(Megan Roos is Students for Life of America’s Texas Regional Coordinator and helps groups get off their feet. Read Roos’ easy steps and inspiring advice for pro-life students.) 

This generation will abolish abortion. But that large-scale mission starts small—with everyday students who dare to speak for the preborn.  

More than 1,575 Students for Life of America (SFLA) campus groups do that every day. Yet over 600 traditional universities lack a pro-life voice.   

The solution? Bold students who are willing to take the first step themselves.  

Launching a Students for Life group is a worthwhile challenge. I’ve seen it firsthand. With the support of an SFLA Campus Formation Coordinator (CFC) and by following three steps, students can build a life-affirming campus community that creates meaningful change.   

Step One: Assembling a Team  

Starting a Students for Life group requires tenacity and grit, but the process is simple. The first step is to build an officer team.   

Standing for the preborn is more impactful as a group! Sometimes recruitment is as easy as the founder asking their friends who would like to be the Vice President, Treasurer, and Secretary (the standard startup officer positions).   

However, sometimes recruitment takes more creativity. Students might set up a table, ask for signups, or host an interest meeting to meet students who want to help lead the group. Additionally, they may ask religious or political student organizations to make an announcement. With persistent follow-up, the four starter officer positions should fill up soon.   

Step Two: Recruit a Pro-Life Professor  

Secondly, students enlist a professor to serve as the group’s advisor. Advisors will, at a minimum, sign the group’s registration paperwork.  

Eager advisors may also attend group events, connect students to community pro-life opportunities, and offer advice. In more liberal areas, SFLA groups often have trouble finding an advisor who is willing to sign their name in support of a pro-life organization. Students might reach back out to the religious or political clubs and ask who their advisor is to overcome this unfortunate inconvenience. 

Along with those names, they can note each member’s favorite professors and any professor who may have pro-life religious or political beliefs. Some groups need to call, email, and visit each prospective advisor’s office before hearing back. Many professors will decline, but if asked, will mention other professors who may be interested. With these strategies, even the toughest campuses can find an advisor.  

Step Three: Fighting the Red Tape  

The final barrier to becoming an official student organization is a stack of red tape.  

Most schools require prospective organizations to fill out a form with the advisor’s information, officers’ information, and other pertinent information. Schools often require a constitution, so Students for Life offers a free template on Students for Life HQ.   

When the group submits the paperwork, those school administrations that are averse to pro-life efforts will often try to prevent the group from starting by simply ignoring the request. It can take persistent, consistent follow-up for them to respond.   

This usually resolves the issue, but if a school refuses to approve your group for discriminatory reasons, like Winthrop University’s Riley Dill experienced, students can reach out to [email protected] for support. When the group is school-official, they sign some brief paperwork with Students for Life, officially becoming the newest Students for Life group.  

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

Such an accomplishment, whether it took a few weeks or even several months, always warrants a celebration! It marks the beginning of a new movement to change culture on a campus and to end abortion in a community.  

Real Success by Incredible Students  

This step-by-step process is a reality for students like Victoria Pierce, who knew that her school, Colorado Mesa University, needed a pro-life voice. In October 2024, she connected with her SFLA Campus Formation Coordinator (CFC), who explained how to get started.   

Recruitment was easy for Victoria since a couple of her friends were already excited to help lead! They immediately scheduled a Pro-Life Apologetics 101 Training with their CFC to learn how to change minds about abortion. Meanwhile, Victoria contacted two potential advisors. One declined, but the other agreed. Victoria then filed the paperwork with her school, and just two weeks after Victoria first connected with her CFC, Mesa Students for Life became an official Students for Life group!   

Since founding their group in November of 2024, Mesa Students for Life has shown the Unplanned movie, hosted the Think Before You Drink SFLA Campus Tour, prayed outside their local Planned Parenthood, tabled regularly to recruit new members and change minds about abortion, and made over 50 calls to help defund Planned Parenthood. Victoria and her Vice President are now fellows in Students for Life’s National Leaders Collective (NLC).   

Mesa Students for Life didn’t just start a group—they established a much-needed legacy of life-affirming leadership, and you can, too.   

For some students, starting a Students for Life group takes a little more work than that, as they run into roadblocks at every stage of the process. But for every new group, overcoming the challenges was worth it for the sake of building a new hub where students can come together, change culture, and play their part in the generation that will abolish abortion in our lifetime.  

Starting a group can feel daunting, but you won’t be alone. SFLA Regional Coordinators will join you on this journey so you can take it one step at a time. Standing for Life on campus is always worth it—the future of this generation and the next depends on us.  

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