OJAI, Calif.— Thrin Short is just 16, but she is already a trained member of the pro-life organization Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust.

So when a March 4 pro-life outreach at the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) turned ugly, the teenager grabbed her video camera and let it roll.

Thrin and her sister Joan, 21, were standing within the university’s “designated free-speech zone” when Mireille Miller-Young, an associate professor of women’s studies, allegedly grabbed one of the pro-lifers’ signs that showed graphic pictures of aborted babies and pushed and scratched the teenager’s arm as Thrin tried to get the sign back.

Thrin’s camera captured images of the physical confrontation that later surfaced on the Drudge Report and Fox News, among other media outlets.

“It is very normal to have people not agree with you and get upset. But we can usually calm them down or they will go storming off,” Thrin Short told the Register on April 1, “but nothing like this.”

Though the event at the UCSB campus took place weeks ago, it’s still stirring controversy regarding the professor’s actions and the university’s muted response, as well as the protesters’ use of disturbing images. And Miller-Young, who has been charged with misdemeanor theft, battery and vandalism, will be arraigned April 4.

 

Pro-Life Activism

Thrin learned about the rewarding and difficult moments of pro-life activism from her home-schooling mother, Catherine “Katie” Short, the legal director of the Life Legal Defense Fundation.

On March 4, it was Joan Short who called her mother for legal advice after Miller-Young allegedly marched off with Thrin’s sign.

“Joan called me after she got off the phone with the police. She said, ‘Mom, this is what happened, and I am waiting for the police. What should I do?’” Katie Short told the Register. “I said, ‘Wait for the police to come.’”

Katie Short has since become involved in the case, in part because her daughter is a minor. On March 28, she also caused a stir when she issued a statement criticizing “individuals engaging in ad hominem attacks against Miller-Young. We do not condone this, and we ask that such attacks stop.”

During her interview with the Register, Katie Short explained that personal attacks against the professor “undermine the message. It is not helpful, it is not persuasive, and it is not Christian.”

“The issue is what [Miller-Young] did, her belief system that led her to do it and what the university does.”

Judging from media accounts and police reports, there appears to be little dispute that Miller-Young was deeply angered by the display of graphic signs by the Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust. In the police report, the professor acknowledged that she was pregnant and that the explicit signs “triggered” a strong response.

 

‘Don’t Talk to Them’

Thrin Short recalled the scene vividly: “I was behind one of the signs, talking to a student, when she came up in front — shouting. Then I came out and hoped I might be able to calm her down. But she went on this long monologue, never letting anyone answer.”

The professor “attracted a big crowd of students, who she then tried to rile up,” Thrin said. “She complained about us, saying, ‘They don’t care about raped women.’ But she didn’t let us answer.”

Reportedly, the professor began to chant, “Tear down that sign.”

But Thrin said the pro-lifeers were able to talk with the students, “and that was not at all what she wanted. She would step in between us and the students, saying, ‘Don’t talk to them; they are trying to split us up.’ That is when she took the sign and ran off with some students.”

Thrin and Joan ran after them.

“We followed her through two buildings, and that is where she entered the elevators. We didn’t know what to do at first, but I realized that we would have to follow them,” said Thrin.

“When I tried to step into the elevator, she tried to kick my foot out and tried to shove me a couple of times. And then she got out of the elevator,” said Thrin, explaining that four students went up in the elevator with the sign.

Throughout most of the confrontation, Thrin’s video camera kept rolling, while Joan tried to explain to the police where they were on campus.

The video images generated an explosive reaction on the blogosphere, and the story was later reported on Fox News.

 

No Response From Santa Barbara

But the Short family has not heard from the university, which has issued just a few statements since the story became national news.

Michael Young, UCSB’s vice chancellor for student affairs, sent a March 19 email to all university students defending the pro-lifers’ speech rights, while offering an implicit critique of the pro-life organization’s graphic signs.

“During the past few weeks, UCSB has been visited by various anti-abortion crusaders. Some have been considerate and thoughtful in promoting their message; others have openly displayed images that many in our community find distressing and offensive,” read Young’s email message. “We cannot pick and choose which views are allowed to be aired and who is allowed to speak.”

Asked to comment on Young’s characterization of the Survivors’ graphic signs, Thrin said, “Yes, the signs are horrible, but what happens to the little babies is much worse. You are only seeing part” of what happens during an abortion.

“I have seen a couple decide not to have an abortion because of the sign. That is a perfect example of how helpful the signs can be,” she added, noting that once bystanders are engaged, “the conversation switches to the morality of abortion. It is not about the signs.”

The university has said little more about the incident, responding to media inquiries with a brief statement noting that it cannot comment on “personnel” matters. But Katie Short said that she had reached out to the vice chancellor.

“I left a message saying, ‘I read that you were conducting an investigation. If you want to talk to the victims, here is my number,’” she noted.

A trial will likely take place within six months, Katie Short added, and she raised questions about why students who were involved in the alleged theft and destruction of the sign would not be held accountable.

“I wouldn’t mind leaving it to the university to discipline them,” she said, but UCSB administrators “have not said anything, and we don’t know what they are doing.

“I don’t want to be vindictive toward the students, but it sets a bad example. Everyone saw the video, and you can see what they were doing. I am not even talking about a severe penalty, but having them come out and apologize for this.”

 

Other Perspectives

Judging from some commentaries and comments left on media sites, many agree with Short. But others think that the professor walked into a “trap” set by savvy pro-life activists.

“Bringing those posters onto college campuses is a deliberate act of provocation on the part of youthful anti-abortion ministries such as Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust,” said Robin Abcarian in a March 31 column for the Los Angeles Times. “But none of that can excuse the actions” of Miller-Young.

Meanwhile, on National Review, Mona Charen posted an April 1 column that commended Katie Short’s call for civility and scrutinized the substance of the professor’s classes on gender and sexuality issues, including pornography.

“Actually, reading excerpts from her forthcoming book and an opinion piece she wrote for The New York Times last year, it’s not too much to say that she’s an enthusiast for porn, which she describes as ‘empowering’ for women. Her book will be titled ‘A Taste for Brown Sugar,’” wrote Charen.

The story of the confrontation between a tenured professor of feminist studies and a determined teenage protester will likely generate more op-eds and blog posts, like one from Thrin’s older sister, Mary Rose, who suggested that the professor’s actions, and the response it elicited from some students, reflected a “groupthink” mentality.

But Katie Short wants to be sure pro-life activists and others facing strong resistance at universities and other settings learn one important lesson from the case that involved her own daughters.

“I hope they have video cameras everywhere,” she said. “In this day and age, it is critical. They won’t believe it if they don’t see it.”

Joan Frawley Desmond is the Register’s senior editor.