AUSTIN, TX — On the night of Tuesday, March 23rd, the UT South lawn, just south of the iconic UT tower, was covered with a thick blanket of pink flags placed by the Young Conservatives of Texas (YCT) chapter at UT. They intended the flags to be a “memorial for the unborn” and as a protest against legalized abortion, but they awoke Wednesday morning to a rude shock — overnight, someone had removed the over 1,000 flags they had placed.
When asked about the removal, YCT chair Jordan Clements stated that “I want to give [the] Administration the benefit of the doubt. If they removed this memorial, which was in the same vein as our 9/11 memorial, then they will have taken a definitive stance on the dehumanization of the unborn. To any Leftists that either had a hand in this or is celebrating this outcome, I ask that if it really was just a clump of cells being aborted, why does this memorial make you feel uncomfortable?”
“I call on the university to either condemn those who violated our free speech, or man up and take responsibility for your actions.” Clements added. He further indicated that YCT intends to file a police report with UTPD.
The Horn spoke to the Director of Strategic and Executive Communications within the Office of the Dean of Students, who denied knowledge of the exhibit or its fate, stating that “They weren’t consulted, and they weren’t aware” of it. They added that “outdoor areas are open to the public, [and] free speech activities, such as demonstration, don’t require University approval.” They speculated it might be possible that landscapers removed the exhibit, but that the Office of the Dean of Students and the Office of Student activities would have had no involvement in this. Asked as to whether it was possible students who disagreed with the memorial removed it, they merely stated that “we do caution student organizations that those exhibits [that are left out overnight] are not protected.”
For over 10 years, YCT has had a tradition of putting American flags on the South Lawn every September, in honor of those who died in 9-11, but this is the first time that they have done a similar pro-life protest. The 9-11 flag exhibit has never been vandalized or removed.
On the original message of the memorial, Clements told The Horn that “for too long #TxLege has ignored the civil rights issue of our time: the systematic and corporatized mass murder of the unborn. We hope this memorial shows our representatives that our generation venerates life from conception to natural death and will continue to pray and advocate for the most marginalized group in the United States today: the unborn.”
This story will be updated with more details if the culprits are discovered.
