"I Think You Changed My Mind"

From prestigious private colleges to competitive public universities to underprivileged community colleges, the Campus Outreach Team is changing the culture one conversation at a time. Every day, the team encounters hundreds of students, whether that means handing them a pro-life pamphlet, having a conversation with them, or just watching and praying for them as they think about the information and images of abortion victims on our signs. Here are just a few snapshots from Campus Outreach this semester:

Bobby

An angry student and her quiet friend were walking together to class.  The angry student started arguing with Kristina about abortion in the case of rape, so I walked over and pulled the quiet friend aside to ask him what he thought about abortion. He said, "Well, I think it's okay in certain situations."

I asked what an abortion is and he said, "It's when a girl is pregnant and the doctor takes the baby out."

I said, “Right. So, what's happening to the baby?”

He said, "It's killing the baby."

I asked, “In what situation is it ever okay to kill a baby?”

He said "never."  Then looked off in the distance for a minute. I could tell he was thinking pretty hard.

Finally, he looked at me and said with a smile, “I think you just changed my mind.”

Josh

Two guys told me that they were ok with abortion to a certain point. I asked them what that point was, and they said "Rape."

I pointed out to them that abortion wouldn't help a rape survivor and they agreed. We agreed that abortion always kills a human and that science proves that the unborn are human, but the students still thought abortion was the woman’s “choice.”  

Then one of the guys made up a scenario: “All of your family is in one room and you are in another room with a button. If you press the button you will die, but your family in the other room would be saved from death.” He then asked, “What would you do?”

I told him I would push the button and sacrifice my life. He said that was like a woman choosing to have an abortion.   

I responded with a similar scenario, "Let’s say a friend of yours is in the room with the button, and if he doesn't press it you will be killed, but if he pushes it he will be killed, would you force him to sacrifice his life for you?”

The student responded, “No.”

I then pointed out that that is what the woman is doing when she has an abortion, she is forcing her baby to sacrifice their life for her.

"Wow,” he said. “You're right.” Then he started helping me convince his friend that abortion is unjust.  

The students and I finally finished the conversation by shaking hands.The guy who brought up the button scenario told me that I changed his mind, and then his friend whispered, "You changed my mind too."

Kristina

She and her friend had been out talking with us for at least 15 minutes past school starting at that point. They had already admitted that abortion kills human beings and that we should protect innocent human lives, but would not admit that they had been convinced that abortion is wrong.

At one point, the student said, "Yep, we think it's ok to kill babies. It sounds like we're dangerous."

They claimed we need abortion to solve overpopulation, or to prevent women from having back-alley abortions, or that it's better than children growing up in abusive homes.

Finally, she asked, “So what if you end abortion? What then? Are you going to hold up signs of another injustice? Are you just going to fight the next big thing?”

I pointed to my sign and told her, “This is the greatest human rights injustice of all time, so it's important to end it. And when we end this...”

She cut me off and persisted, “But IF you end it?”

I answered honestly, “WHEN we end abortion, and it’s only a matter of time, we are going to party. We are going to party real hard. We're also going to sleep. A lot. Because we are out there almost every day, and we are tired. And we're going to take a vacation.  We're talking about maybe going to Hawaii. And then, yes, we will fight another injustice. Because injustice anywhere needs to be ended.”

The girl then shook our hands and saving mine for last, she looked and me, and with a shy reluctant smile she said, “Well I hope to see you out here fighting a different injustice soon.”

Most students will never admit to us that we've changed their minds. They struggle with the humility of acknowledging that they may be living an immoral lifestyle or encouraging others to do so, and with the daunting realization that they will have to question everything they’ve heard about abortion from the media, their professors, their friends, and even their family. That makes encouraging moments like this valuable.

From rejecting abortion completely, to becoming a voice for the unborn on their campus, to embracing chastity, Survivors Campus Outreach team members are causing students to radically change their lives. To learn more about Survivors Campus Outreach or support our work, email info@survivors.la.