December 18, 2023
The Students for Life Action (SFLAction) blog stayed busy all year in 2023, tracking legislation, ballots, votes, scorecards, news, and commentary in the world of the Pro-Life Generation. As 2023 comes to a close, we wanted to recap the best performing blogs from SFLAction:
Kristan Hawkins’ Op-Ed: ‘Donald Trump’s first abortion mistake’
Early in 2023, former President Trump said that the pro-life movement had become a political liability. In response, SFLAction President Kristan Hawkins published an op-ed in Fox News to challenge this wrongheaded assessment and offer a different outlook on the human rights issue of our time. She wrote:
“Not only did Trump throw the baby out with the proverbial bathwater, but he also tossed out their defenders as well, those quiet, hardworking volunteers who make up the ground game of GOP politics – the door knockers, the phone bank callers and texters, and the donors who put principle first and ask their leaders to do the same.
“Taking his talkers straight from hostile abortion supporters, Trump’s first mistake was muddying the discussion with the term “exceptions” that allows the abortion lobby to justify more than 63 million abortion deaths since 1973, while making multi-millions in profit each year.”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL BLOG.
In the lead-up to the November 2023 elections, SFLAction recognized that a great deal of its success moving into the election cycle will depend heavily on their student leaders and ground game.
“Students for Life Action President Kristan Hawkins reported that plans are underway to reach out to young voters with both opportunities for direct political activity as well as information on how candidates stand on the human rights issue of our day – abortion.
Voting data indicates an increase in youth vote activity. The Tufts University’s Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement (CIRCLE) reported than in 2022, national youth turnout was 23%, lower than the historic high of 28 % 2018, but very much higher than the 13% participation rate in 2014. In fact, the youth vote has been trending up since then. CIRCLE reports: “All but one state for which we have data (Louisiana) had higher youth turnout in 2022 than in 2014, suggesting a broad trend of increased youth voting over the past decade.”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL BLOG.
After Trump began to criticize Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ strong defense of preborn life, specifically through the Heartbeat Abortion Prevention Act, SFLAction issued a challenge to all the Republican candidates for President to sign a Heartbeat Protection Pledge.
“Students for Life Action (SFLAction) President Kristan Hawkins announced that the nation’s largest pro-life youth organization engaged in all 50 states and on more than 1,400 campuses is calling on every GOP Presidential Candidate to sign a PROTECTING HEARTBEATS PLEDGE.
“More than 9 in 10 abortions take place by three months of pregnancy (12) weeks, leading the Pro-Life Generation to call for earlier protections for innocent preborn children,” said Hawkins.
“If we have learned one thing from President Biden, it’s that abortion IS federal. As I’ve said before, the Biden administrations taxpayer-funded abortion extremism has infected all facets of American government, including in healthcare, education, foreign aid, military spending, and even the postal service. Biden’s supporters won’t stop forcing others to embrace death of the preborn through all nine months of pregnancy – they even refuse to identify abortions that they think go too far. But we won’t let this radicalism win. We are just beginning the fight to rebuild a culture of life. The next President needs to be part of that effort.”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL BLOG.
In September, SFLAction sent a letter to members of the U.S. House, calling for strong protections for women to stay in place, which are part of the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration Appropriations bill. In the letter, SFLAction noted:
“Abortion by mail, the No Test, Online Distribution of Chemical Abortion Pills, is a sex offenders dream scenario. The Biden Administration has exposed women to injury, infertility, death, and abusers with this reckless distribution, along with permitting potential environmental harms from medical waste in our waterways. Even if you support abortion, that’s not an argument in favor of government-sanctioned corporate dumping of chemically tainted placenta tissue, blood, and human remains.
“To prevent these known harms, Students for Life Action is committed to ensuring these protections are in place and will score against final passage of H.R. 4368 if the mifepristone provision is removed. Additionally, SFLAction reserves the right to score procedural and related amendment votes.”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL BLOG.
#DisgracedMace: Meet One of Biden’s Favorite Republicans
In 2023, SFLAction launched our “Biden’s Favorite Republicans” campaign, highlighting those in the GOP who are decidedly weak on abortion, much to the delight of abortion extremists in the Biden Administration. One repeat visitor on this list and our blog is South Carolina Congresswoman Nancy Mace, who has been consistently exposed for the abortion supporter that she is:
“Since her election in 2021, Rep. Mace has earned herself a C on SFLAction’s Pro-Life Generation Report Card and is likely on track to do even worse in the next session. SFLAction President Kristan Hawkins tweeted, “Nancy Mace is a disgrace to Republican women. Our military exists to protect American lives – we shouldn’t be giving them taxpayer-funding for abortions to take them.”
“Rep. Mace has been quick to criticize many Republican policies, and it is evident that she’s the GOP golden child for the likes of Planned Parenthood and President Biden. It’s not an award or title we recommend, but with an inability to stand for the most innocent – the preborn who are defenseless in the womb – it’s no doubt that President Biden loves the work of Rep. Mace in Washington.”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL BLOG.