By Kristina Hernandez, Director of Communications, Students for Life of America
Coming off of the enthusiasm of the March for Life, Students for Life of America was prepared and excited for the Walk for Life, anticipating to not only walk with thousands of young pro-lifers but encounter the same dozen or so vicious pro-abortion protestors that stopped the March for Life in its tracks in Washington, DC.
Also, the day before, this same pro-abortion group completely shut down a pro-life walk in Oakland, CA. The marchers didn’t even make it to the streets before the pro-abortion group shut them down.
They were prepared to try the same strategy at the Walk for Life but our pro-life students, working with the police, were going to make sure that didn’t happen.
After passing out over 5,000 “I am the pro-life generation” signs in English and Spanish, pro-life students gathered to get their instructions.
About one hundred pro-life students were prepped as SFLA Special Forces to make sure that these pro-abortion protestors did not interrupt the Walk for Life. Kristan Hawkins, SFLA’s President, gave the students and staff clear instructions to be peaceful activists, listen to the police and stand arm-in-arm on the sidewalk in front of the protestors, effectively blocking their entrance to the street in front of the protestors.
It was the quite the sight as the students walked down the street with the giant “I am the Pro-Life Generation” banner and peacefully set up in front of the pro-abortion protestors, effectively blocking all of their hateful signs from the pro-life marchers view. It was truly a testament to the youth and their generation knowing that abortion is a moral wrong.
The pro-abortion protestors consisted of Communists, old and women, very angry people of both genders, and signs like “Abort all babies, kill all kids, save the planet.” They were chanting “abortion on demand and without apology” and yelling down our students for daring to stand for the voiceless.
As the Walk for Life approached, the pro-abortion protestors abandoned their posts inside the police-made barricades and moved to run into the street to shut down the walk but our students stood bravely side-by-side blocking them from entering the streets, and those couple of protestors that managed to get through the line were tackled by police who were waiting for them.
Our pro-life students weren’t about to let 50 pro-abortion protestors stop 60,000 pro-lifers.
Click here to view the video on YouTube.
Many Walk for Life participants had no idea about the battle waged by the SFLA Special Forces pro-life unit that was deployed well ahead of the start of the Walk. In fact, many news outlets reported that the Walk was a peaceful event because so many participants were able to peaceably walk for life because the pro-abortion protestors were shut down by the police and our students.
That’s the power of this pro-life generation.
After the event, many of our pro-life students came up to our team members saying they felt emboldened by their stand for life and attended our SFLA West Coast Conference the next day. In fact, we had to order more food because so many people registered at the last minute!
The conference was a huge success, as was the Walk for Life, and we can’t wait to start planning for the SFLA 2016 West Coast Conference!
