I recently reached out to Kristan Hawkins, President of Students for Life of America (SFLA), which is the flagship organization for promoting the pro-life cause on college campuses across the United States. In the lead-up to the 44th annual March for Life on Friday, Jan. 19, I asked Kristan some questions about SFLA’s noble mission.

 

Students for Life of America (SFLA) has made admirable strides in pro-life awareness at the high school and university levels. What are some hopeful signs that you have observed over the years?

Students for Life of America and the Pro-Life Generation have momentum on the abortion issue. We can see it in the growing number of Students for Life groups on high school and college campuses, and in the reaction of millennials and Generation Z to us, as compared to Planned Parenthood.

While Planned Parenthood recently bragged in their annual report about starting 50 new campus groups and training 750 young activists, Students for Life launched nearly 120 groups, supported more than 1,200 student groups in all 50 states, and trained nearly 11,000 volunteers last year. Last year, we were able to stop Planned Parenthood, our nation’s largest abortion vendor, from placing a full-time employee inside of Reading High School in Pennsylvania. We were able to put pressure on Whitworth University, a Christian school, to end their internship partnership with Planned Parenthood in Spokane, Washington. At schools like Queens College, Fresno State and Parkland High School (Pennsylvania), we won lawsuits forcing pro-abortion administrators to recognize the right of pro-life students to assemble. Victory is possible. The pro-life generation fights for the human rights issue of our time, the worth of every human life, and, we have the momentum to win.

This year, the March for Life is on Friday, Jan. 19. Multitudes of marchers will be standing up for human life, especially in the womb. Why is all human life sacred?

Our irreplaceable worth comes to us from our Creator, and, while not all Students for Life volunteers share the same faith perspective, and some do not profess any faith at all, I have found that those who work most tirelessly on this issue come to it from the perspective that each life is a unique creation, and a life’s worth should be not calculated by what it costs. What I mean by that is that the abortion mentality too often devalues life as not worth living if someone has a disability or a perceived weakness, and that women are often urged to consider the short-term costs of child rearing or career disruption rather than the long-term value of a human life. We have to translate our respect for life into action and life-affirming public policy. 

You became President of SFLA in 2006. What are a few of SFLA’s most memorable successes that you have witnessed over the years in terms of leading the culture to a greater respect for human life?

First, I think it’s important to note that none of the “successes” we’ve had at Students for Life are only our own. They are the result of the Holy Spirit, plain and simple. Some of the “successes” that I value most may seem small on a national scale, but they are the little lives saved. The little boy I got to meet whose mother, Jessica, courageously chose life even though everyone in her life pressured her to have an abortion simply because she befriended a Students for Life leader on her campus. Other “successes” I’ve seen that show we are changing the culture are the front-page images of our Students for Life leaders in front of the Supreme Court when historic cases are decided. Front and center in the countries’ largest papers are images of smiling, energetic young people who courageously identify as part of the pro-life generation. In the last decade, we have been able to change how the mainstream media portrays our movement, and it’s been a significant and vital shift. In a media-driven age, the picture worth a thousand words is found again and again, as the pro-life generation standing courageously for life.

 

There is unfortunately the occasional perception that, as far as saving children in the womb is concerned, the pro-life movement is actually merely “pro-birth,” and is uninterested in the formative overall well-being of children and their parents thereafter. What advice do you offer that counters this claim?

No one who serves in the pro-life movement is merely pro-birth. It is because we value the lives of all human beings that we serve in this movement. The pro-life movement has taken the lead in helping mothers facing unplanned, crisis pregnancies — not the pro-abortion movement. We have started thousands of pregnancy resource centers. We have created post-abortion healing retreats. We give women true options. At Students for Life, we created the Pregnant on Campus Initiative, which is changing the culture on campuses to truly support women in crisis. Our goal is simple: No woman should ever feel like she has to choose between the life of her child and her education. On many campuses, Students for Life groups host discussions inviting those from both sides of the abortion debate to sit down and discuss how to support pregnant and parenting students. The result often is that the pro-abortion side refuses to even show up. Our goal must be to help and support mother and child.

 

We have recently seen, especially in the entertainment industry and political realm, a moral breakdown in relational dynamics between men and women due to a greater need for chastity in society. What can be done to more effectively promote chastity in our culture's present condition?

It’s important for us to discuss the context in which these infants are conceived, and this is a place where the faith community can take the lead. We all have a role to play in building a culture of life. Parents, lay leaders and the Church have a lot to say about the choices we make in relationships and life, and they should be fearless in teaching life skills.

 

I always ask this of my interviewees: What is your favorite scriptural passage, and why?

“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21)

 

I teach theology at Bishop McNamara High School in Forestville, Maryland. Could you please share a parting message for our students at McNamara, along with other high schoolers and college students, about why the next generation must continue the pro-life message, especially as they enter the proverbial “real world”?

Great social change takes place when people courageously stand together. We saw that in the Civil Rights conflicts lead by men such as Dr. Martin Luther King. We saw that in the anti-slavery struggles, as William Wilberforce in England and Harriet Beecher Stowe, with her book Uncle Tom’s Cabin, changed hearts and minds. Millennials and Generation Z are generally more pro-life than their parents, as they see abortion as the human rights struggle of our time. This is a generation that has never known life without abortion on demand, and we see that a life has value, no matter its location (inside or outside a woman’s body). You will find that more people support the pro-life perspective than you might imagine, but unless we speak up, the popular culture will perpetrate the lies of the abortion industry. Use your creativity to encourage a culture of life, give all of the energy and passion you have to this cause, and you can change the world.