Students for Life to sponsor pro-life awareness events throughout the semester

Students for Life has planned multiple ways to raise awareness about being pro-life in place of their cancelled Shadow Woman Display.

The pro-life organization was to showcase the Shadow Woman Display in September as a way empower and provide education about pregnant women. Ashlen Sandoz, president of Nicholls Students for Life, said that while supplies couldn’t be gathered in time for the display this semester, the organization plans to have it in the future.

“We live in such an anti-feminist society where it tells you that you can’t be pregnant and go to college,” Sandoz said. “Because the drop out rate for pregnant women is so high, the display was to encourage that group of women to pursue higher education.”

The organization will put on a Cemetery of the Innocents from October 18-20. Their mission is to draw attention to the fact that over 3000 abortions happen in America each day by decorating the quad with 3000 flags. The organization will continue to raise awareness about abortion in our society by collaborating with church groups and other organizations to make signs and march down Canal Boulevard on October 30. Sandoz said the Life Chain event is to raise awareness of abortions in the area.

“A lot of people don’t realize that abortion actually happens here in Thibodaux,” Sandoz said. “About 100 women from the Thiboduax/Lafourche area get abortions each year.”

With about 20 active members, Students for Life educates college students on the truths of abortion, provides resources to student-parents and lets women know it’s possible to receive an education while raising a child. Chelsea Kirk, vice president of Students for Life, said the organization assists pregnant women in finding grants and scholarships, registering for free or low-cost childcare and locating crisis pregnancy centers which can provide mothers with counseling and many other resources.

“26% of college students are student parents,” Kirk said. “There aren’t a whole lot of resources out there for them, so we try to meet that need.”

Sandoz said the organization can also help mothers register with WIC and LAMoms, which are programs designed to help parents with health care expenses and provide them with healthy food choices while they’re pregnant

The organization holds meetings twice a month in order for board members and guest speakers to give informational Pro-life presentations. At these meetings, the club feels discusses and promotes Title Nine Rights because of the discrimination and injustices inflicted upon pregnant women. A section of the Title Nine Rights, which are students’ national rights according to the government, states that pregnant women are subject to all the same funding programs as other students.

“Especially in college, we’re all equal and have equal rights,” Sandoz said. “There’s young and old people, people with different disabilities, ethnicities, and sexual orientations. The only thing we have in common is that we are all human and fighting for a higher education. This one group of human beings should not be excluded from our definition of equality.”