This is an article from my blog SaveLiveOnline.com

Activism is the heart of every social movement. It is essential to change the culture.  When speaking of human rights injustices, especially something as grave as abortion, activism is the natural and appropriate response to a deeper understanding of injustice.

I never thought I would be anything close to an activist. The term often engenders thoughts of people unreasonably screaming at each other and I, like many others, always wanted to be far, far away from that sort of activity.

In fact, when I first started learning about the injustice that is abortion, I resisted the urge to act. Being right was enough for me. Doing right was difficult, uncomfortable and quite frankly foreign to me. I started out by learning and researching about abortion and other life issues. I was immersing myself in reading and listening to talks and watching presentations to fill my brain with knowledge.

I was satisfied with just talking about it with my pro-life friends and learning about it in the safety of my dorm room. Among other reasons, I was turned off by the ‘crazy people’ caricature of activists to really do much.

True Activism

Fortunately, this caricature is not true activism. In fact, it is an unhelpful waste of time that most reasonable people don’t want to have anything to do with. Pretty much all pro-life activists that I’ve ever met don’t operate that way.

According to Webster’s, activism is “…taking positive, direct action to achieve an end, esp. a political or social end.” When we understand the injustice that is happening, if we are honest with ourselves, our hearts cry out for a more just society. If we take this reaction seriously, we must take positive, direct action. We must become activists.

Personal Activism

Often activism is thought to be a big and very impersonal thing. We hold signs, we protest, we write letters, we march, we hand out literature and occasionally engage someone whom we have never met. All of these things are generally (but not always) quite impersonal.  All of these things are examples of activism, but they are not the full picture.

Along with such means of impersonal activism I think we need to all cultivate a sense of “Personal Activism.” That is, we must take positive, direct action in our personal lives. This action can start very small as a conversation with a friend or family member. In fact, I think that’s where it must start.

Although signs and protests are scary to some, I think personal conversations with people close to you or with your peers can be much more scary. There you have to open yourself up in a more intimate way. Standing on the street, while requiring courage, is in many ways much easier than having a difficult but constructive conversation with someone who is close to you.

The Challenge

Today, I issue a challenge to myself and to all pro-life people: Become an activist. If you are truly pro-life then you understand the grave injustice happening over 3,500 times every single day. If you understand that, then let yourself be moved to positive, direct action on behalf of those who suffer at the hands of the abortionists.

Activism is especially important on college campuses. As a college student you have access to thousands of people who, once you graduate, will be much less accessible. It is also meant to be a place for the free expression of ideas and discussion. The workplace, for example is much less so.

So, I continue my challenge to you. Get involved in some way. Whether it’s through posting a pro-life status on facebook. Chalking the quad, organizing a protest or just having an honest constructive conversation with a friend about abortion.

How are you going to become more active in this crucial movement? Put your comments below.

Image by mlinksva

The European court of Human rights is hearing the woman’s case in which she claims that having to travel outside the country to obtain an abortion is against her rights.  Does any of this sound familiar?  The European Court has traditionally ruled in favor of unborn rights in Ireland, however if the court rules in favor of a “right to an abortion”, then all legal protection for the unborn in Europe could be overturned.

Roger Kiska, a pro-life legal counselor for the Alliance Defense Fund has stated that this could be the “Roe v. Wade of Europe.”  Please pray for our unborn brothers and sisters in Ireland, and also as a way to grow in Pro-Life philosophy, how can we respond to a common argument asserted by pro-choicers that aborting children is a “right?”

The story: http://www.lifenews.com/2010/12/13/int-1713/

Special Christmas Opportunity:

Support SFLI with a Christmas gift that will Double or even TRIPLE! Your dollars can go up to three times as far if you give before Jan 1st! Donate here.

The Students for Life of Illinois 2010 Summit is approaching this Fall on October 16th. Our 2010 theme is: Bring Your Campus to Life!

It’s our 4th annual Summit and we are looking forward to coming together with pro-life students from campuses around the Midwest to learn about pro-life issues and find out how to take action to save lives!

Keep an eye out for more exciting information about this summit.

Throughout this school year, I have been working to bring Students for Life to my campus at Lewis University. Recently, we were recognized by the school and the student body as an official campus organization.

