(LifeSiteNews) – A Christian university in Texas told a campus pro-life group to take down an “abortion is murder” sign on the grounds that the message constituted “hate speech” despite the school’s written policies offering no objective criteria for what speech qualifies as hateful.

Abilene Christian University (ACU) says its mission is to “educate students for Christian service” as a “divine calling that enriches our global society, academic disciplines, the university, and the church to God’s glory,” with “exemplary teaching” that “informs and impacts issues of global importance to the academy, church, and society.”

The pro-life cause would seem a natural fit for the school, but as Campus Reform reported, the campus pro-life group ACU for Life learned differently on October 14 when school officials noticed a sign reading “Abortion is Murder. Disagree? Let’s talk” at their resource table. 

“You can’t have this,” dean for retention & student success Lyndi Felan told ACU for Life president Madelyne Arrowood, alongside assistant director of student services John Mark Moudy.

“How would you like us to rephrase it?” Arrowood asked. Felan responded simply, “Anything that is just not hate speech. I’m not going to write it for you.” Several students asked them to define hate speech, to no avail.

“You can get up or you can change the sign. Either way, it’s going to be a conduct issue,” Felan threatened before eventually approving the message, “Abortion Kills An Innocent Human Life.”

The sole reference to “hate speech” in ACU’s Code of Conduct is the following example of Category Three Violations (potentially subject to fines, suspension, expulsion, and more): “Creating a hostile environment, including but not limited to hate speech, harassment, or sexual harassment.”

In an email to students, vice president of student life Ryan Richardson later articulated an entirely different rule the students allegedly violated: “It is not appropriate for tabling to be used in ways, through signage or personal engagement, that invite confrontation or public debate.”

An ACU spokesperson has since issued a statement addressing the matter, withdrawing the “hate speech” charge and clarifying the pro-lifers will not be punished.

“On Oct. 14, ACU for Life – a student organization that had reserved a table in the area immediately adjacent to the dining hall – was asked by a Student Life representative to modify the wording of a sign on their display,” the representative said. “After ACU staff engaged with the students and provided direction, the students were allowed to continue using the space in the campus center. The university has been supportive of the ACU for Life organization and has provided tremendous encouragement for their work.”

“During the interaction, the Student Life staff member unfortunately used the phrase ‘hate speech’ in a broader conversation to describe the sign,” the statement continues. “The employee has since apologized for the choice of words and acknowledged that the sign is not an example of hate speech. To be clear, the university does not believe the sign represented hate speech.”

Nevertheless, ACU students have since launched a petition standing “firmly against the proposed tabling policy, which would restrict free discussion, debate, and student-led conversation.”

American institutions of higher education, even many that are private and/or nominally religious, have long been recognized as heavily dominated by left-wing bias and historical revisionism, conditioning students to reject religion, traditional morality, and free markets, and to view America as a uniquely malignant force in the world, a society systemically rigged against the poor and minority groups. These past two weeks, the extent of the bias has been illustrated by the alarming number of professors who have publicly mocked or celebrated the murder of populist influencer Charlie Kirk.

The toll of such an activist bent often extends well beyond politics. Last year, insiders from the University of California-Los Angeles’ (UCLA’s) prestigious David Geffen School of Medicine warned that the school’s diversity fixation had led to a crisis in which more than half of students in various cohorts admitted since 2020 fail standardized tests for basic medical knowledge of subjects ranging from emergency medicine and family medicine to internal medicine and pediatrics.