Pro-Choice club protests National Life Chain
Pro-choice supporter signing the largest sign brought to the protest of the National Life Chain’s event while others gather nearby with their own signs near Winona State University’s campus and Windom Park on Sunday, Oct. 4.
October 14, 2020
Winona State University’s Pro-Choice club staged a protest during the annual National Life Chain. The Winona State Warriors for Life club was also in attendance.
The National Life Chain that took place in Winona was put together by Kathy Foerster, a community member.
According to Foerster, the National Life Chain occurs all over the U.S. and Canada, and 2020 was its 33-year anniversary. The event takes place on the first Sunday in October, or Respect Life Sunday. The event consists of a silent hour of prayer to reflect on abortion.
Sydney Dumond, the president of Winona State’s Pro-Choice club, learned of this event from her Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) professor. The professor reached out to the club’s advisor and asked if they had heard of this event.
Jamie Scherdin, the president of Warriors for Life, said the hour of silent prayer was interrupted when the Pro-Choice Club walked down the sidewalk, playing “WAP”, a song by Cardi B and Meg Thee Stallion with strong sexual connotations.
Neither Foerster nor Scherdin were shocked by the appearance of the protesters.
“I wasn’t surprised that protesters came, as the prochoice group from WSU has tried to disrupt our peaceful Life Chain for the last six to eight years,” Foerster said. “I was surprised by the number this year – over 40.”
Scherdin said she had prior knowledge that protesters would show up.
“I did have slight knowledge of it beforehand,” Scherdin said. “I didn’t know if they were going to come interrupt our silent hour, but I figured they would.”
What occurred next is heavily debated.
Foerster said that the Pro-Choice club crowded around her group, shouting profanities.
“I was shocked at the crude messages on the signs and the language of many of the college students,” Foerster said. “They were loud and disrespectful. One even had a mega phone and shouted out phrases like ‘I love killing children’, ‘I hope you get COVID and die’ and ‘This is my body and my F…….choice’. It was most crude behavior and language. I was sickened that the children and young people in our group were exposed to this atrocious behavior. It left many of the adults visibly shaken, as we felt the hate and disrespect from the WSU Pro-Choice students.”
Scherdin also claimed to witness disrespectful behavior, including name-calling and threats.
“I have a video of a woman telling me she would laugh if I were to be raped, I have them calling us fascists, I have somebody telling a young child who was 12 years old that they were going to show up to his house and show him who the real men were,” Scherdin said.
Scherdin said she was disappointed, as she expected a calm discussion.
“I was hoping the engagement would be civil,” Scherdin said. “This [would have been] a great opportunity for people driving through town to see that we have a school here with two different sides of an issue and campus allows for all groups and all types of thinking, and they could see that everyone can voice their opinion. That would be something that would be so great for our community to see that college students can be civil with one another.”
Foerster also said she was displeased with the way the protesting occurred.
“The students have a right to protest, but to act out like they did last Sunday – how can that be beneficial?” Foerster said. “It only creates more division. What happened to peaceful demonstrations and civil discourse?”
However, Dumond denounced most of these claims.
“My response to the accusations from the Warriors for Life club that we name-called them and talked about them getting raped and killed is just that- they’re accusations,” Dumond said. “While I wasn’t able to be near the pro-life side, I didn’t hear any of those things. I wish that the person who posted that would have come directly to me and asked me about it first, as I did not hear any of those things.”
Dumond said that one club member came to her and admitted to saying, ‘we are going to listen to a white girl again?’. Dumond says that she fully supports the member saying that statement.
According to Dumond, the Pro-Choice club had been unable to have official meetings before this event, meaning that some people who showed up were community members instead of members of the club.
“It was a protest open to the public, so while I tried to control the actions of people there as much as I could, I am one person and it isn’t always easy for one person to control all those things,” Dumond said.
Dumond said that she herself tried to be respectful to those on the National Life Chain side.
“I tried to engage in conversation with them,” Dumond said. “I asked if I could interrupt their prayer. Some of them would talk to me but most of them just continued praying, after which I would respect them and move on.”
According to Dumond, her experience of the event was the National Life Chain praying and the Pro-Choice Club stating their beliefs.
Dumond said she would like to issue an apology to members of Warriors for Life.
“I would like to apologize to [Warriors for Life] if they heard those things,” Dumond said. “That isn’t right and that isn’t what we at Winona State Pro-Choice Club support at all. We are here to support reproductive rights. We do not want anybody getting raped or killed.”
