So, you’re pro-life. Now what?
The good news is, most Hillsdale students would probably call themselves pro-life if asked. The bad news is, most of them probably don’t do anything about it.
Maybe you’ll tell me, no, you actually do some pro-life stuff. Maybe you vote for pro-life candidates when you have the chance. Maybe your parents give money to Students for Life. Maybe you have a pro-life sticker on your laptop. Maybe – just maybe – you attended the March for Life in January.
But to all the students who fall into one or more of the above categories and want to call it good, I have a challenge for you: ask yourself why you’re pro-life at all. Ask yourself why you do these small things on behalf of the unborn. Odds are, it’s because you – like me – believe that it’s wrong to kill an innocent human being, and you know that abortion does just that.
Assuming that’s true, that makes abortion the greatest human rights injustice of our time. In the U.S. alone, more than 63 million abortions have occurred since the Supreme Court ruled the Constitution protects the right to get an abortion in 1973 Roe v. Wade case.
Of course, there are many problems in our broken world – war, disease, hunger, and slavery in all its ugly manifestations – but abortion always kills, and it always kills the innocent. It’s also the only one of these tragedies that has enthusiastic supporters in (supposedly) civilized countries like the U.S.
You’ll be hard-pressed to find a politician or celebrity preaching the wonders of violence, discrimination, or natural disasters, but the same simply isn’t true of abortion. Within just a few decades, abortion has been mainstreamed, popularized, and even celebrated. This makes the fight to end abortion all the more urgent because there’s real, institutionalized opposition.
You may be thinking, OK, sounds great , but what am I supposed to do about it? I’m a broke college student taking too many credits and averaging 5.3 hours of sleep per night as it is.
First, get some sleep.
But second, you’re never too young, too broke, or too tired to do something good. If you’re already getting hyped to watch Season 3 of “The Mandalorian,” you probably have the time to emulate your man Mando and help save some children right here in the Milky Way galaxy.
First, learn pro-life apologetics. You may think the pro-life position is pretty intuitive, even obvious; you may have grown up in a Christian, homeschooled house with sketchy Wi-Fi, having never heard a pro-choice argument. But if you want to know how to talk to people and change their minds about abortion, you have some training to do. Thankfully, there are plenty of books, podcasts, and websites dedicated to this subject. The Equal Rights Institute on YouTube is a great place to start.
Next, see what’s happening in the pro-life movement. Thanks to the internet, it’s easy to find organizations whose sole purpose is to work toward making abortion illegal and unthinkable in the U.S. Check out Students for Life or Protect Life Michigan, which are both geared toward students. You can also try to find a state-based or local group near your hometown. In Hillsdale is Helping Hands, a pregnancy center serving the community. Or, check out Champions 4 Life, a website created by some of our very own Hillsdale students, which dedicates itself to spreading the pro-life message in truth and love. Hillsdale is also home to the pregnancy resource center Helping Hands, which aids women in need.
Finally, get involved right here on campus. Hillsdale College for Life exists to help students get active in the pro-life movement. HCFL teaches apologetics, hosts speakers, and encourages dialogue about abortion both on and off campus. HCFL also works closely with Helping Hands, Hillsdale’s local pregnancy resource center which helps mothers in need. If you don’t know where to get started, just take the first step to becoming an active pro-lifer and attend a HCFL event.
