On Saturday, January 20th, I attended the annual Students for Life of America Conference that takes place each year on the Saturday before the annual “March for Life.” Abortion is perhaps the greatest atrocity in the world today. More than 43 million fetuses have been aborted (in America alone) since the tragic decision of a few Supreme Court justices to decide that it was okay for any woman to “choose” to “abort” the baby they are expecting.
But, our generation isn’t taking this decision sitting down. About 10 years ago, the American Collegians for Life, a student-run organization, began. They had an annual conference that only 5 years ago, attracted just 70 students on the Saturday. Last year, that number grew to over 300. This year, about 500 attended the conference. This is a conference they have to pay $65 to attend and travel from across the country. What struck me most about this year’s conference was the amount of HIGH SCHOOL students I saw.
At last year’s conference, it was announced that the organization would have a new name: Students for Life of America. They received some major donations and are now able to hire some full-time employees to staff their offices and 8 field reps to travel the nation. Their purpose is to promote pro-life education and activism on college campuses, and now they are extending that mission to include high schools as well. ISI co-sponsors this conference each year and I was proud to have a table there. My purpose was to introduce these pro-life students to ISI. I signed up 52 new members on-site, but all 500 attendees received a conference bag that included ISI literature and an ISI advertisement in their program. So, hopefully we reach them that way.
I was simply happy to be a part of this conference and perhaps the most important “issue” movement in America. The youth of America are the most vocal advocates of the pro-life cause. I think this is so because it was their lives that were the most threatened by abortion. As one t-shirt I saw put it, “My death authorized on 01-22-1973.”
“The greatest destroyer of peace is abortion, because if a mother can kill her own child what is left for me to kill you and you to kill me? There is nothing between.” – Mother Teresa