Both sides additionally accused each other of not complying with COVID-19 regulations.
“I declined a mask,” Foerster said. “We were standing far apart, except for family groups, and a mask is not required. I found it ironic that the many college student protesters would crowd out the people who were praying. They were definitely not social distancing.”
Dumond said that the National Life Chain side should have been wearing their masks.
“There were people without masks on the National Life Chain side of things,” Dumond said. “They were on campus, so they should have been wearing masks. I was offering people masks, so if they’re upset about that, I was just doing my job as a Winona State employee.”
While Dumond said that the events took place on campus, Scherdin said that they took place on Huff Street.
Dumond added that she talked to people on the National Life Chain side, who said that they were not wearing masks because they believe COVID could not be spread outside.
Dumond also said that Winona’s Life Chain is not affiliated with the National Life Chain.
“I looked on the National Life Chain website and Winona is not listed as one of their affiliates and I could not find Winona’s event on the National Life Chain website,” Dumond said.
These events took place nearly a year since the chalking incidents last fall, after which the Pro-Choice club was formed. Pro-choice students had crossed out and erased pro-life messages that had been written near the Winona State gazebo. Winona State has since updated their rules on chalking.
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Danny • Oct 3, 2021 at 11:50 pm
Oct.2021 Earlier in the week , i planned to rally with the LIFE CHAIN group against the murdering of babies ( ABORTION ) I went on-line to find out the time and location of the LIFE CHAIN event ! To be fair , LIFE CHAIN rallies in the past were held at the park on Huff st. and broadway st. When i saw the address 50 west Broadway , in my mind i thought it was the park with Princess of WENONAH fountain ! I arrived at the rally and was observing the people and their signage ! After a couple min. , i came to realize it was a pro-choice protest ! I decided to defend life by holding my own signage ( ABORTION IS MURDER ) right next to my fellow humans !!! It only took a few seconds for the protesters to get my message and the look on their faces were that of disbelief and intoerance ! I was immediately surrounded by about 7 or 8 people , and yes some of them were yelling obscenities and being vulgar and trying hard to silence my message by putting their signs in front of mine and telling me i wasnt welcome here !!! Little did they know , I was encouraged to stand my ground and continued my protest until every last one of them faded away ! I then walked peacefully away empowered !!! I thank GOD ( JESUS ) that he put me in that time and location !!! Now i know first hand how intolerant this group was and is !!!
Shelby • Oct 26, 2020 at 3:32 pm
This event was a large deal in the Winona community. Which is why it is important to report it accurately. I would have liked to see more people interviewed in this article, considering the size of the event. As mentioned in the article, there is a video of prochoicers saying horrible things to the prolifers. A few sentences later, Dumond says they are only allegations, as if we are supposed to forget that this was caught on video. The article also says “what happens next is heavily debated” but there is no debate when there is video evidence. It is important to hear the full story instead of brushing over it. I really hope that these authors are able to improve with their work in the future. I think their work could be improved by interviewing more people for an event this size and also digging deeper into the video evidence instead of mentioning it once, and then moving on.
Anne Galewski • Oct 18, 2020 at 5:36 pm
The actions of the WSU students protesting our silent life chain were an embarrassment to Winona State. If the college condones this type of behavior, what does that say for our students, our college, our city and our country.
Laura S. Peratt • Oct 15, 2020 at 4:33 pm
This article is most certainly biased in favor of the pro-choice club. Miss Dumond claims to have not heard any of the alleged lewd and abusive comments made to the pro-life side. If attended the protest, she HAD to have heard them — they were loud enough to be heard from across the street. I have stated unequivocally in a letter to President Olson and on a complaint form that the pro-choice students did indeed shout lewd and abusive things to us. They were not just stating the pro-choice view. If they had been, we would not have complained. But they did indeed scream to my 10-year-old daughter, “Your mother doesn’t love you!” Not just once but repeatedly, and she was frightened by it. One of them did indeed say to my 15-year-old, “When you are raped and get pregnant, I will laugh.”, and to my 13-year-old, “If you find yourself pregnant I will laugh so hard.” One student did indeed say to me “The Bible says not to hate, you know,” and became irate when I stopped praying long enough to tell her that I don’t hate anybody. The behavior of the pro-choice students at the corner of Huff and Broadway, where I was, and down by the main bus stop across from the Newman Center, was unequivocally loud, intimidating, hateful, and profanity-laced. That is not simply stating their beliefs. Much of this behavior and the comments they are accused of making is on video. As far as I know, the Life Chain participants quietly prayed. If some did engage with the pro-choice side, it was respectful. I know of no one who shouted “baby-killer!” at them, as one of the commenters alleged, but if anyone did, it was most certainly not the norm. Yet the majority of the conduct of the pro-choice students most certainly violated campus codes of conduct, which is denied in this article.
