Students for Life

feministconf By Beth O’Malley, SFLA National Programs Coordinator

A panel of women line the table in front of a vibrant crowd. The room is abuzz with excitement as women come clapping and chanting down the aisle. “STAND UP! FIGHT BACK,” they chant with great enthusiasm. The crowd cheers along, and the conference is underway. Speakers come to the podium, and one after another, they urge the women and men of the room to stand up for those beliefs that they hold dear.

One woman approaches the podium and gives a touching speech about her journey from homelessness to a position in the Virginia House of Delegates. She addresses her young audience:

“I want to make sure that we are living in a place that emphasizes freedom, compassion, and a sense of fair play. I want to make sure that we have a government that is working so that a child born today will have the same opportunities to succeed that the generations before us have dreamed regardless of gender, regardless of race, and regardless of sexual orientation. We must work toward policies that ensure a safety net for the most vulnerable when the worst happens.”

Lovely speech, isn’t this? Add the part where this woman states that she is “being a voice to those who don’t have one,” and we might be convinced that this is speech is pro-life! Don’t be fooled, my friends. What I failed to mention is that you have entered the inner sanctum of none other than the 9^th Annual National Young Feminist Leadership Conference!

Welcome to the training grounds for young feminists! Brace yourself for a weekend of commentary on abortion, birth control, abortion, birth control, abort– … Did I repeat myself? Sorry! We also have other important matters to discuss- like LGBTQ rights, immigration concerns, gun control, and voter registration. Leading these discussions is our cast of characters- including Eleanor Smeal (President of Feminist Majority Foundation), Katherine Spillar (Executive Vice President of Feminist Majority Foundation), Clare Coleman (President of National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association), Terry O’Neill (President of National Organization for Women), and a wide range of feminist activists and leaders.

Now you are probably wondering what Sarah Maher (Capitol Area Regional Coordinator), Lauren (a pro-life student leader), and I were doing sitting third row in a room full of feminists who “boo” at the word “personhood” and cheer on the advancement of “reproductive justice.” Surely, there are much better ways to spend a Saturday! However, there is much knowledge to be gained when we seek to discover the language, goals, and understandings of our fellows on the other side of this battle.

While there is much to share from this Saturday’s conference, here is the most important note:

They are afraid. Very afraid.

Throughout the workshops, our team noticed an interesting contrast in presentation. While the presenters tried to assert confidence and enthusiasm in their position, their tone towards the current state of this battle was disappointed and frustrated! They are “on the defensive,” and we have done a significant amount of damage with our pro-active efforts on the grassroots levels and in legislative measures. In my second workshop attendance, I listened to the panel list numerous ballot initiatives, amendments, and lawsuits challenging their abortion and “family planning” programs. In particular, it is important to note what the panelists claimed was causing the most damage.

We have turned the conversation. We are discussing matters that are not within the framework that the other side wants.
We are fighting on our turf. We have gained ground through ballot initiatives, amendments, and lawsuits that challenge the other side to take the defensive.
We make them spend money. Our constant, pro-active fights in community, state, and federal battles are costing them time, money, and resources.
We are targeting Planned Parenthood. Our increased efforts to put the abortion Goliath out of business are having a huge effect! “If you can make them spend a few million dollars in a few different states every year, that’s a lot less money for actual patient care and services.”
We sometimes split their base and cause them to fight amongst one another.

Pro-life leaders, students, and activists – you are the reason that our pro-abortion opponents fear that they are losing! Your persistence, energy, and passion to defend life in every state and on every level has caused the tide to turn. Your efforts have not gone unnoticed, and your commitment has not been in vain. Whether you have been in this for 40 years or for a few months, you have made an impact.

Our pro-abortion opponents label us as “terrifying,” “extreme,” and “radical.” While I have never considered myself any of these things, I can only draw upon a quote from William Wilberforce: “If to be feelingly alive to the sufferings of my fellow-creatures is to be a fanatic, I am one of the most incurable fanatics ever permitted to be at large.”

To all of our fellow “fanatics,” Students for Life of America is proud to be in this battle alongside you. We will continue to fight for every life to be protected and cherished from conception to natural death.

WilberforceQuote

By: Catherine Phillips, Students for Life of America’s 2012 Missionary for Life

Prolife-prochoice discussion is all about the language. Those against abortion are called “anti-choice,” by those who support it, and they call abortion supporters “anti-life” or “pro-abortion” instead of “pro-choice.” I choose to respect what each side wants to be called, generally “pro-life,” and “pro-choice,” because calling names isn’t going to get us anywhere. But in fact, the language of the divide goes much deeper than just name-calling. Activists on both sides of the debate are guilty of painting the other side in the worst possible light, and sometimes sounding like extremists writing for a propaganda team.

For example, I admit that I get at least a little irritated when I read statements like these: (taken from NARAL, Pro Choice America’s website) “Anti-choice groups attack [women’s] right to choose at every opportunity. Anti-choice people want to outlaw abortion, regardless of the woman’s situation. They will stop at nothing to make it harder for women to access abortion#.”

Yes, we “anti-choice” people do want to see abortion end; but we are not vicious and heartless beings that have no compassion, especially for a mother who finds herself in a crisis pregnancy. Do people really think that I, a 21-year-old woman, am spending valuable time for the pro-life movement just to “spread lies to scare women,” (also from the website) and to limit essential freedoms of the very demographic to which I belong? Why in the world would I do that, just for the fun of it?

Please. You cannot tell me that my pro-life generation is solely motivated by the idea of hurting women and restricting their freedoms. And if that’s not what we’re motivated for, which is what the pro-choice side wants you to believe…then what is it that motivates us?

I am motivated by truth, logic, and compassion.
I am motivated by the truth that a fetus, from the moment of conception, is a living human being. (an accepted scientific fact that NARAL foolishly tries to deny, by the way#)
I am motivated by the inherent human logic that I believe we all possess that tells us that a pre-born human being deserves to be protected, not to be killed in his mother’s womb—this inherent human understanding that killing is wrong, regardless of how convenient it may be.
I am motivated by compassion for the voices of thousands of women who courageously speak out about how they regret their abortions, and have been damaged by them both emotionally, spiritually, and sometimes even physically.

I am motivated by the many young women in my generation who find themselves pregnant and scared, and who need someone to tell them they have other options than the very unnatural “choice” of killing the baby inside them that their very body is preparing for them to nurture.

I am pro-life, and I do stand for women’s rights. If you don’t believe me, or don’t understand me, then talk to me about it. But don’t call me anti-woman, and don’t tell me that I don’t support women’s freedom. I support women’s freedom to the same extent that I support the freedom of all Americans—but when freedom comes to mean the “freedom” to end the life of someone else, well, that is no longer freedom.

Right now, women are free to make the choice to have an abortion. Is that a freedom that the Constitution protects? I don’t think so. But there is one freedom of choice I hope women are exercising: the freedom to choose which language to trust. The language on the side that makes business and money off their apparent “victimization,” or the language of the side that has no other reason to defend life than the motivation of truth, and the desire to see a nation freed from the lie that abortion is good for women.

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