When 16-year old Thrin Short joined Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust for a peaceful campus outreach at the University of California-Santa Barbara earlier this month, she didn’t expect to be assaulted—by a professor—after the professor incited two students to steal one of the group’s signs showing a photo of an abortion victim. But that’s exactly what happened (language warning):
It didn’t take long before this story became national news. Last week, Thrin and her older sister Joan appeared on Fox News to talk about the incident, and Thrin knocked it out of the park with this quote:I’m sorry if these signs offended her in any way but, after all, she does…show porn to her students so she’s not really the one to talk about offending images …. The pictures, yes, show violence after it happened, but what is so much worse than the pictures is the violence itself. And if we have to show what is happening out there to stop it then we have to go there and show it.
Thrin is certainly courageous—and she’s not alone! This is the fourth time in the last month that pro-life teenagers have made national news for courageously standing up for their pro-life beliefs. A few weeks ago, 15-year old Bryce Asberg and the Wilson Students for Life Club in Tacoma, Washington made national news when they went public with the revelation that their club was being denied the same basic rights and privileges as other extracurricular clubs. And earlier this month, 17-year old Samantha Bailey-Loomis, president of the Branford Students for Life in Branford, Connecticut, went public about similarly unfair treatment from their school administration: Just yesterday, Students for Life of America announced that the Branford High School administration has finally agreed that Branford Students for Life will be granted the same rights as other students clubs! This is a victory not just for the members of the club, but for everyone who supports the rights of students to express their First Amendment rights in public schools. And, just this week, high school student and 40 Days for Life Tucson campaign director Kaitlynn Williams wrote on the SFLA website about a baby who was saved from abortion during the 40 Days for Life vigil. Kaitlynn ends by saying this:
When you take a stand for life, you never know who you’ll meet or what lives you’ll touch. You simply must take that leap of courage and be there in the middle of all the controversy and stand up for what you know to be true and for what you know to matter. You won’t be able to save every life that is in danger of abortion, and you won’t be able to stop every woman from making a choice she’ll regret for the rest of her life. You won’t be able to convince every person who passes you by as you hold a peaceful pro-life demonstration outside a Planned Parenthood fundraiser. Yet, that one life you do save, that woman you do stop, and that one stranger you do persuade makes all the difference – both now and in the unforeseen future. All we have to do is be there.
Kaitlynn is absolutely right, and pro-lifers of all ages should listen to her words and take them to heart.
“Do Not Say, ‘I Am Too Young'”
At the beginning of the Book of Jeremiah, we read:
The word of the LORD came to me: Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you. “Ah, Lord GOD!†I said, “I do not know how to speak. I am too young!†But the LORD answered me, Do not say, “I am too young.†To whomever I send you, you shall go; whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you—oracle of the LORD. Then the LORD extended his hand and touched my mouth, saying to me, See, I place my words in your mouth! (Jer. 1:4-9)
Thrin, Samantha, Bryce, and Kaitlynn have all refused to say, “I am too young.” Sure, they may still be too young to vote, but what does that matter? That hasn’t stopped them from boldly and courageously taking a public stand on behalf of their unborn brothers and sisters. Their generation is not “the future of the pro-life movement.” Their generation is an integral part of the pro-life movement right now.
