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Brittnee Bingham was planning to work on calculus homework Tuesday afternoon, but she found herself in what felt like another kind of infinite sequence: defending abortion.
"It's a personal choice," said the pre-biomedical-engineering major.
Lauren Castillo, a Denver-based employee of a national anti-abortion group, disagreed.
"It ends a biological life that has human value," Castillo said .
Bingham was one of a trio of freshmen who spotted pink banners near the library and took a detour on the sunny afternoon. The group was hoping to chat with advocates for Planned Parenthood.
"They're attacking it," said Jessica Gallafent, a pre-biomedical-engineering major, glancing toward rows of miniature pink crosses, symbolizing terminated pregnancies. "You immediately think these are lives lost. What happened here?"
The University of Utah is the latest stop for the Planned Parenthood Project, run by Students for Life. The display has traveled to different colleges since 2013, with group representatives calling for the defunding of the organization and putting an end to legal abortion, and advocating for more education about campus resources for parents.
Castillo moved the conversation to the latter cause when confronted by passers-by in favor of pro-abortion rights.
"My big lens is that [students] should never have to choose between their education and having a child," said Castillo .
She and two others working with the organization handed out fliers with lists of Utah centers that offer medical exams and counseling on options such as adoption and foster care.
Some U. students flipped the bird and yelled "You suck!" Castillo said. "It's really the most hostile campus I've been on so far."
But others, including English major Emma Sticht, thanked Castillo for informing students about lactation stations and child care available on campus.
Sticht believes abortion is a necessary option in some instances, including rape.
"I think it's overprescribed and overused," she said, and "should not be used to make up for past mistakes."
But abortion is only one of the services Planned Parenthood offers, which includes birth control and testing for sexually transmitted infections, noted Alexa Ellis, a sophomore in biomedical engineering.
"It's not a dirty secret that Planned Parenthood does abortions," Ellis said. "Women have that choice."
The U. is one of about 80 campuses nationwide to host a Students for Life demonstration this semester. The list also includes nearby University of Wyoming and Colorado State University.
The national Students for Life group is connected with about 900 anti-abortion clubs at colleges and high schools nationwide, but does not track membership, said Kristina Hernandez, the group's national communications director, based in Fredericksburg, Va.
The group has met resistance across the country. At the University of Virginia, a cyclist circled the group as he heckled them, Hernandez said. And at the University of Pittsburgh, one counterprotester twerked on the group's banners and its protesters, using his gyrating backside to demonstrate his contempt.
There always is some hostility, Hernandez said. But this semester, it "has been kicked up a notch."
She credits this summer's release of videos showing Planned Parenthood officials discussing compensation for fetal tissue used for research, which she said "kind of forces you to choose a side."
Sullivan Hughes, a third-year biology student and president of the U.'s Students for Life, said the videos "kind of exposed the stuff that's not talked about. People need to know. They need to be informed on the choices they're making."
Planned Parenthood said the videos were heavily edited and misleading. Even so, the videos persuaded Gov. Gary Herbert in August to block federal funding from going to the Planned Parenthood Association of Utah. Herbert cited concerns that the national organization had "colored outside the lines."
Now, Utah is fighting a lawsuit from the state branch, whose leaders say their organization is the target of unfair discrimination from the governor.
State attorneys counter that the state had a right to cut the contracts because its national affiliate was accused of wrongdoing.
The Utah Department of Health still is passing the federal funding through to STI monitoring and after-school programs as a federal judge considers those arguments.
Planned Parenthood of Utah, for its part, declined to comment on the Tuesday demonstration.
The U. is not the first college in Utah to host the group's traveling display.
In September, campus police officers at Utah State University in Logan told four students with the organization to erase the 897 chalk hearts they'd drawn near the library because they did not get prior approval to draw them. The messages also called for defunding Planned Parenthood and putting an end to abortion.
The school apologized, and administrators are redrafting some free speech and safety standards.
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