Every year, the March for Life takes place on the second Thursday of May, but young pro- lifers also attend prayer-filled events and hear from inspiring speakers from Wednesday to Friday. A record-breaking number of about 1,000 youth gathered at Ottawa’s Hampton Inn for the Youth Banquet on May 9 and the Youth Conference on May 10.
David Bereit, the national director of the 40 Dmoays for Life campaign, was the keynote speaker at the Youth Banquet. Bereit replaced Jason Jones, co-executive producer of the pro-life film Bella, who was unable to attend.
“You’re not the future of the pro-life movement,” Bereit said. “You are the pro-life movement!”
As the U.S.-based, pro-abortion Planned Parenthood tried to set up abortion facilities in Bereit’s state of Texas, Bereit, with a few friends from his university, discerned that God was calling them to oppose Planned Parenthood peacefully through prayer, fasting and other forms of spiritual warfare.
“We were terrified,” Bereit said of this new initiative. “We didn’t think we could do it. We just thought it was possible.”
Not only did this prayerful protest repel Planned Parenthood from Texas, it also gave birth to the international 40 Days for Life campaign, during which volunteers pray outside of abortion clinics for the women, children and nations affected by abortion, as well as for an end to the practice.
Bereit shared his six steps to ending abortion, telling the cheering crowd of youth that “it is necessary,” “it is possible,” “it is you,” “it is hard,” “it is worth it” and “it is time.”
Speaking from personal experience, Bereit explained that youth will be persecuted for opposing abortion and defending human life from conception, but that “it’s worth it to know that children are alive because of you.” Through the 40 Days for Life campaign, thousands of babies have been saved, 83 abortion clinic workers have been converted and abortion clinics have been permanently shut down.
“All it takes is for the youth to say, ‘It’s me! I’m going to do something about it!’ ” Bereit said. He challenged the audience to turn to God in prayer and ask Him what He wanted them to do in the pro-life movement.
“Now is the time! It is the beginning of the end of abortion!” Bereit said, receiving a standing ovation from young pro-lifers.
Although Jones was not present at the banquet, his newest short film, Crescendo, was screened. The film, which is being used to raise funds for crisis pregnancy centres, features the true story of the mother of Ludwig van Beethoven, who almost aborted the musical prodigy.
The Youth Conference the next morning began with a Mass, followed by breakfast and a number of addresses. Keeping in line with this year’s focus of female “gendercide” and sex- selective abortion, the keynote speaker was Reggie Littlejohn, the founder and president of Women’s Rights Without Frontiers. Under Littlejohn’s direction, this organization works to expose and oppose China’s one-child policy, which has led to female infanticide and abortions, as well as sexual slavery.
“It is the ultimate expression of the complete devaluing of girls,” Littlejohn said of China’s policies, under which 400 million births have been prevented — a population greater than that of Canada and the United States combined. She explained that all people, whether pro-life or pro-choice, can agree that “forced abortion is not a choice,” and said that “silence in the face of egregious (human rights issues) is complicity.”
The entire hall was filled with a heavy silence as Littlejohn explained horrific cases of forced abortions in China and showed video clips that depicted the common tragedies that families in China suffer. In one case, a mother’s child was forcibly aborted and the mother was then told that it was her responsibility to bury her dead child.
“I congratulate you that you have already found your calling in life,” Littlejohn said to the young pro-lifers who were eager to make a change after hearing her message.
Following Littlejohn’s speech, the documentary It’s a Girl was played, which used facts, interviews and personal testimonies to detail the problems of female abortions, infanticide and other related issues in India and China.
(Pereira, 18, is a Grade 12 student at Brebeuf College School in Toronto, Ont.)