Delia DeAscanis and Jessica Ferraro of the Right to Life visited Padua on January 8 to display their pro-life views. Padua students were asked to envision how babies are “just a bunch of cells” in the first trimester. These babies’ lives are much more important than that. They described how there are four topics related to abortion, including science, the Church, against pro-life life views, and for pro-life views.

There were multiple compelling video clips that were shown to Padua students, which specifically targeted the science aspect of abortion. One significant segment was from the movie Juno. The movie made “powerful points” abortion and how these once called “bunch of cells” are deserving of life. A mother conflicted with an unexpected pregnancy originally seeks an abortion, but she first crosses paths with a pro-life advocate. This advocate said important facts that the mother probably did not know of her unborn baby. One fact particularly struck the mother, and that was that her baby already has fingernails. This changed her heart as she found that her baby was a person, not just cells. DeAscanis backed up this notion with “From the moment of conception, you were you.”

The religious views on abortion are also very intriguing. On story from The Bible describes how John the Baptist leaped in the womb of Elizabeth for the coming of Jesus. This helps others realize that people are people, whether they are born yet or not. Pope John Paul II states in The Gospel of Life that all people “are willed by God,” meaning that everyone deserves a chance to experience life on Earth.

There were some negative topics discussed, like how people may be against pro-life views. The speakers continued with how Planned Parenthood is not truly what it seems to be. In truth, this organization used to be the Birth Control League. Creators of the organization saw abortion as a way to “weed out the unfit.” This still today confuses others who thought this was a place to seek advice in a time of utter need. DeAscanis and Ferraro declared this a “Nazi Movement,” and an unsafe way to deal with unexpected pregnancies. Delaware is also an abortion destination because of the more lax laws it has.

Positive topics were not forgotten as students learned about Abby Johnson’s journey with Planned Parenthood.  Johnson is a former employee of the organization. She described that her job entailed increasing the number of abortions in her clinic. She had dealt with this, but she had a life-changing experience one day in the clinic. Johnson was watching an MRI screen as the doctor was trying to perform an abortion when she saw the baby start to move its arms and legs. She recognized the true human life that the baby had. Even more heartbreaking to see was when the doctor tried to get the baby, the baby was already intelligent enough to move away from the doctor’s mechanism. The last thing that Johnson saw was the bright white spine of the baby. Johnson left the clinic and is now a pro-life advocate, as a result of her traumatizing experience she had about how cruel abortion is.

One pro-life story included one from a girl named Ashley. She refused to get an abortion as she stated, “Life is life.” She also included that her sister told her, “Fill your heart with beautiful thoughts because the baby is so close to your heart,” both literally and figuratively. Ashley decided to get an open adoption, instead or an abortion, to save her baby’s life. Other stories include those of Eduardo Verastegui, who created the film Bella to describe his pro-life views.

Padua’s speakers concluded the discussion with “God’s mercy is forever.” They encourage all to learn more about how they can be pro-life advocates themselves for such a great cause.