An altercation between a CMU student and the anti-abortion group
Missionaries to the Preborn led to Hillary Webb creating a new group.

Webb, a DeWitt junior, said she was walking to the Bovee University
Center on Oct. 5 when Missionaries to the Preborn members tried to get
her to take one of their pamphlets.

“When I didn’t take the pamphlets, I was referred to from everything
from slut, whore, baby murderer, sinner – pretty much every nasty thing
you can think of,” she said. “I was publicly slandered because I am not
a baby murderer, and yet I was called that in the presence of other
students, as well as being a whore, which I am not.”

As a result of her experience, Webb organized Respond, a group meant
to
combat instances of slander and hate speech on campus.

Her plans to combat hate speech do not involve force.

“The goal is not so much to react, but to peacefully respond to
hateful, slandering speech on campus that we feel does not represent
the students, to make sure everything is going about in a peaceful
manner and to hopefully work with CMU to promote a Code of Conduct for
campus,” Webb said.

Webb’s attempts to report her harassment by the Missionaries of the
Preborn were frustrating, she said.

“My mother was not allowed to talk to the Dean of Students. She was
told that there was First Amendment rights and I needed so many police
reports to even have a complaint lodged,” she said. “What I consider
sexual harassment shouldn’t need a barrage of people to verify that it
happened.”

When her efforts to contact CMU authorities were unsuccessful, Webb
called the Wesley Foundation and got a response from Pastor Eric Stone.

“I think it was more or less to try gathering people who had either
experienced harassment or feel their rights were violated and to say,
‘What can we do as a community?’” Stone said. “Even if they’re entitled
to free speech, we’re also entitled to free speech that disagrees with
whatever they’re saying.”

Stone said there are many ways people can respond creatively when
they
find someone else’s actions offensive.

As evidence, he pointed to the funeral of hate crime victim Matthew
Shepard in Laramie, Wyo., where Fred Phelps and his followers from the
Westbroro Baptist Church picketed, carrying signs saying “God Hates
Fags.”

Rather than having an altercation, Stone said, people simply put up
large umbrellas to separate the protesters from the funeral mourners.

“Students are treated kind of nonchalantly around here,” Webb said.
“They’re not protected, I feel, against this.”

Respond has began holding meetings in the Bovee University Center
Down
Under Food Court, and Webb said anyone interested in joining is still
welcome.

Webb said those seeking more information about Respond should
contact
her at webb1ha@cmich.edu.

Missionaries to the Preborn was kicked off campus in early October
after police received numerous complaints about their grotesque signs
and protest tactics, which included blocking traffic and violating
campus rules by protesting in or near academic buildings.

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