Arbiters of Change: The new pro-life generation – Great Falls Tribune – Great Falls Tribune

Lauren Rhoda, president of the Saints for Life club at Carroll College, outlines her thoughts on the pro-life movement. "I think a cultural focus shift towards loving life and celebrating it will help a lot of other things fall into place," she said. TRIBUNE VIDEO/JULIA MOSS

Lauren Rhoda doesnt back down from her beliefs.

She is a modern crusader for the pro-life movement and lives a life devoted to maintaining the ideals of the cause.

But Rhoda is not an abortion-focused protester picketing outside clinics. She is not angry. Rhoda does not admonish or judge women who get abortions. In fact, she loves them unequivocally.

Lauren Rhoda is not your fathers pro-life advocate.

Lauren Rhoda believes that pro-life is about the whole life. Its about the whole person and making sure that everyone knows they are cared for and loved. (Photo: TRIBUNE PHOTO/JULIA MOSS)

The entirety of the 22-year-old Carroll College students belief system is rooted in science, from her activism for life to her Catholic faith. The Colorado-native brings an unwavering smile and brightness to her efforts.

She is a human sunflower sowing Helena in positive energy and love.

Rhoda is a chemistry major and the president of the Saints for Life club. She leads the group in activities that promote its mission statement: to protect and advocate for life from conception to natural death.

This entails spending hours offering support and prayer outside the local Planned Parenthood, but also includes volunteering with the elderly at the nursing center, hosting human-trafficking awareness and prayer vigils and advocating for the environment.

Its not just about abortion, Rhoda said. How can we advocate for a pro-life ethic if we are not loving those and caring for those that are already alive and already with us and suffering among us?

Through their association with the national Students for Life of America group, Rhoda and her fellow club members hosted an informational immigration display earlier in the semester to give Carroll students the opportunity to read through and understand President Donald Trumps immigration policies and what they mean.

The Saints for Life provided students tools to write letters to their state representatives to speak out against the immigration plan if they chose to do so. More than 150 letters were written in three hours.

Saints for Life member Marko Prizmic said some students were apprehensive about the motives of the display after realizing who was hosting it.

When the group attended the Womens March on Jan. 21, Prizmic said the group was largely met with support. However, a limited few still brandished their middle fingers as they passed by.

The group attributes it to a misunderstanding of its cause.

Pro-life is often associated with staunch religion and the more conservative side of the political spectrum, but Rhoda said the true essence of the movement doesnt assign itself to a specific party or faith, and the rest of the Saints for Life agree.

Saints for Life members, left to right, Cordell Andersen, Mary Leslie, Lauren Rhoda and Marko Prizmic meet to discuss club positions at Carroll College on March 23. Saints for Life focuses on abortion, but tackles a host of other pro-life topics, including environmental issues and immigration. Were consistent all the way through across issues Prizmic said. We carry over the idea of dignity for everyone. Theres a focus on abortion because it affects so many. (Photo: TRIBUNE PHOTO/JULIA MOSS)

Were consistent all the way through across issues, Prizmic said. We carry over the idea of dignity for everyone. Theres a focus on abortion because it affects so many.

That can make the voting booth a difficult place.

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We dont take a purely conservative stance, and we dont take a liberal stance either, Rhoda said. We live in a country where the political climate is very hot right now, unfortunately. I believe that our country was founded on the principles laid out in the Declaration of Independence life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Principle among these is life, so I do very much vote with that in mind.

Rhodas love for life in all of its stages is genuine, and she beams as she talks about her Saturdays spent in the local nursing home, the Rocky Mountain Care Center. Every weekend, she visits the older women to hang out, talk to them, be there for them and paint their nails.

Its just one of the most wonderful things in the world, Rhoda said. One time I was painting this elderly womans nails, her name is Agnes, and she leaned in and gave me a kiss on the forehead. It was so sweet, and I mean thats why we do what we do. Pro-life is about the whole life, and its about the whole person and making sure everyone is cared for and loved and knows that.

