Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Detroit last Tuesday against the Eastern Michigan University (EMU) on behalf of the 'Students for Life' organization for denying them funding for an anti-abortion exhibit.

The Christian Conservative group alleges that the EMU's student government body should have donated $5,000 in February for the exhibit.

The lawsuit also states that the university officials have funded other student groups based on its political and ideological agendas such as welfare rights, women's and abortion rights, student activist training and race-conscious issues among others.

Therefore, the EMU violated the constitutional rights of members of Students for Life.

Last month, the student members applied for student fee funding to organise a pro-life display on campus called the Genocide Awareness Project.

The project features a travelling photo-mural exhibit which compares abortion to genocide including the Nazis' mass killing of Jews, the lynching of African Americans and the genocide in Cambodia.

"Universities should encourage, not shut down, the free exchange of ideas," Senior Legal Counsel David Hacker said. "The university funded the advocacy of other student organizations but singled out Students for Life for exclusion based purely upon its viewpoint."

Senior Counsel Kevin Theriot hopes that the university amends its student funding policy to distribute money to all groups equally.