Winning Hearts and Minds for Life on the Quad

Grace Rykaczewski has always been openly pro-life on campus, so she was shocked when some “pro-choice” friends told her on social media after the landmark June 24 Supreme Court abortion decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that they couldn’t be friends with her anymore.

“Some were OK with being friends with a pro-lifer when we were losing, but it feels different to them now, I guess,” said Rykaczewski, a sophomore at Rider University in Lawrenceville, NJ, where she helped start a Students for Life of America (SFLA) chapter.

The reaction Rykaczewski experienced may well have been a harbinger of what is to come as students return to campus this fall in the wake of the high court’s decision reversing Roe v. Wade, ending the federal constitutional “right” to abortion and returning the issue to individual states.

Even as they celebrate a victory, many pro-life students and others in the movement know they can anticipate pushback from “pro-choice” advocates. Groups that work with college students have prepared by offering training sessions and planning how to respond to possible vandalism and violence. 
Students for Life of America, for example, has published guidebooks and established an Abortion Extremism Response Force with a 24/7 hotline where pro-life students can obtain information about abortion issues and learn how to address violence, intimidation, discrimination, or vandalism from “pro-choice” advocates.

The Fellowship of Catholic University Students worked with David Bereit, founder of 40 Days for Life, to coordinate training for missionaries and student leaders before their arrival on campus. FOCUS founder and CEO Curtis Martin, a member of Legatus’ Denver Chapter, said the training was designed to help students understand what the Supreme Court decision entails, what is changing state by state as a result, and how this affects campuses.
 
Seeking respect

Additionally, before students returned to campus at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, the St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center issued a statement asking for respect for those with pro-life convictions. The statement referenced reaction to both the recent Supreme Court decision and an August 2 vote on a constitutional amendment that would allow restrictions to abortion deemed unconstitutional by a 2019 Kansas Supreme Court ruling.
 
“Everybody has the right to state their position, but it should not be assumed everybody on a secular campus is upset by the [Roe v. Wade] overturning,” said Fr. Mitchel Zimmerman, director and chaplain of the St. Lawrence Center. “Many, in fact, see this as a just decision.”

During the summer, the center also invited students to a Zoom session on what it would be like to be at the university post-Roe. During the online meeting, Fr. Zimmerman said, he urged students to be courageous and unafraid to live their faith if they are persecuted, “canceled,” or mistreated on campus because of their pro-life views.
 
He said students on the Zoom meeting wanted to know how best to respond when they find themselves in a situation where they feel alone in their pro-life stance. They asked, for example, whether it was OK not to say anything, whether it would be helpful to share their views on social media, and where they could seek help.
 
“It just seems to be a very overwhelming moment for students, and they’re looking for support to go through it well and deal with it well,” Fr. Zimmerman said.

After the Supreme Court reversed Roe, Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life, told students attending the group’s National Leaders Collective in Washington that they could expect discrimination and persecution given the opposition that has escalated in recent years. 
But she also told them the moment they have been working for as a movement is here and urged them to commit to finish a job begun when Roe was first decided. “Step one of our mission is complete, but there are so many more steps to go.”

Monumental opportunity

The real challenge begins now, Hawkins told Legatus. She sees the Roe reversal as a monumental opportunity to have conversations about abortion on campuses.

“We know when we talk about abortion, we ultimately win,” said Hawkins, an At-Large member of Legatus who will speak at Summit 2023 in Orlando, FL. “Even if we’re responding to something negative, this is still an opportunity to educate Americans about who we are, to challenge the narrative the media mainstream has painted about the pro-life movement, and to show people what we believe.”

She said students can do this by educating their peers about the violence of abortion, fetal development, and why each life is worthy of protection, and then working to transform campuses into places that support women so that no woman ever feels she must choose between the life of her child and her education. This includes making sure students know about resources for pregnant women on and around campuses.

Noah Slayter, a Catholic University of America sophomore and SFLA member, agreed.
 
“We have to provide an honest and true understanding of what abortion is, but the other thing we have to do as pro-lifers is focus on pregnancy resources,” Slayter said. “Students trying to advocate against abortion have to say, ‘Here are these resources, and here are your rights as pregnant students.’”

When talking about abortion in the post-Roe world, Slayter said it is important that pro-lifers are compassionate and realize that many people still do not understand what abortion truly is. Having witnessed displays of anger by pro-abortion advocates, Slayter said he tries to have empathy for them because he recognizes that many may have had abortions themselves. “There’s a lot of anger,” he said, “but also quite a bit of pain.”
 
Indeed, Martin of FOCUS said, “God is calling us now to love those who wish abortion were legal. To accompany them. To share with them the joyful witness of our lives. And through our encounter with them, to lead them to God who will give them a ‘new heart,’ as the prophet Ezekiel says.”

JUDY ROBERTS
is a contributing writer for Legatus magazine.