Several members of the College Republicans, including the group’s chairman-elect for next year, have resigned or dropped out after the group’s Executive Board decided to bring the controversial Genocide Awareness Project to campus.
Several members of the College Republicans went so far as to protest the event, which equated abortion to genocide by using images of genocide victims’ bodies next to images of aborted fetuses.
The College Republicans reserved space in the EMU Amphitheater for the project, which runs Wednesday and today.
Tom Albright, a candidate for Oregon’s 13th district House of Representatives and the group’s recently selected chairman-elect, said he resigned because of his own failure to tell more group members about the project, and because he has personal issues with group members, he said. He will not return to the group as chairman next year.
Several other College Republicans also resigned.
College Republicans Chairman Anthony Warren said the group’s elected board representatives formally voted to bring the
project. The opposition simply points out the robust debate that’s always occurring within the group and shows the public that Republicans don’t all think alike, he said.
Warren said the majority of the College Republicans supports the project, while Albright said the majority opposes it.
Albright said that even as an anti-abortion advocate, he thinks the project is disgusting.
“I just think that there are better, more level-headed ways to get out the pro-life message than slathering pictures of dead babies,” he said.
Warren said he apologized to the College Republicans at the group’s weekly meeting Tuesday night for not informing them before Tuesday about the Executive Board’s vote. He had been caught up with other projects and cutting through the red tape of bringing the project here, he said.
He defended the project, saying “these pictures, they really make a difference.
“They really change minds,” he said.