DURHAM - Adam Bungert of Alton said he didn't mind standing out in the bitter cold in front of Thompson Hall at the University of New Hampshire all day Monday to protest abortion in the United States.

"If we can just save one of these babies from being murdered, it's worth it," said Bungert, a physics major and member of UNH Students for Life.

Bungert stood in front of large murals showing photographs of aborted fetuses. One showed a partial-birth abortion fetus, whose neck had been clipped open so that the abortionist could suction out its brain. The graphic photos compared the aborted fetuses to victims of the Holocaust and other historical genocides.

Lauren Daigle, a UNH senior from Stratham and the head of Students for Life, said her group "" 80 students strong "" decided to bring the Genocide Awareness Project to UNH in order to get students discussing the issue.

She said Students for Life tried unsuccessfully for the past four years to engage UNH students in the debate on abortion. Its most successful Students for Life event attracted only 100 students, she said.

"Yet there are 12,000 students on this campus," said Daigle. "We finally said, we are sick of the same people coming to the event. We're preaching to the choir."

Daigle said Monday's exhibit on the UNH campus, held outside from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., got the debate going.

UNH Senior, Tiffany Heineman of Newton, NJ, trying to understand the opposing view, is offered information about the Genocide Awareness Project that was on display at The University of New Hampshire on Monday. Large photo murals comparing aborted babies with Jewish Holocaust victims were a subject of controversy. Photo by Jackie Ricciardi

Misha Moschera, a student from Hastings-on-the-Hudson, N.Y., opposed Daigle in the debate. She is strongly in favor of abortion rights.

Moschera, who was adopted from India as a baby, said while people think she should be anti-abortion, that is not the case. She visited India two years ago with her birth mother and was devastated to see girls as young as 10 who were sex slaves, begging for food and money on the streets, and impoverished beyond imagination.

Moschera said she is thankful to have been adopted but knows that millions of other children are not so lucky.

"I have seen firsthand what happens to these children that don't get adopted," she said, sobbing. "So many little girls are forced into (slavery); to me it would be better off if they had been aborted. Abortion is choosing a better life even if it's not living."

Amanda Ponn, a junior from Moultonborough, and Moschera debated the issue hotly.

"We're talking about abortion in America," Ponn told Moschera.

Many of the 40 or so students who protested the Students for Life exhibit said they were angry with the comparison between genocide and abortion.

Among them was Marie Coyle, a junior from Gaithersburg, Md.

"I feel these images are really disrespectful to victims of genocide historically," she said.

Alyssa Brady, a UNH sophomore and 2005 Epping High School graduate, agreed.

"No matter if you're pro-life or pro-choice, I just think it's a horrible tactic," she said. "I just think (the photos) are gruesome."

Rachel Umberger, a senior history and women's studies major from Concord, helped organize those protesting the abortion demonstration, many of whom wore signs that read "Pro-Respect."

The signs were in protest of the comparison to genocide, she said.

"We find it incredibly disrespectful," said Umberger.

"The reason we compare it to genocide is we're trying to broaden the debate in historical context," Daigle said.

Approximately 3,500 abortions are performed every day in the United States, she said.