June 27, 2025
Students for Life Celebrates FOUR Pivotal Leaders Whose Actions are Holding Planned Parenthood Accountable for their Inhumane, Taxpayer Supported Business
The Pro-Life Generation Celebrates the 2025 National Celebrate Life Defender of Life Award Winners:
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson
Citizen Journalist David Daleiden
Planned Parenthood Whistleblower Mayra Rodriguez
Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ)
“The loss of innocent preborn babies’ lives and the abuse of taxpayer resources has been intertwined in a vicious, escalating, fiscal cycle. But the Pro-Life Generation’s four champions each made a huge difference in their separate fights to address the barbaric abortion industry run by Planned Parenthood,” said SFLA’s Kristan Hawkins. “Today, as we tell Planned Parenthood to ‘Go Fund Yourself,’ we thank those who have exposed the abortion mega-vendor for years.”
MEDIA ADVISORY: Next up — Join us near the U.S. Capitol at Union Square, 10 a.m. ET, SATURDAY, JUNE 28th for National Celebrate Life Weekend RALLY & the Nation’s Largest Diaper Drive in support of Defunding Planned Parenthood & All Abortion Vendors.
Email [email protected] to attend or with questions.
WASHINGTON D.C. (06-27-2025) – As host of the National Celebrate Life Weekend GALA, Students for Life of America (SFLA) President Kristan Hawkins called the fall of Roe “a miracle with so many saints involved, we’re going to need extra days on the calendar to honor everyone.” But on a weekend set aside to commemorate the end of the miscarriage of justice that was Roe v. Wade, Hawkins joined with fellow sponsors of the event – Abby Johnson’s And Then There Were None & Pro-Love Ministries, Vitae Foundation, Sidewalk Advocates for Life – to honor four individuals who together made such a difference that Planned Parenthood now faces public disdain and the loss of nearly half of their income – allowing more lives to be saved. “So many people devoted time and treasure to ending the tyranny of abortion in America,” said Hawkins. “But in the stories we will tell of our four champions, you’ll see how each made a difference.”
The Defenders of Life Award Winners are as follows:
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson – As the 56th Speaker of the U.S. House, pro-life champion Mike Johnson (R-LA) combined his hard work ethic, his intellect, and his negotiating skills in the current “Big, Beautiful” Bill Budget negotiations, just one more accomplishment to add to his pro-life legacy. Perhaps Speaker Johnson has been a bold advocate for children in the womb because he himself has an origin story that could have ended in abortion. In interviews, he has said: “My parents were, not high school sweethearts, but seventh grade sweethearts, and they dated from middle school on. And their junior year of high school, I was conceived. And it was almost exactly a year before Roe v. Wade [was decided on] January of ’72.” But they chose life, and so does Speaker Johnson.
Citizen Journalist David Daleiden – In 2013, Daleiden started the Center for Medical Progress, which courageously undertook undercover reporting on the inner workings of Planned Parenthood’s collection and trafficking of the broken bodies of infants aborted late-term. The public outrage of staff playing with baby bodies or joking about their big-ticket purchases with the money has forever tainted Planned Parenthood’s public-relations generated reputation. Leading up to a Congressional hearing on the outrage, then Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards apologized for the cold-hearted views seen in the videos. “In the video, one of our staff members speaks in a way that does not reflect that compassion. This is unacceptable, and I personally apologize for the staff member’s tone and statements,” she said at the time. But the videos remain a stain on the image Planned Parenthood paid to cultivate.
Planned Parenthood Whistleblower Mayra Rodriguez – Once Planned Parenthood’s “Woman of the Year,” Rodriguez is now the pro-life woman of the hour. As a former director of three Planned Parenthood vendors, she saw firsthand the way that the horror of abortion is covered up and sold. In her 2019 lawsuit against the abortion mega-vendor, she talked about their business practices and “proved that Planned Parenthood exploited her undocumented status, endangered women, paid women less than men, and hid narcotics in her desk to silence and intimidate her. After only 3 hours of deliberation, a predominantly pro-choice jury unanimously found Planned Parenthood guilty for terminating Mayra’s employment in retaliation for her whistleblowing activity.” The truth she shares about Planned Parenthood’s lies saves lives.
Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) – Anyone familiar with pro-life leaders on a national level knows that Rep. Smith has made protecting the least of these priority number one for decades on Capitol Hill. He began his career in Congress while President Reagan was still in office and follows in that great tradition as a statesman in defense of LIFE, now serving as co-chair of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus. He is someone who came to Washington D.C. to work. “According to the independent watchdog organization Govtrack, Mr. Smith ranks first among all 435 Members of the House in the number of laws authored,” his team notes, and among that legislation is No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act, Protecting Life and Integrity in Research Act, Let Pregnancy Centers Serve Act of 2025, and really that’s only the tip of the iceberg. He’s fought to protect pro-life organizations and individuals with conscience rights support and to get abortion vendors out of international aid. We’ve all heard the phrase, “faith without works is dead,” and Rep. Smith is a man of works as well as words.
The National Celebrate Life GALA will proceed Saturday’s National Celebrate life RALLY on the Capitol Lawn, which will also be the largest diaper drive in American history. Nearly 400,000 diapers will be displayed on Capitol Hill as a memorial of the number of lives lost each year at the hands of Planned Parenthood, and then, to help live out our pro-life mission, will be given to families in need.
LEARN MORE HERE: Nation’s Largest Diaper Drive Reaches 392,715 Diaper Goal; Distribution Begins Officially at the Defund Planned Parenthood & Big Abortion Rally
FOR MORE on the National Celebrate Life Weekend, click here.
For interviews, contact [email protected]
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The Pro-Life Generation (PLG) is an umbrella organization encompassing the most-cutting edge engagement opportunities for a Vote Pro-Life First Community. PLG includes Students for Life Action (SFLAction), a 501c4, along with its 501c3 sister organization, Students for Life of America (SFLA), that together make up the nation’s largest, pro-life youth organization, managing a grassroots political and policy operation engaging Americans of all ages but with a special emphasis on the largest segment of voters — the Youth Vote. Headquartered in Fredericksburg, VA, PLG/SFLA/SFLAction serves more than 1,500 groups on middle, high school, college, medical, and law school campuses in all 50 states. Our team has more conversations with this generation targeted by the abortion lobby than any other pro-life operation in the world, each week reaching more than 4 million across social media platforms and averaging 1.3 million video views. In addition to SFLA/SFLAction, PLG leads multiple initiatives to lead and serve the future of the pro-life movement including the Campaign for Abortion Free Cities, Standing With You, and the Demetree Institute for Pro-Life Advancement . Over more than 17 years, PLG CEO Kristan Hawkins has grown the operation into a more than $20M organization, now preparing for an abortion-free America.