Kathy Foerster • Oct 14, 2020 at 8:18 pm
After reading this article, it is obvious that the president of the pro-choice group is in denial that any of her group called out any profanities and awful phrases to the Life Chain folks.
She stated that there were community members with their group, in addition to the WSU pro-choice students. By saying this, it appears she does not want to accept responsibility for her groups atrocious behavior. From all appearances, it looked like all college students.
We were not breaking any mask mandates, as we were outdoors and NOT on WSU property.
Lastly, the Winona Life Chain was registered on the National Life Chain site. Please view:
https://lifechain.org/events/map/?tribe-bar-date=2020-10-04&tribe-bar-search=Minnesota.
The pro-choice group, by their comments in the article, are not being truthful and not taking responsibility for their words and actions. You need to dig deeper.
Anna Wilwerding • Oct 14, 2020 at 5:48 pm
I would like to address that this article is extremely biased in favor of the pro-choice club. I am a member of Winona State’s pro-life club and attended the pro-life chain for an hour of silent prayer. About 15 minutes in, the pro-choice protest group came around the corner of huff street to deliberately disturb our peaceful prayer session. I’m not upset about their appearance, I’m upset about their actions and the way they stated their opinions. They were rude, disrespectful, and completely unprofessional. After about five minutes of listening to their continuous verbal abuse, I fell to my knees and wept. Other pro-life club members and community members were visibly shaken. This article left out key pieces of information given in an interview by Jamie Sheridin regarding the incident and paints Sydney Dudmund as a hero when in fact, her group’s actions were those of hateful cowards. Instead of peacefully standing up for what they believe in, they verbally attacked us. I am not opposed to controversy, as I understand abortion is a very heated topic. It is okay to have an opinion but it is not okay to be disrespectful. I am appalled at this clearly biased article which implies the abuse may not have even happened. Ask any community member or pro life club member who was there and they will tell you the real story. Winona State deserves better than deliberate discrimination.
Reese Mallory • Oct 14, 2020 at 11:52 am
This article sucks. It is so biased and completely twists the story. Shame that this is called journalism.
Tova Strange • Oct 14, 2020 at 11:20 am
Most of the “statements” the pro-controlling women’s body crew is claiming were said are very, very false. I would argue that this sort of slanted reporting is as equally dangerous and divisive as a woman saying into a megaphone that its her body and her f**king choice.
Jaden • Oct 14, 2020 at 11:00 am
This article has incredible bias to one side, and as a student from WSU it disappoints me to the highest degree. If you really want to know the real story you would interview more than just the presidents from the clubs. This was a public event where many people not affiliated with the clubs attended, there were many students simply walking by and observing. I would stop trying to punish one side or the other for expressing their opinion, and interview participants from both sides. The pro life group members were not the only ones experiencing harsh responses to their demonstrations, the pro choice group had several people scream “baby killers” and “murders” at them, but you do not see that side making accusations simply to shut down the voice of an opposing opinion. As we’ve seen from protests all over the nation this year, crowd control is not easy especially if the people acting out are strangers. Just because one side was loud and rowdy does not give an excuse to disrespect their opinion. Voices should always be heard, and it is devastating to see this example of higher up winona staff trying to regulate that. Our campus is non-religious affiliated, and to see the comments about COVID-19 not being spreadable outside being overlooked is concerning for the safety of others because I was under the impression that our campus trusts the CDC and the science. So to brush that off is hypocritical and religious beliefs should never be an excuse for that, especially when claiming to be protesting to save others, while actively putting lives at risk for a “personal choice”. Also, The fact that the pro-choice side was playing a pro-sex song is irrelevant to the main story, and appears to be simply added to influence a negative opinion to that group. Which is ironic since our campus advocates for protected and safe sex on a regular basis, So to even mention that is inflicting bias to a preposterous extent. I hope the writers of this article consider furthering their research on what happened at the event and can gain more than simply 3-4 people’s opinions, when there was over 60 people between both sides. This conversation is bigger than two campus clubs, this conversation has been debated for years and years, and the conflict between sides is nothing new. If this is truly a valuable story worthy of publishing, there should have been more input and time put into it to avoid Bias as a non-partisan News Source.