Youth for Life NI: Bypassing the media and sharing the truth - the pro-life message
My name is Hannah. I'm 19 and I've been involved in pro-life work for about two and a half years now. I first got involved after I heard Bernadette Smyth give a pro-life talk in my school. I had always been pro-life but I didn’t know enough about the horror of abortion and, shockingly, neither did many people in my year at school. Being in Youth for Life NI has taught me so much and has given me the confidence to engage with people on the streets; to educate people on the beautiful humanity and development of the unborn child and the brutal reality of abortion.
This was my second roadshow and I can honestly say that I took so much from it - it helped me grow even more in my confidence, giving me a boost for the end of summer before starting back to university. I was surrounded by like-minded, fun people! It was amazing to see the new young people that came along for their first pro-life roadshow - as the week progressed, they became more confident at approaching people on the street, educating not only themselves but the public as well. They are the next generation of the pro-life movement and it was wonderful to watch their progress.
One experience that stuck out for me was on the last day in Derry. A young guy, no older than myself approached me and began debating very aggressively about our display, claiming that the photos we were displaying - showing the humanity of the unborn and the inhumanity of abortion - were untrue and photoshopped. The more I spoke to him, I could tell that he had experienced abortion himself and he began to get upset as we discussed the humanity of the unborn. He became silent as I told him about the bias of the media and we discussed in detail the recent exposure of planned parenthood's sale of aborted fetal body parts. He left much more understanding than as he had arrived and it stuck with me the influence that the media had on his opinion on abortion before we had discussed it. This highlights just how much we need to be out on the streets, more than ever, bypassing the media and sharing the truth- the pro-life message.