Encouraging and equipping pro-life students at Radford University
by Maggie Egger
Abortion photos don’t just make converts; they educate and energize people who are already pro-life.
At Radford University, a young man approached me and asked, “Are you the people I’m supposed to interview?”
“I don’t know,” I replied. “We’ve had a good number of people interview us for their classes.”
“OK, great! I must be in the right place!” As he pulled out a notepad, he said, “I’m Catholic. So I’m, ya know, pro-life.”
I told him I was excited to hear that, but from the way he said it, I could tell he was not strongly committed. It seemed like he was raised in a pro-life house, but he didn’t necessarily buy all of it.
“Jacob” began to ask questions about the display, e.g., what was our purpose in being there, what kind of reactions did we get, what did we think of the protesters, etc. He appeared to believe that the preborn are human beings, but he didn’t know much about abortion in general. He knew the answer to “What is the preborn?” but he didn’t yet fully understand the answer to “What is abortion and what does it do?”
Then he asked me why we compared abortion to genocide. Before talking about personhood, dehumanization, and all of that, I simply said,
“A lot of people say that our comparing abortion to genocide is ludicrous and offensive. And you know what? They’re absolutely right, if the preborn are not human beings, in the same way that you and I are human beings. If they are not human beings, then (a) abortion doesn’t kill them, (b) abortion is no different from getting a tooth pulled, and (c) any comparison with genocide is absolutely insane. But, as you and I both know (because science tells us), that every human life begins at fertilization. So, abortion kills 1.2 million human beings every year in the U.S. alone. I don’t know any word for that, other than genocide.”
“Wait, what? How many abortions a year?”
“1.2 million.”
His eyes grew wide in disbelief. He shook his head. “Wow! Yeah, you’re right. That’s what it is … a genocide!”
We walked around the rest of the display so he could see all the different pictures, and he asked a few more questions. When we finished he said, “Thank you so much for taking the time to explain all this to me. I’ve learned a lot.”
Yes, he had learned a lot. And that knowledge left him more committed to the pro-life position. That’s why you send us. There are many more like Jacob, so please send us more places, more often. And ask your Christian friends to do the same.
Maggie Egger is a CBR Project Director in Virginia and was the Project Manager for CBR’s recent GAP visit to the Commonwealth.
Tags: abortion debate, abortion photos, GAP, Genocide Awareness Project, Maggie Egger, Radford University
This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 2nd, 2014 at 7:30 pm and is filed under Campus Debate (GAP). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.