Earlier this month in West Palm Beach, Fla., Juvenile Court Judge Ronald Alvarez upheld the right of a 13-year-old girl to have an abortion. The girl, referred to in the suit as “LG,” became pregnant after she ran away from the state-run facility where she lives. When members of the State Department of Children and Families tried to prevent her from having an abortion, the case ended up in court.

Not surprisingly, it stirred up an age-old debate about the rights of teenagers to have an abortion. But here’s the real question: Which of the following best parallels LG? Is she a Nazi, a white supremacist or a scared little girl in a desperate situation?

Last week I would have told you this question is wildly inappropriate, not to mention illogical. However, this week I was introduced to The Genocide Awareness Project. For those of you who missed its visit to Ohio State, the project display consisted of a ring of billboards that compared abortion to the Holocaust, killing fields of Pol Pot in Cambodia and Ku Klux Klan lynchings. This group seeks to equate the decision to have an abortion with a proactive endorsement of and participation in a genocide.

Our problem is not, as the project asserts, that abortionists are driven by hatred of their unborn children and thus commit mass murder. The problem is that people such as LG find themselves in positions of lonely desperation. If we should be fighting anything, it should be this feeling, which is fueled by people’s inadequate sex education, vulnerability to sexual violence and lack of opportunities and support to reach their potential.

We have higher abortion rates and higher teen pregnancy rates than the United Kingdom, France and Germany. What’s the difference? They don’t limit their public sex education to abstinence-only programs. The current administration has used funding to reward schools that teach abstinence-only sex education and punish those that opt for comprehensive sexual education. Knowledge of contraception is essential to preventing unwanted pregnancies. Democracies are founded on the idea that people are intelligent enough to make decisions for themselves. We don’t need the government’s censorship – we need information and education.

In another high-profile abortion related case in Florida this month, a severely mentally disabled woman was believed to have conceived after being raped at the group living facility where she lived. Violence against women, especially those in vulnerable positions, is all too common. We must fight it.

There are steps people can take to combat violence against women at OSU. The 27th annual Take Back the Night march was last week. This event is a call for the end to violence against women. If you missed it this year, make a point of going next year.

Second, don’t let the women in your life walk home alone late at night or in the very early morning. Although Take Back the Night demands an end to violence against women, the sad truth is that this isn’t our reality yet, and the darkness and people outside during these times make everyone more vulnerable to violence.

Last, teenage mothers statistically tend to be less educated and have lower incomes. Unsurprisingly, this also means that they have limited opportunities. We are in college because someone instilled in us the value of education and the promise of our future. Return the favor by volunteering. We have hope for the future, and individuals like LG deserve it too.

Abortion isn’t the enemy. It’s ignorance, sexual violence and lack of opportunity. If you really want to promote a culture of life, don’t waste your time parading around with billboards. Instead, work to educate people, take a stand against sexual violence and seek to give every person a chance to succeed.

Laura Herbert is a sophomore in history and Spanish. She can be reached for comment at [email protected].