May 30, 2024
GUEST POST by Annalise Bachmann:
My name is Annalise Bachmann, and I’m a senior at Rockbridge Academy and a Students for Life Action (SFLAction) State Captain for Maryland! I joined the Captain’s Program after my first SFLAction lobby day at my state capitol in my junior year. As my senior year approached, I became fascinated with state politics, and I knew I wanted to do more activism to end my time in college.
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My spring project was to host a lobby day with my group in favor of Maryland’s Protecting Pregnant Women Against Coercive Abuse and Human Trafficking Act, created to reaffirm the status of abortion vendors as mandatory reporters of suspected trafficking or abuse. This act is the norm around the nation, but since Maryland now allows non-physicians to commit abortions, the state built a loophole to this rule. The bill also requires more warning signage in abortion facilities about coercion and trafficking, as well as more questions to be asked by abortion vendors to detect coercion. I testified for the same bill the year before, and unsurprisingly, it had been shelved by the radically pro-abortion Health and Government Operations Committee.
I returned with another student this year, and we had testimony prepared. I arrived downtown an hour early but blew a flat tire as I drove to find parking. Once I had gotten my car to the garage, I received a text from another pro-life group that the bill hearing had been moved an hour earlier without public notice. My friend and I rushed to the House Building in heels, earning blisters that reminded us why Students for Life Action always recommends comfortable walking shoes when lobbying.
Thankfully, we made it to the hearing just in time and were able to testify for the bill. It never ceases to amaze delegates when students show up with passionate and reasonable arguments. You could see their eyebrows arch when they learned we were high schoolers. At the end of the hearing, several delegates from both sides of the political aisle congratulated us. Still, more importantly, our presence encouraged other pro-life groups who have testified for the cause year after year with little success in Maryland. We hoped to show them that the Pro-Life Generation could pass this crucial legislation safely. While the bill has been shelved again, we hope to keep coming back until even abortion extremists can admit that coerced women deserve protection in our laws.
The Students for Life Action Captain’s Program has pushed me to become a bolder and more knowledgeable pro-life leader. I live in one of the most pro-abortion states in the nation. While we don’t have the opportunity to vote on heartbeat bills or protection at conception acts, there still arise innovative pieces of legislation to protect mothers and, hopefully, some of their children from the abortion industry and abusers. This program has been an essential launch pad for my political activism and for leaders around the country to provide me with the courage to not give up on my state.
READ: Students for Life Action Grassroots Recap: Louisiana, Nebraska, Missouri, and Arizona