Though Rhodas focus isnt solely concentrated on abortion, that facet of the movement is still what brought her into the fold. She remembers having an epiphany in high school that changed her life.

I was taking this biology class of all things, AP biology, and it was in public school, Rhoda said. We were studying embryology and I realized that, biologically speaking, life begins at conception when that sperm meets that egg so I realized there is this inconsistency in the way I was thinking. I couldnt deny these embryos life because they technically were certainly alive in the biological sense.

Lauren Rhoda completes a lab assignment as part of her major in chemistry at Carroll College on March 23. (Photo: TRIBUNE PHOTO/JULIA MOSS)

Her new-found belief system didnt jump the gap from pro-choice to pro-life, instead Rhoda said she lived her life with a barrier between her and the issue of abortion. She was never for it, but figured it wasnt her business, and so she didnt think about it.

Rhoda said she has always been passionate about advocating for the marginalized, and her personal scientific breakthrough brought the most basic form of human life into her main area of focus. She said this is when she committed herself to being pro-life and began to learn more and more about what that would mean for her.

Like most things in her life, Rhoda said it meant continuing her pro-science ethic.

Biologically speaking, life begins at conception, she continued; there is not a more solid point to define the start of life.

Rhoda poses several questions about the issue.

What constitutes a living, human? Is it the environment in the womb versus out? Is it at 40 weeks? What about babies who gestate past their due date? Is it when they have brain waves? That doesnt happen at the exact same time for all babies. Is a baby defined as less of a person because it is developing slower?

It makes it too arbitrary, Rhoda said. The most definite line we can use is just the moment of conception.

Rhoda speaks in absolutes. Life begins at conception. Abortion is the killing of an unborn child. There are no gray areas.

But love and compassion should prevail. There are no gray areas there either.

She assesses women who opt to abort not as bad people, but as people in difficult situations who deserve comfort and support. Rhoda wants to meet scared, unsure pregnant women where theyre at and offer them comfort and alternatives. Should a woman decide to go ahead with an abortion, Rhoda said it is then even more critical to be there for her, help her heal and not look down on her for the decision she has made.

I wish, in an ideal world, that it wasnt thinkable, Rhoda said. I wish for people to never feel that pressure. Maybe their immediate gut reaction is, Oh no, Im 16, and Im pregnant. How am I going to do this? I think it would be really empowering to let women know that they can do it and there are more options. There needs to be a societal reform wherein mothers are embraced and supported by the community.

Lauren Rhoda advocates for pro-life issues through her position as president of the Saints for Life club at Carroll College. (Photo: TRIBUNE PHOTO/JULIA MOSS)

As she sits in a monthly Saints for Life meeting, she and her friends demolish a few pizzas and talk about whats going on in their lives. They discuss inspiring pro-life lectures theyve attended and opportunities to learn more about the cause and what they can do.

Rhoda is not alone in her all-encompassing love for life. She is merely one face in the new pro-life generation.

We want to create an environment where abortion is not needed, Prizmic said. We need to give support so that she doesnt need to make that choice. We need to take care of her and respect her. I will never know what shes going through, but I know I love her.

Through their charity and demeanor, the group is actively changing the pro-life movement.

I know in the 80s, they would bar doors, bomb clinics, kill doctors thats not pro-life, Prizmic said. That part is small now, but it still exists.

Mary Leslie, another Saints for Life member, nods in agreement. Though she isnt a Carroll student, she still jokes that she goes to Carroll because she technically is going there ... for the pro-life club meetings.

The answer to violence isnt more violence, Leslie said.

There is a lingering distrust of pro-life advocates who stand outside Planned Parenthood, despite the good intent of the Saints for Life.

Sometimes theyre kind, but its obvious theyre told not to talk to us, Leslie said. They know well be there, and theyre told not to respond. But some do ask questions. We let them know that no matter what, its OK and theyre still loved.

She, too, is a joyful human with a big smile and love to spare. Leslie finds encouragement through her faith, but said her involvement in the pro-life movement has nothing to do with religion.

Even if I walked away from the church, Id still be pro-life, Leslie said.

