Pro-life group SFLA redoubles efforts to support and empower women during unexpected pregnancy

Pro-life advocacy group Students For Life of America (SFLA), in conjunction with the Heritage Foundation, recently revealed elements of a strategic plan to prepare to help pregnant women in the event of a potentially “post-Roe America” by encouraging and empowering those dealing with unexpected pregnancies to consider and choose options other than abortion.

Quick Facts

• The press conference, held on Valentine’s Day and helmed by Students For Life of America (SFLA), a pro-life advocacy group, featured such guest speakers as pro-life author Patrina Mosely, Jenae Stracke of Heritage Action for America, and Penny Nance of Concerned Women for America
• Elements of SFLA’s strategic plan include easier access to pregnancy centers, working with universities to change campus policies that are inadequate for the needs of pregnant and parenting women, and lobbying Congress to create an online resource center to help women facing unplanned pregnancies.
• Ruth Asmarzadeh, a guest speaker at the SFLA event, revealed in a testimony that women can still choose life and pursue their careers at the same time without one hindering the other.

The United States Supreme Court is currently deliberating Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, a case which could significantly alter abortion law in the U.S. by reversing the viability threshold from 24 weeks to 15 weeks or fully overturning Roe v Wade, the 1973 ruling that made abortion legal.

SFLA President Kristan Hawkins announced at the event, 

“Every day, the pro-life community proves that we are here for women and their children, no matter how many times we are accused of not caring. We want women to know that they and their children are loved. A predatory abortion industry making millions through ending young lives tells women that they are alone in the world and incapable of succeeding at home and work. As we get closer to a Post-Roe America, we’re taking our message straight to women across the country so that they know we are standing with them so that they never have to stand alone.”

The press conference coincided with the release of an open letter on SFLA’s “Standing With You” website that which highlights that more than 70 percent of Americans support legal restrictions on abortion but that 72 percent of Americans “cannot name their local pregnancy center.” SFLA is encouraging pro-life individuals to sign the letter and take renewed action to help encourage and support women throughout their pregnancy and in their parenting.

Speakers at the event also included Jenae Stracke of Heritage Action for America, pro-life author Patrina Mosely, and Penny Nance of Concerned Women for America.

Nance called upon Congress to “create a one-stop-state-by-state online resource center complete with hotline and chat (features) that details all the many public…and private resources that are available” for women experiencing unplanned pregnancies. In addition, Hawkins detailed a strategy to work with 41 universities across the country to change their on-campus policies so that they “no longer discriminate against pregnant and parenting women.” 

Speaker Ruth Asmarzadeh praised the “Standing With You” SFLA initiative for providing over $6,000 in financial support after she dropped out of college in order to raise her child. “I thought abortion was my only option because I did not think there were any others and didn’t know that choosing life for my child as well as choosing my own dreams could be an option,” Asmarzadeh said. She also credited God for surrounding her with “friends, family, and my church who loved me and were excited for my new chapter of life.”

Those who claim that women have a “constitutional right” to abortion argue that abortion liberates women from the “burden” of an unwanted child, but this is a deceptive lie. Asmarzadeh’s testimony shows that women can choose to both grow their careers and raise a family. Most women to be able to pursue a job but very few of them want to be workaholics. According to a study, 40 percent of women with children said that having a part-time career was “very important” to them, and women were also more likely to want to “scale back” on their careers at some point. 

If feminists and politicians care about women, they will support expanding access to options for pregnant mothers other than killing their child. Yet many on the left will decry this idea as a war on women and abortion rights, not because they care about women, because they care about abortion. 

The SFLA’s program, as with any effort to help pregnant women and to protect life, is a valuable one. We know from Scripture that having children is a gift from God and not a “hindrance” or a “burden” to accomplishing one’s hopes and dreams, as Psalm 127:3 clearly states, “Children are a gift from the LORD; they are a reward from Him.” Hopefully, as women are encouraged to choose life and keep their babies, they will realize how precious that gift truly is.