Gaining Ground Ministries returned to Clemson’s campus to speak to students about abortion rights on Jan. 20.
Kevin Hardin, director of GGM, began the organization in September 2023 in moments of “grief and repentance,” and realized that there was an “ugly reality” behind the “abortion holocaust,” according to GGM’s website.
Previously, GGM has protested alongside Operation Save America, a national pro-life organization, at Clemson.
When asked how interactions with students have gone, Hardin told The Tiger that about “90% of the interactions that we’ve had with students here have been wonderful.”
Hardin said the group does experience interactions with those who oppose the protest. Of those interactions, most are “great conversations,” while only a handful have been “hostile.”
While interviewing Hardin, one student disagreed with him, while another said, “Thank you for what you are doing. You guys are 100% correct.”
When Hardin addresses students who disagree with his standpoint, he walks them through “the science of abortion,” then the “ethics of conflicting worldviews that people have,” as well as pointing individuals to Christ. Overall, most people are “willing to engage.”
Hardin made it clear that the organization is not at Clemson to “throw things” or “preach at people.” The group wants college students to engage in conversations and explore both opposing worldviews and free ideas.
He believes the same violation that happens during rape occurs during an abortion.
“Rape is a great evil, because it’s someone who uses their body to aggress against another person’s body, against their will, to violate that person in some way.” Hardin said. “The same thing happens in abortion … whether it’s a mother who is taking pills or undergoing clinical abortion.”
To him, a pregnant woman has two separate bodies: themself and the fetus in utero.
“The reason we say … rape and abortion are wrong for the same reason is because it is wrong to use your body to aggress and hurt and assault another person’s body,” Hardin told The Tiger.
GGM is scheduled to be on Clemson’s campus once every month of the spring semester.
