I’d recently received this email from a reader, who gave me permission to share it with you (names, particulars changed, of course):

“My daughter is a college student and currently she has an assignment to do a report on a social issue. She chose abortion as the subject and is trying to take this opportunity to make the argument on why not to have an abortion and that life starts at conception. She and I have been working on the project and one of the things that she would like to do is show a video. Do you have any suggestions? Also, where did you get those college student pro-life T-shirts you talked about?”

I wrote back,

“Wow. A video. The first one that comes to mind is The Silent Scream, but that will cause a huge ruckus. [I did not know till just now that as of 1985, all then-sitting Congressmen and women had received their own copy of that film.] How much time does she have to show a video? Unless the audience is prolife, or they’ve been told what is in it and been given the option to not watch or to leave the room, this should not be shown. It is an ultrasound of an unborn baby, in realtime, as it happens, being aborted by suction, narrated by Dr. Bernard Nathanson, now a devout Catholic and prolife but he used to be the founder of NARAL.

“Your daughter might also contact ACL, and see if they have any suggestions (and join up!). They're a great group.

“The T-shirts for teens and YAs are from the www.rockforlife.org site and at the American Life League site, I think. My son owns the red hoodie that says, “I survived…Over 1/3 of our generation has been wiped out / pray to end abortion.” They have some new ones, too, like 'Former Embryo.
Love, Annie”

Here was the upshot:

“I wanted to give you an update on my daughter’s presentation. I used your suggestion and quickly ordered some pamphlets, t-shirts and the movie “Hard Truth” from American League. Besides receiving a 98% on the presentation, she made a huge impact on her classmates. Her teacher was so impressed with her conviction of stopping abortion that he asked for information on where to purchase additional material and a copy of the movie. Thanks again for the information and suggestions.”

This reminded me that, in April 2003, a college freshman from our Youth Group chose to do her Communications Class speech on persuading classmates to be pro-life.

Mind you, this was a local Roman Catholic college, and she had to choose to do a "Persuasive Speech" to the entire class, as a freshman.

Think about this: you want to fit in, it’s a new place, you want to make friends, right? Secondly, it’s a Catholic college, but our brave young friend had already found out that this isn’t so clearcut, when her own teacher argued that she should NOT mention that there is a soul in each human life from the moment of conception.

My young friend had asked if she could use my story as one of her proof points (of course, I said yes). She also wanted to borrow some of the graphic signs from some people I know at the sidewalks. I didn’t know if she should have, but she felt it was important to show the medical truth. I told her it could upset some people, especially if any girls in her class had had abortions already.

She decided to use three graphic abortion signs to help emphasize her persuasion speech—“Baby Malachi” being one—which she brought to campus wrapped in brown paper. Her impassioned 5-minute talk was—surprisingly—very well received, and generated many more questions from fellow students than most other speeches in the entire class. Her classmates were shocked to learn how the birth control pill is in fact an abortifacient and causes abortions in some women when they do become pregnant.

Kudos to our respect-life collegians and especially in my friend’s case, for standing up to the teacher!

P.S: My young friend got an A on her speech. Maybe she'll start an "American Collegians For Life" chapter or "Feminists for Life College Program" at her university, or seek one of the pro-life internships that ACL and FFL offer on their sites!