A pro-life student elected to student government at her Christian university said she’s begun receiving death threats and harassing messages for her pro-life advocacy.
Lydia Taylor wrote a guest post for Students for Life, explaining what she’s been experiencing on campus. Taylor attends Campbell University in North Carolina and is a Wilberforce Fellow for Students for Life of America (SFLA). Taylor said she didn’t expect such a negative reaction to her pro-life work, considering Campbell is a Christian school, but was surprised to discover exactly that.
Campbell was not one of the schools SFLA found to have connections to Planned Parenthood in its Christian Schools Project, but the attitude on campus has been pro-abortion, regardless.
“Just a few weeks into the fall semester, I ran for freshman Vice President for the Student Government Association and won,” Taylor wrote. “Through this, I quickly became known as not just the vice president, but primarily, the ‘pro-life girl.’ While I love having this title, I immediately realized the road ahead would not be as easy as I expected. Every time I would table for SFLA on campus, people would film me, follow me, and harass me. Being ‘the pro-life girl’ sometimes felt like a curse.”
Still, Taylor and other pro-life students refused to give up. They began working to establish resources on campus for pregnant students, but even that went badly. “My resolution was vetoed, and I had to meet with higher-up officials because I was apparently ‘pushing my pro-life beliefs’ on others. I was told that I ‘can’t pretend Christianity is pro-life,'” she said. “I felt defeated, and the messages I received from students on campus weren’t inspiring.”
Eventually, Taylor had her resolution passed. But the harassment only continued.
“On our college’s anonymous social media app Yik Yak, people would post my location anytime I went somewhere,” she said. “People would even slide death threats under my door. Anytime I tabled, I had to bring at least one other person with me for security. My expectations for my Christian college experience had been utterly demolished.”
Taylor is now the president of Campbell Students for Life and continues to stand firm for life, despite the opposition from some on campus. And though she continues to receive harassment, she also has been changing hearts and minds — helping 50 students change their minds from supporting abortion to supporting life. And she said all of the harassment is worth it.
“I’ve already faced even more hatred this semester and will likely face even more in the future,” she said. “But I would like to encourage you to keep fighting for the preborn no matter what you face because despite everything I was up against, at least one child’s life was saved because of it.”
