounds each and surrounded by 45 police-style steel crowd control barricades. \nThe Center wanted to display GAP in the field behind Woodburn Hall, but IU asked that it instead use Dunn Meadow, the designated area for free speech activity on campus. Students for Life and ConneXion filed the proper paperwork to have GAP in Dunn Meadow in April, but then the Center asked for the display location to be changed. The visit to IU in April and one planned this week were canceled.