HRL’s Right to Poster

Last week, an uproar mounted when the Harvard Right to Life (HRL) put up posters depicting an in utero fetus named Elena, captioned by crayon font, reading, “I’m 25 days old…and my heart already BEATS!!” Some in our community have taken justice in their own hands and deemed these posters unfit for public view. They have taken what in their view is a reasonable course of action: tearing down the posters.

They are wrong.

Vigilantes, we do not need your protection. HRL has a right to free expression so long as it abides by College protocols with respect to appropriate venues for postering. By tearing down their posters you are, unequivocally, infringing on that right.

However extreme one may find HRL’s views, it does not excuse the curtailment of a right of speech. While there is some truth to student sentiment that HRL’s campaign tends toward a sensationalizing of the abortion debate—and HRL would perhaps serve its purpose better if it did not alienate more centrist students in the way this campaign is likely to—these posters are hardly beyond the pale for a University that prides itself on the open exchange of diverse ideas. Students should have enough backbone to tolerate alternate viewpoints without allowing infantile instincts to govern their behavior.

Those who claim an equivalent right of expression in tearing down the posters have a horribly impoverished notion of this right. Free speech is about the free exchange of ideas. It is not about shouting down a speaker, burning a book, or tearing down a legitimately placed poster. Hopefully, we will not see a day on this campus when the right of free speech deteriorates into some form of might is right competition.

We hope that students who disagree with the HRL’s poster campaign seek more mature ways to express their feelings—perhaps putting up posters of their own, or better yet, engaging in dialogue with each other and with HRL. Moreover, we hope authorities at the College take students and others who continue to rip down HRL’s posters to task, reprimanding them when they are caught and subjecting repeat offenders to more serious consequences.