Pro-Life Students Ignore Ridicule, Speak Up for Unborn, Prevent Friends’ Abortions
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
October 20, 2009
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Hundreds of thousands of students from thousands of schools around the world refused to speak today to protest abortion. As they silently stood up for the unborn with red tape on their mouths or red armbands they helped prevent at least 22 abortions on their friends and their babies.
The Pro-life Day of Silent Solidarity, a project of Stand True ministries, has grown since its inception years ago to find pro-life people from around the world participating.
Last year Stand True heard back from participants about 59 girls who canceled their abortions on the day of the event due to the efforts of the students and the number now stands at 22 with the event ongoing and only initial reports in so far.
"By refusing to speak the students create a huge buzz and abortion will be the most talked about subject on campus," said Bryan Kemper, president of the group, shared with LifeNews.com. "This generation is fed up with the senseless violence of abortion as is determined to bring an end the abortion holocaust."
Students will not only remain silent but distribute educational flyers to anyone who asks why they are silent. Many home-schooled students will also participate in the event by visiting local malls and other public areas to distribute flyers.
One homeschool student shared her story about overcoming scorn and ridicule to stand up for the pro-life perspective.
"I am homeschooled but I go to the local community college for credits. I had the tape on my mouth and clothes and bracelets on and wore almost all red," Shell Vargo said. "My teachers were all kind of upset but I think they got over it. It was weird to have everyone looking at me and ridiculing me but it was worth it."
"We had a lot of people ask us what we were doing and we handed out fliers,
quite a few of them wanted tape as well luckily we had some. So we handed out tons of fliers, bracelets and tape," she said.
Shell’s witness alone helped three young women decide to not have the abortion they were initially planning.
Rachel also shared her experience in the Pro-life Day of Silent Solidarity
"I did this at my college for the day and had many girls come up to me and talk to me," she said. "Some had had abortions and wanted to repent and come to Jesus and ask for forgiveness and I had four girls come up to me saying that they were pregnant and had been thinking about abortion and they all said that now there is no way they are giving up their babies."
Liz Lenihan said she participated and headed up the effort at her school where gangs are prevalent. It proved to be a hit with her fellow students.
"At the beginning of the day I had 13 followers but I brought tape just in case," she said. "By the end of the day I was surrounded by 97 students wearing tape and silent."
"My school only has a student population of 350. It was really awesome to see kids white and Hispanic putting aside their differences to come to one single cause," she said.
Kristan Hawkins, the director of Students for Life, one of the sponsors of the effort, talked about the impact it can have.
"Thousands of American babies are permanently silenced every day by the violent act of abortion," she told LifeNews.com. "This is a day for pro-life students to honor those children as they stay silent as an act of solidarity with these innocent victims."
Over the past few years many schools have tried to stop students from participating and have tried to quash their First Amendment rights. Every year, attorneys from the Alliance Defense Fund defend these students and file lawsuits to protect their rights.
“Pro-life students shouldn’t be discriminated against for expressing their beliefs, so ADF will be ready to defend any students who have their First Amendment rights violated,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel David Cortman.
“The Pro-Life Day of Silent Solidarity is a non-disruptive, student-led event occurring outside of instructional time. These students have the constitutional right to express their viewpoint on abortion just as other students have the right to express their views," he added.
Related web sites:
Silent Day – https://www.silentday.org
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