By Carson Macik, Reicher Catholic High School, Class of 2018.
A rising force to be reckoned with, the Millennial generation has made it clear that they are not in favor of abortion, rejecting it in all or most cases by 53%, according to the Institute for Pro-Life Advancement. High school and college students from Oregon to Maine represented the nationwide pro-life sentiment through the Thaddeus Stevens and William Wilberforce Fellowships weekend training and will be continuing to learn from pro-life leaders throughout this school year.
As a Stevens Fellow myself, I cannot express how much energy and passion I found in my newly-made friends towards the goal of abolishing abortion. Stories like Norvilia Etienne’s courageous stand against her college barring a pro-life club on her campus, or Marcos Sanchez starting his group in a little town in Oregon despite pushback from his high school, are inspirational to everyone in this ever-expanding movement!
With a plethora of different backgrounds, experiences, and talents, SFLA Fellows convened both Friday and Saturday mornings to begin seminars for the day covering a variety of topics from conversational suggestions with pro-choice advocates to leadership management strategies and techniques.
Perhaps the most intense and engaging of all seminar speakers, Kristan Hawkins, president of SFLA, made an appearance Saturday morning and spoke on the history of the pro-life movement, which was accompanied by an occasional burst of joyful laughter in response to her clear passion and dedication for the movement.
Fellows went from 9am to 8pm talking about revolutionary solutions to a myriad of obstacles and challenges within pro-life clubs, political organizations, and the movement as a whole.
All throughout the weekend, one thing was clear: my friends and Fellows are going to change America.
The leadership I saw and vigor I felt from every member cannot be summed up in an article. They truly possessed an unbridled joy for protecting human life that can only be divinely inspired; something so powerful and potent is truly going to move mountains.
Beside me in the conference room, I saw future pro-life presidents, CEOs, and government representatives. I saw artists, engineers, lawyers, and doctors. But, most of all, I saw hope. Before the Fellowships began, the future looked uncertain, unstable. Now, I know with certainty, that this generation will end abortion with love and compassion and conversation.
These students, my friends, are representative of a new voice that will ask “when”, not “if”, abortion is abolished and that will put abortion where it belongs – in the history books.
In summary, this convention of diverse and determined students from across the country has, in two days of planning, unraveled hundreds of years of myths surrounding abortion and planned its demise through a grassroots movement more impactful than any other social movement in history.
We millennials have spoken. Abortion has got to go and the process has already begun.
