Many pro-life Americans must fight to protect their free speech rights. Pro-lifers continue to challenge unjust laws, policies, and procedures that infringe upon our Constitutional rights, especially since the former Biden administration’s increased weaponization of the Clinton-era FACE Act. 

READ: America Must NOT Regress to Prosecuting Pro-Life Thought Crimes: JD Vance Delivers Free Speech Warning in Europe  

No one knows this battle better than we do. We continuously take the free speech fight to college campuses nationwide as some school administrations try to supersede the Constitution, vandals attack our materials, and abortion zealots assault our students and staff.  

Why? Because many of them can’t stand the idea that preborn children have value and rights and that we have the free speech rights to say so. If you need some convincing, just this month, a California woman pleaded guilty to threatening a Texas federal judge for blocking access to Chemical Abortion Pills. In May, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a free speech case of a middle school student disallowed from wearing a shirt stating an obvious fact: “There are only two genders.” That’s what we’re up against. 

Yet, Students for Life of America (SFLA) remains undeterred and thriving. Our mission of making abortion unthinkable and unavailable has yielded tangible results. 42% of private and Christian colleges and universities and 57% of public colleges and universities have a Students for Life presence that has resulted in lives changed and saved. It’s an impressive feat–no doubt thanks to the determination, grit, and perseverance of the Pro-Life Generation (PLG).  

This school year, we hit a significant milestone: 1,575 SFLA groups collectively at all types of schools, including homeschools, colleges, graduate schools, high schools, and middle schools nationwide. Plus, we’ve now trained over 230,000 students.   

While we flex our pro-life muscles regarding our outstanding growth, that growth didn’t come without some sweat and pain. Even NPR noted our battles with free speech in the freest country on earth. The 2024-2025 school year brought significant free speech challenges. Historically, SFLA has experienced different forms of school censorship, something SFLA President Kristan Hawkins wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed about in 2018. Violations commonly include:  

1. The vandalization and outright theft of displays and signs.  

2. A virtual poll tax on speech, often in the form of security fees that are not normally charged to all speakers.  

3. A Heckler’s Veto, in which schools cancel or move events when extremist groups or a disgruntled student oppose a speaker.  

4. A slow walk to nowhere when a pattern of delays for approval of events or clubs creates a virtual veto of student speech.   

5. A not-even-separate-but-equal accommodation as schools refuse similar support for pro-life students as given to others.  

6. A religious gag rule in which schools may allow students to speak as long as they stay silent about faith.  

7. A required “Trigger Warning” when the school signals through signs posted in the areas where pro-life speech is taking place that such speech is controversial and offensive and should be possibly avoided or protested.   

8. A ‘power of the purse’ veto involving biased use of student fees.  

9. A threat of violence veto when schools can’t control their own violent students.  

According to SFLA Legal Supervisor Olivia Torralba, we experienced 55 vandalism and censorship incidents this school year.  

Take a look at some of our most notable incidents and how we fought back:  

A Slow Walk to Nowhere: Group Approval Issues  

Some school administrations wanted to “slow walk” SFLA group approvals, but that doesn’t mean we accept it as the end of the road.   

One of our most recent wins comes from South Carolina, where a tenacious and brave Winthrop University student, Riley Dill, decided to say something when her group was denied. As we previously reported, “After Winthrop University denied Riley Dill a Students for Life of America (SFLA) group for being ‘too emotional a topic,’ Dill bravely stood up for her pro-life free speech rights. With the help of SFLA’s legal counsel, Dill walked away from the situation with a swift victory and is now the president of Winthrop Students for Life!” 

READ: VICTORY: Winthrop University Changes Course on Students for Life Group, Honoring Riley Dill’s Pro-Life Free Speech Rights   

Dill’s situation is an excellent example of what happens when pro-life students stand up for their free speech rights and the school honors them and immediately corrects their course.   

Other ongoing issues include Miami-Dade College student William Bejerano and his attempts to start a group, Hubert Lykins, a virtual high school student who was denied a group, and Diego Salinas, who was also denied group approval. With the help of SFLA counsel, the schools were sent demand letters. 

Vandals in the Yard  

College used to be the breeding ground for free thinking and thoughtful debate, but nowadays, it’s become a place for pro-abortion students to mob and vandalize whenever they disagree.  

