Students for Life of America

Students for Life of America is a 501(c)(3) pro-life educational foundation that works with college students to end abortion. They sent out a field team to organize new campus pro-life groups on American college campuses in 2007. They have held an annual conference since 1988, claim contact with 10,000 campus activists and leaders across the country, and also claim to have doubled the "campus pro-life movement" since August 2006.

History

In 1988 students at Georgetown University in Washington, DC formed “American Collegians for Life,” [2] which became the predecessor of what is today known as “Students for Life of America.” Elizabeth Schmitz, Catherine Deeds, Michael Pauley, and Susan Meuller were among the founders of American Collegians for Life, who set up their organization as “a national coalition of college and university-based pro-life action groups.” Until 2006, the base of operations for American Collegians for Life (ACL) remained in Washington, D.C. with a new set of student officers being elected every year at the annual conference– the conference being held on the eve of the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision.From 1988-2006, ACL’s main activity was the annual conference. In 2006, a new executive director was elected, and the organization was renamed Students for Life of America. The organization had previously gone through a growth spurt in the mid-1990s but had declined shortly thereafter.Students for Life of America (SFLA) changed their focus from conferences to a more active role on college campuses. Though the organization still continues to hold the annual conference, its activities have greatly broadened to do more direct campus organizing work and direct action.

Organization

In addition to student officers and staff, SFLA is also advised by a non-student board, some being former SFLA student officers.

SFLA has connects college students who are pro-life to each other using the annual conference and a national directory of college pro-life organizations on their website.

Historically there has been the chronic problem in the college pro-life movement of transient and unstable campus groupsFact|date=January 2008. Students for Life of America aims to provide stability and support to this particular sector of pro-life activity.

SFLA helps start groups and gives them specific pro-life assistance, training, and activism ideas. SFLA networks with existing groups, sending them activism packs and providing guides such as “How to Make a Cemetery of the Innocents” and “How to Start a Pro-Life Publication.” They also keep in touch with these groups during the year and have a national student conference every year the weekend prior to the National March for Life in Washington, DC. This year 485 students attended the conference, which hosted such speakers as Bobby Schindler, breast cancer expert Dr. Angela Lanfranchi, and Steven W. Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute.

SFLA encourages groups to volunteer with local Pregnancy Support Service Centers, engage the campus pro-choice movement in discussion and debate, and reach out to their fellow students with a pro-life message.

tate Federations

There are thirteen states that are involved with Students For Life of America. These organizations include Alabama Students For Life, Arizona Students For Life, California Students For Life, Colorado Students for Life, Georgia Students for Life, Students for Life of Kentucky, Louisiana Students for Life, Ohio Students for Life, Oregon Students for Life, Students for Life of Illinois, Students for Life of Michigan, Texas Students for Life, and Young Pro-Life Virginia

References

[http://www.christiannewswire.com/news/23633457.html] [http://www.studentsforlife.org/index.php/about/history/]

External links

* [http://www.studentsforlife.org Official website]
* [http://www.texasstudentsforlife.org]