Though Rhoda does hang out in pro-life circles, she has several pro-choice friends and believes each side has a lot to learn from the other.

Though she is in disagreement with their stance, Rhoda said she can empathize with the passion her pro-choice friends have in supported a womans right to choose and ardent belief that she cannot be told what to do with her own body.

That is something, Rhoda said. Thats true. You cant force someone to do something. You can just hope that theyll want to and you have to make it possible for that to happen and make room for that to happen.

A flower crown hangs before a print of Michelangelos Creation of Adam in Lauren Rhodas room. (Photo: TRIBUNE PHOTO/JULIA MOSS)

Rhoda always goes back to love and support.

She has a friend back in Colorado who was sexually assaulted and became pregnant as a result. Her friend chose to keep the child, though it was a difficult decision. Rhoda said she was there for her throughout the decision, to comfort her.

Similarly, if I had a friend who chose to have an abortion, itd be my job to support her and love her, not necessarily support the abortion, but say Im here for you no matter what, Rhoda said. Thats all you can do. An especially if she has an abortion, shell probably be hurting after that.

Rhoda is ready to make allowances for unsure pregnant women who are grappling with this heavy decision.

But dont forget, Rhoda is anti-abortion. She supports all women, but she is vehemently against the organization seemingly synonymous with abortion: Planned Parenthood.

Her seemingly permanent smile quickly drops. She sits forward in her seat. Her words lose their softness and become sharp.

I think Planned Parenthood is a fundamentally corrupt organization, Rhoda said.

She cites Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, and her involvement in the eugenics movement of the 1900s and the convoluted argument that the birth control clinics were part of a larger racist agenda.

There is no question that Sanger was a eugenicist but several studies into her writings have refuted the idea that she was trying to weed out the black population. However, this idea has remained a prevalent talking point for many pro-life organizations.

In 2001, Herman Cain, a Republican from Georgia who made a run for the presidency, said Sanger started Planned Parenthood, the objective was to put these centers in primarily black communities so they could help kill black babies before they came into the world.

Then, in 2015, Ben Carson, now the U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, said Sanger believed people like me should be eliminated, or kept under control. He later clarified that people like me referred to the black population.

Much of this claim comes from a Dec. 10, 1939, letter penned to Clarence Gamble by Sanger in which she said, We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members."

However, the sentence is often taken out of context. The rest of the correspondence indicates Sanger was saying she didnt want misinformation to go out. Instead, Sanger was developing a public health venture, called the Negro Project, for underprivileged black communities.

But this point is still heavily contested by anti-abortion advocates.

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I dont think anything good can come from an organization like that, Rhoda said. I also believe theyve been caught in a few lies, and thats important to focus on. Such as when they were selling parts of aborted fetuses or such as when they claim to offer mammograms, and they actually dont.

Rhoda said, in her eyes, the good they do doesnt outweigh the bad, and there are other low-income options for men and women.

I believe that the funds being allocated toward Planned Parenthood ought to be allocated more toward the federally qualified health care centers, Rhoda said. And yes, while I agree that they do offer health care services if you knew that your dry cleaner, for instance, they were actually running a meth lab in the back, should you still support them?

Rhoda is soft, but she is strong. She knows what she believes and she sticks to it.

In late January, she traveled to San Francisco to participate in the Walk for Life. Reminiscing on the experience coaxes her signature smile back out. As she talks about the walk, her mind is back in California.

She was surprised by the diversity of those in attendance. She held her I am the pro-life generation sign and marched with the young and the old of different creeds and races. The flip-side of her poster had the same message, but in Spanish.

Yo soy la generacion provida.

I thought it was just amazing to see everyone coming together to support this and to advocate for the most vulnerable among those who dont have a voice, Rhoda said. It was just a really joyful gathering in the midst of San Francisco overall it was just, it was a very joyful experience.

She beams.

The camaraderie, the love, the support thats what its all about for Rhoda. That is what it means to be pro-life to her.

I hope that for all the pro-life people in the movement that it comes from a place of love and just caring, she said.

Follow Sarah Dettmer on Twitter @GFTrib_SDettmer