UMD's National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) operates the research database known as Profiles of Individual Radicalization in the United States (PIRUS).

According to The College Fix, PIRUS "purportedly tracks 'ideologically motivated criminal activity' and known 'extremists' through 2021."

"[T]wo Students for Life of America members who were arrested for writing 'black pre-born lives matter' on a sidewalk in 2020 are recorded in PIRUS," the Fix reported. "This puts them among white supremacists, jihadist groups, and other threats."

"Moreover, SFLA appears under a 'Terrorist_Group' label in the raw dataset," the Fix added.

SFLA spokeswoman Kristi Hamrick blasted this labeling as "an attempt to smear the reputations of peaceful students who use their free speech right to advocate for mothers and their children, born and preborn."

"It is a highly offensive and highly suspect organization that can't tell the difference between students with signs and actual terrorists threatening violence," Hamrick told The Christian Post last month.

In addition, a pair of counterterrorism experts slammed START's categorization of the pro-life students.

In a statement to the Fix, former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo noted that "[r]esearchers of course can create and apply any definition of 'terrorism' that they like."