SFLA staff and students often become the targets as we actively put ourselves at the center of the action to have engaging conversations to teach students about Life.   

However, it doesn’t always go as planned. Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) has no shortage of “colorful” characters. A week after the 2024 election, SFLA Spokesperson Lydia Taylor Davis was MOBBED during her tabling event and threatened online. That didn’t stop Davis from holding her ground, even writing a Daily Wire op-ed about the incident.   

READ: Lydia Taylor Davis’ Pro-Abortion Mob Experience at Virginia Commonwealth University Highlighted at The DailyWire  

A few months later, SFLA staff set up a Cemetery of the Innocents display as a part of the Capital Area Defund Planned Parenthood Billboard Truck Tour. One pro-abortion student stomped the crosses while wearing a cross. Ironic, right? When SFLA’s Southeast Campus Formation Coordinator, Mary-Logan Miske, confronted her on her vandalism and challenged her position, she replied, “Abortion is birth control.”   

READ: SPOT THE IRONY: Pro-Abortion Student Wears a Cross While VANDALIZING Students for Life’s Display of Crosses  

Another student, Adrian Miguelez, from the University of North Carolina at Asheville (UNC-Asheville), flew off the handle. During an SFLA-affiliated tabling event, “Think Before You Drink,” the student swore at us, and, just before walking away, he tore the tablecloth off with all the materials on it. The Carolinas gave us a run for our materials – literally.   

READ: WATCH: Pro-Abort UNC Asheville Student, Unable to Refute Facts, Resorts to Violence and DESTROYS Students for Life of America Partnered Table  

During last semester’s Abortion Extremism Mobile Billboard Tour, North Carolina State University vandals were caught on camera running away with our materials for a short period of time before eventually giving them back to us. Plus, there were other times when signs were “mysteriously” knocked down.  

Then, a student stole crosses from our Cemetery of the Innocents display at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNC Charlotte). We tracked her down, and she threw the stolen crosses on the ground.  

READ: School is in Session! THREE Vandalisms Already During the Abortion Extremism Billboard Tour  

The fun didn’t end there. Here are some more honorable off-campus mentions:   

• Abortion zealots mobbed SFLA staffer at the Florida Pro-Life March.  

• The University of La Verne administration in California banned SFLA from filming during Lydia Taylor Davis’ speech.   

• Pro-life chalk artists experienced vandalism from disgruntled pro-aborts.   

Touring is Tough: Kristan Hawkins Experienced Setbacks  

SFLA President Kristan Hawkins isn’t immune to free speech issues. During the second leg of her Make Abortion Illegal Again tour, Hawkins and her team encountered multiple free speech issues when it came to filming and getting space.   

Campus Tour and Speaker Bureau Manager Jamie Curry wrote about their troubles.  

“Our team faced many challenges in getting approval for the fourth tour stop at the University of Pittsburgh (UPitt),” Curry wrote. “Although we had just visited this school last year, the school’s administration put new restrictions on filming, making it much more difficult for us to practice our free speech rights. The cherry on top: they told us about these new policies less than 24 hours before the event.”  

READ: ROUND TWO: Kristan Hawkins’ Make Abortion Illegal Again Campus Tour Overcoming Obstacles to Change Minds on College Campuses  

Curry also detailed their sudden pivot to Johns Hopkins University. “This was the most challenging school administration we had to deal with the whole semester.  The original plan was to attend Duquesne University (DUQ) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. However, the school would only give Hawkins a room that would seat 30 people, clearly too small for the crowds her tour brings in.”  

Despite the pivot to JHU, they still made it difficult for us to film. Administrators tried denying us filming permission on campus, even though it was against school policy. They “neglected” to tell us we couldn’t film until less than 48 hours before the tour stop—and as part of our standard protocols, Hawkins only speaks if we can film the speech. The school reinstated our permission to film at the last minute, before the scheduled speech.   

As we reflect on the school year while enjoying summer, we know this isn’t a “break.” The fight for Life and free speech to talk about preborn lives is a constant fight, something our staff and students are always up for.   

“SFLA students and staff still face just as much discrimination and censorship as previous years,” said Torralba. “It is so important for the Pro-Life Generation to stand firm for their beliefs and to fight for the protection of their First Amendment rights.” 

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