Bringing Our Campuses to Life!

This weekend, downtown Chicago was rocked by the presence of over 85 college students from 16 Midwestern colleges in the annual Students for Life of Illinois Conference at Loyola University. Keynote speakers shared personal struggles and years of wisdom in their presentations on how we can become effective pro-life leaders. Students were inspired by Melissa Ohden, a saline abortion survivor who has dedicated her life to showing the trauma of abortion on families. Marko Culjak, a freshman in the UIUC business school, says, “If you’re on the fence about abortion, you would be inspired by Melissa Ohden’s talk.” Ohden and the other speakers brought a powerful personal note to the emotionally charged conference as we were compelled to seriously examine why we are pro-life, and how to spread the message across our campuses. Students also gained an understanding of the people they are defending: the entire family of abortion victims, not just the mother or the child. Robby Regalbuto, a UIUC junior in electrical engineering, summarizes, “An interesting thing I took from this conference is that just as the birth of a child has a powerful loving effect on one’s extended family, so does abortion have a traumatic ripple effect across all generations of the family.” This conference helped unite the pro-life movement among Midwestern college students, as everyone went home with new friends and renewed pro-life beliefs. Students represented SLU, Northwestern, UChicago, ISU, Bradley, UIUC, and many other Midwest schools. Loyola students kindly hosted many long-distance guests (including myself and 8 other students from UIUC’s pro-life club) and the activities in the conference created bonds that will make our pro-life generation a force to be reckoned with.