I would like to share our story with you all, and I hope it will help anyone who either wants to start a pro-life group on their campus or finds their group to be struggling with student approval or campus policy.

My hope is that you may, as I did, be able to take advantage of the resources and support provided by Students for Life of Illinois as well as our national affiliate, Students for Life of America.

To begin with, it is important to note that Lewis is a Catholic university, within the Diocese of Joliet, IL, and being Catholic, the University’s official stance is naturally pro-life. One would assume then that a pro-life group would have no problem gaining recognition and numbers, but as University activities are organized and coordinated by students (as on most college campuses,) the process can become quite difficult and often disappointing.

Students for Life of Lewis University was conceived late last summer, when Brother James Gaffney, the president of LU, received a letter from both Bishop Sartain of the Diocese of Joliet and Cardinal George of the Archdiocese of Chicago, encouraging the promotion of a respect for life on campus at Lewis and the other Catholic campuses around the Chicagoland area. Along with the letter were various flyers and resources for different upcoming pro-life events and opportunities for students to take part in.

Br. James brought the letter and information to the attention of Br. Joseph, the vice-president of the University, who took it upon himself to research and find out whether we actually had a pro-life group on campus – which we did not at the time.

Now, all of this happened to be occurring at the same time that Aurora, IL. was in a tumult of pro-life activism over the new Planned Parenthood clinic, which had been deceptively and strategically placed in Aurora, IL. under the city’s negligent and ignorant watch.

I happen to be a resident of Aurora and a commuter.  So, although the school year was soon beginning at Lewis, I was still residing in Aurora and was actively participating in the fight to bring Planned Parenthood’s deception to light.

One of the events I had assisted in was the Youth for Truth Rally at the clinic in early September. I had sent out an email to many of the college campuses in the area, informing them of the hundreds of young people that will be attending as well as inviting them to take part as well and represent their various colleges and universities.

I had also sent the email, which stated that I was a student at Lewis, to John-Paul, President of SFL Illinois, and he was generous enough to post the email on this blog (which in fact you can still find here.)

Since my affiliation with Lewis University was posted on the blog, it was now circulating the search engines on the world wide web.  When Br. Joseph googled “Lewis, pro-life” my blogged email popped up as one of his hits.  He contacted me and asked if I was interested in starting a pro-life group on campus. I immediately jumped on the opportunity and met with him to obtain the resources that he had received from Br. James.

One of the resources that had been passed along with the Bishops’ letter was a flyer for the October SFL Conference, and so I attended.

Aside from gaining the amazing friendships I have now, this conference gave me the tools I needed and the confidence to use them in carrying out our mission, which is to educate on life issues, to support pro-life legislation, and to promote a culture of life on campus.

John-Paul had mentioned my situation to Michael Barnett, the SFLA field director at the time, and he came out the very next week to help me recruit at Lewis.

During Barnett’s breakout session at the conference, he had taught us a method of recruiting he called “clipboarding.” Clipboarding allows the recruiter to walk around to the busier parts of campus and engage passers-by in discussion when signing members up, rather than using a recruiting table outside one of the dining areas, and waiting for students to come to you. (You can download a sample clipboard sheet here.)

After two hours of recruiting, we had gathered about sixty names and email addresses from students who were interested in what would soon become Students for Life of Lewis University.

Supposedly, the bill would require clinics to inform women that the unborn child may feel pain, as well as display signs reading something such as “There are many public and private agencies willing and able to help you carry your child to term, and to assist you and your child after your child is born.”

This sounds like it would be something a pro-choicer would want, since it allows women to make a free choice about their pregnancy rather than perhaps feel they must abort their baby. For some reason however, this bill is receiving some opposition.

Planned Parenthood already claims to provide the option of an ultrasound image at their clinics. Michelle Trupiano, a Missouri Planned Parenthood political lobbyist, claims that they take “lots of measures to make sure women are not coerced into having an abortion.” If this is true, then Missouri should have no problem with this bill being passed!

Pro-choice advocates should be pushing for this bill to succeed, unless they do not really want women to have a free choice. This bill would provide the means to show anyone with an unwanted pregnancy that there are other options, and that no one needs to have an abortion.

Full article here.