Anti-abortion display on Cross Campus cues reminder of event policy
Students from Choose Life at Yale set up flags and wrote chalk messages without prior approval from the administration. Some passersby tried to disrupt the display.
Olivia Woo, Contributing Photographer
Volunteers for Choose Life at Yale, which describes itself as “Yale College’s Pro-Life Organization,” covered part of Cross Campus in bright pink flags Tuesday afternoon.
The flags accompanied an advocacy table manned by the anti-abortion group, which included a “PLANNED PARENTHOOD EXPOSED” poster, flyers, candy and a donation box. Each pink flag was intended to represent “one life lost to Planned Parenthood Everyday,” a sign at the table said.
According to Pilar Montalvo, an assistant vice president for University life, CLAY’s tabling event and display on Cross Campus did not receive prior approval from the University, violating Yale’s use of outdoor spaces policy.
“University administrators spoke with the student organizers who were present at the event and reminded them that advance approval is required for the use of campus outdoor spaces,” Montalvo wrote in an email to the News. “The student organizer immediately began completing the event request process and expressed regret for the oversight.”
After administrators spoke with the student organizers, CLAY’s tabling event continued for about an hour. Volunteers manning the display declined to comment about administrators’ response to their event.
In April, the University revoked Yalies4Palestine’s club status for its role promoting a protest that violated the outdoor spaces policy. A recent “performative male contest” on Cross Campus attended by hundreds of students also violated University policy by not obtaining advanced permission, though administrators did not shut it down.
The display was on Cross Campus from approximately noon to 4 p.m. Tuesday. According to its website, CLAY tables on Cross Campus each month to “bring an alternative viewpoint to an already overwhelmingly pro-abortion community.”
“There seems to be a growing pro-life presence at Yale. We saw this in the YPU debate a few weeks ago where the YPU actually ended up siding with the pro-life side,” Oscar Miñoso-Rendón ’27, CLAY’s treasurer, said in an interview with the News. “I think people are becoming more sympathetic to the pro-life position in the aftermath of the removal of Roe v. Wade, and there’s a lot of positive changes that are taking place on campus and around the nation.”
Miñoso-Rendón referred to a Yale Political Union debate in which anti-abortion activist Lila Rose spoke against the resolution “choice over life.” The YPU voted 60-31 against the resolution, favoring the anti-abortion position.
At around 2 p.m., CLAY volunteers chalked two messages reading “DEFUND PLANNED PARENTHOOD NOW” and “1,076 lives lost Per day” on the walkway between Cross Campus and the Women’s Table.
According to the University’s official chalking policy, “not more than one chalk message associated with the same person or organization may be visible from any single point.”
On two occasions, two different passersby poured water over the message reading “DEFUND PLANNED PARENTHOOD.” CLAY volunteers quickly re-drew the chalk message.
By Tuesday evening, the letters “D” and “E” had been removed from the display, resulting in a message reading “FUND PLANNED PARENTHOOD.”
Last year, according to Miñoso-Rendón, CLAY “chalked all over Silliman College and then within the next day people had totally desecrated the whole thing.” He added that the group has been attempting for years to be admitted as a Dwight Hall member organization.
“I’ve honestly never encountered any pro-life advocacy on campus, and I wouldn’t expect it to be the place to find these things,” Lani Gonzalez ’28, a student who passed by CLAY’s display, said in an interview. “I feel like it’s really symbolic that it’s near the Women’s Table. I think that the duality of opinions here on campus is very interesting.”
On at least three occasions Tuesday, students attempted to remove flags from where they stood in the grass. Volunteers followed two students to retrieve the materials, although one student, Christine Dong ’26, left Cross Campus holding a pink flag.
“I took this because I don’t believe in their messaging, and that’s my silent protest,” Dong said while holding the flag. “The color pink is associated with breast cancer awareness, and I don’t like that they’re using it.”
According to its website, CLAY was established in 2003 following a vigil on campus celebrating the 30th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.