A female student walked by crying, professors cringed and a multitude of seething students gathered around a man holding an anti-abortion sign in the Library Quad Tuesday afternoon.

At the top of the sign were the words “Hitler’s Holocaust” with a picture of the decaying bodies of Jews and on the bottom was “Obama’s Holocaust” with a picture of a partially dismembered aborted fetus. The other side said “NOBAMA CARES” with another picture of a partially formed, yellowed fetus.

The sign, which inspired a slew of responses, was held up by Randy Crawford, 60, who was a part of the Milwaukee-based Missionaries to the Preborn, a pro-life advocacy group.

“People have such disregard for human life now…it makes you wonder,” Crawford said. “We are de-evolving.”

The demonstration began at about 10:30 a.m. Tuesday and lasted for two hours delving into issues like sexual assault, government corruption and politics. Another protestor accompanied Crawford and talked about the Biblical implications of abortion.

Crawford said the sign was not attacking Obama in support of Republican candidate Mitt Romney.

In fact, Crawford said he is not politically affiliated with the Democratic or Republican parties and identified himself as an agnostic.

The current issue of abortion and the Holocaust are not incomparable, Crawford said.

“If it’s immoral for it to happen to (Jews) then it’s immoral for it to happen to (unborn babies),” Crawford said.

Seth Moyer was one student who stayed throughout Crawford’s demonstration.

“It’s even more so immoral, according to American traditions, to take the rights away from somebody else,” said Moyer, a junior English major.

Moyer said he thought the attempted correlation made between the Holocaust and abortion was a poor conclusion made.

“Partially being a person of Jewish descent, I do take a little bit of an offense at using the word holocaust,” Moyer said. “I know (he is) going for an emotional appeal and emotional appeals being everything that they are, are not fact.”

In protest of Crawford’s signs, Taylor Bainter held her own self-made cardboard “Keep your politics out of my pussy!” and ‘“Pro-life’ is anti-woman” signs.

The message on Crawford’s sign is what made her stop and take action, said Bainter, a senior art major.

Abri Iwanski, a senior English major, said she also agreed that the correlation drawn weren’t comparable.

“You’re likening (abortion) to something it’s not,” Iwanski said to Crawford. “(If I was going to have an abortion) it would be due to the fact that I was not ready for a baby right now.”

Crawford said the beliefs of the current society are skewed enough to reflect Hitler’s past morality.

“Not everyone in America agrees with abortion, but the system is rigged enough that it’s happening,” Crawford said.

Moyer disagreed.

“Hitler’s morality has been deemed by all of society as being kind of not moral,” Moyer said.

Moyer said he does believe that Crawford had the right to make his opinions known in accordance with his First Amendment rights, as long as they were not detrimental to another person.

It sparked a good conversation, Moyer said.

Crawford, who has been demonstrating since 2005, said Eastern is one of the better universities he has visited.

Crawford has been to college campuses in Wisconsin, Mississippi, Idaho, Montana, North and South Dakota and Michigan.

“This campus in terms of getting into complexities and getting into deep thinking did better than most,” Crawford said.

Nike Ogunbodede can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].