TWU club heads to Capitol Hill
Students for Life members march against legalized abortion
January 23, 2007
Ashley Chapman
Last week, five members of the Students for Life club traveled to Washington, D.C. for a crash course in pro-life activism.
Timon Piccini, Kathleen Glasgow, Irene Cadrin, Carina Wauthy, and Marguerite Apotre drove into Seattle and then flew to the Capitol to take part in the annual Rock for Life conference. On Jan. 20-22, youth from across North America and around the world gathered with the purpose of protesting against legal abortion.
The trip was financed through sponsorships from local Pro-Life societies, including the Surrey, Coquitlam, and Abbotsford branches.
Before leaving, the Students for Life club’s leader, Timon Piccini, admitted that he felt scared, and other group members agreed that they too felt nervous about the nature of “big statement” activism.
“It can make people think—make people consider,” he said. “But it can also set emotions much too high [to the point where] you are dealing with emotions instead of people.” Going into the trip, he hoped that a balance could be struck between personal communication and a larger public statement.
During the planning stages of the trip, small setbacks threatened the group’s departure. Over the Christmas break, credit card issues arose, but working through the problems ended up saving them $100 on airfare.
“God even works through the sin of the credit card company,” Piccini joked.
The Rock for Life conference, advertised as a “training and activism weekend,” included speakers, music, outreach, and hands-on activism. The group took part in workshops and then took action—establishing a prayer circle at the Supreme Court, protesting a Planned Parenthood fundraiser, and holding a counter-demonstration at the anniversary celebration of Roe v. Wade.
With legal abortion being such a controversial issue, “people expect protests to be yelling and screaming” explained Kathleen Glasgow. “When they see people calmly protesting they stop to wonder. Some of them even ask questions.”
The culmination of the weekend took place on Jan. 22, when the students attending Rock for Life joined the national March for Life, and along with about 100,000 other supporters, brought their pro-life message to the American Capitol. It was this unity that got Piccini excited: “Individual voices are good, but individual voices in community are even better.”
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