By Dylan Fahoome | depauliaonline.com

Vandals threw flags symbolizing aborted babies into trash cans Jan. 22, removing a pro-life display set to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision.

DePaul’s Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) chapter organized the 500 pink and blue flags memorial, symbolizing the United States’ estimated daily abortion rate after Roe v. Wade, which legalized abortion. YAF obtained a permit for the display from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

A group of executives from YAF erected the flags at 7 a.m., and when they came back at 5 p.m. to take them down, they were gone.

YAF chairman Kristopher Del Campo, who had the idea for the memorial, said that he was “shocked” and “a little bit mystified” upon the removal. He originally thought Facility Operations took the flags down, but after talking to a Public Safety guard who witnessed students taking them down at around 4:30 p.m., he learned it was not a mistake. The flags were shoved into trashcans around campus.

“Being the nation’s largest Catholic institution, (the trashing) says that the mission of Catholicism is not really encrypted in the university’s foundation,” said Del Campo.

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