Lauren Spitz/The Ithacan Randall Terry, an anti-abortion activist, spoke to a crowd of nearly 200 people in Textor Hall Tuesday.

Someday Americans will look back on the current era as “the darkest hour of our history,” anti-abortion activist Randall Terry told students Tuesday night.

Terry, the founder of the pro-life organization Operation Rescue, drew nearly 200 people for a speech as part of Students for Life’s Celebrate Life Week.

He spoke of his role in current efforts to keep Terri Schiavo, a Florida woman who has been in what doctors call a persistent vegitative state for more than 10 years, alive through the continuation of her food supply through a feeding tube.

In discussing his efforts to aid Schiavo’s parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, Terry told students that to be activists, they must stick to their convictions and refuse to “play nice.”

“You show me one major political change, for good or ill, that has taken place in this country with that kind of strategy,” he said.

Terry emphasized that goodness, virtue and bravery are the necessary elements for activists. Most important, he said, is for activists to stand up for their beliefs.

“It’s my conviction that the greatest virtue is courage,” he said.

The Office of the Provost, the Office of Residential Life and the Student Government Association provided funding to bring Randall on campus. That decision was critiqued by several students who disagreed with his views.

Junior Mandy Wampler questioned the use of college funding for his speech because he has expressed negative views of homosexuality, she said.

“He has ideas that include hate and intolerance,” she said

But Wampler said though she disagreed with much of Terry’s message, she supported his right to speak.

“It was good for people to hear how narrow his views are,” she said.

During the question-and-answer period, students disagreed with Terry on a host of issues, from the idea of the United States originating as a Christian country to the problem of overpopulation.

When responding to one question, he compared abortion to illegal drugs and prostitution. People do not have the right to do certain things with their bodies, he said. Those actions include abortion, which he equated with murder.

“Abortion takes the life of a judicially innocent human being in the time of peace,” he said.

Criticized by students for his support for capital punishment while describing himself as pro-life, Terry said those who have taken life deserve to die. He did, however, admit to having concerns over the possibility of an unfair application of the death penalty.

Junior Andrea Hayden said she admired Terry’s courage to express his opinion unequivocally.

“He never changed his convictions,” she said. “He didn’t lie about what he believes in.”

Terry has also come under fire from members of Operation Save America (formerly Operation Rescue) for getting a divorce and for his fund-raising methods.

Terry said much public criticism directed at him is false.

Senior Roger Custer, president of Students for Life, said the group chose to bring Terry to campus because of his prominence in the movement and his current work in the Schiavo case. He said the purpose of the visit was to promote discussion.

“I don’t think the purpose of bringing speakers is to agree with everything they’ve ever done,” Custer said. “[Public criticism] doesn’t diminish what he has done in this movement and what he has done to encourage people to protest peacefully.”

Christina Fadden Fitch of New York Feminists for Life will speak today at 7:30 p.m. in Textor 103.