Students for a Democratic Society made an appearance the second day of the anti-abortion demonstration in front of the UNF Student Union.

With signs and chants, UNF SDS stood with NextGen as both groups counter protested the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform’s presentation of the Abortion Awareness Project.

“When our rights are under attack, what do we do?” one student would begin. The others followed with, “Stand up! Fight back!”

Some students stopped briefly to thank SDS for their counter protest and even asked to take pictures of the group and their signs.

President of UNF SDS Monica Martinez spoke briefly on what the group was doing and the importance of their presence at the two-day presentation.

“We’re here counter-protesting the anti-choice people,” she shared. “We use the word ‘anti-choice’ just because the context of ‘pro-life’ is just taking away a person’s right to choose, and so we want to make it clear that you’re not actually pro-life if you are anti-choice.”

When asked what prompted SDS to attend the event despite the current charges from Student Conduct against them, Martinez referenced previous years.

“Last year, we did something similar where we tabled and passed out Planned Parenthood literature. We had signs and passed out candy. We chanted on people’s right to choose. This year, a lot of people asked if we were doing the same thing, saying ‘we would like to see you out there because it was really supportive and it was really good for me,’ so we said we’ll do it again.”

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