by Maggie Egger

Michelle, co-president of SFL at OU, speaks with a fellow student during GAP.

During GAP at Oakland University (OU) in March, a young man approached our display, then quickly became very emotional.  He stepped back from the crowd and started yelling that women should have the choice to abort, because they could be in really terrible situations, and we can’t judge their particular circumstances.

Then it became personal.  He said when his mom was in college, with a promising career ahead of her, she became pregnant by a man who was not much more than a casual hook-up.  She dropped out of school and sacrificed her career to care for him, the unplanned pregnancy.  He said she was miserable because of it.  She married his father, but they went on to have an abusive and dysfunctional marriage and family.  By this point, the young man was crying and his voice started to shake.  He said that he wished that his mom had aborted him, because then maybe she would have had a chance at a better, happier life.

Then Michelle Anderson, co-president of OU Students for Life, stepped forward.  She said, “I’m sorry that you had to go through that as a kid, and that your mom had to go through that.  But I’m so glad she didn’t abort you.  I am so glad that you’re here today.  We value your life, no matter how it came to be.  You are valuable and you are loved.”  They continued talking quietly for a little while.  He calmed down significantly, and before he left I heard Michelle say, “Can I give you a hug?”  He accepted.

I observed several interesting things in this encounter.  First, Michelle’s demeanor was so calm and loving, it completely diffused a very emotionally charged situation.  Second, she didn’t try to debate abortion.  That’s not what this young man needed to hear at that moment.  Third, the reaction of the pro-abortion protesters was perhaps the most depressing and disturbing thing that I’ve seen on campus in a while.

The young man started off with the slogan of “personal choice” and of course the pro-abortion protesters cheered this.  However, when he said he wished his mother had aborted him, most of them took their reasoning to its logical conclusion and continued to agree with him.  In essence they were saying to him, “We wouldn’t care if you were dead.”  That’s the mindset that we encounter in people who have, for decades, reduced the preborn to mere clumps of cells, instead of whole, distinct, living, valuable, human persons.  And while that mindset is depressing, when it is juxtaposed with the pro-life view, the result can be encouraging.  After all, if everyone always valued all life from fertilization to natural death, it would be no big deal for Michelle to tell that young man that she values his life, not only in that moment, but from the very first moment of his existence.

Maggie Egger is a CBR Project Director in Virginia and a regular FAB(ulous) contributor.

Tags: abortion, campus debate, CBR, Center for Bio-Ethical Reform, GAP, Genocide Awareness Project, Oakland University

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