My hands were shaking as I took up my microphone. After a week of near-sleepless nights thanks to the stress of college classes, extracurriculars, and researching the ubiquitous abortion question, I was tired. Worse than that, I was nervous to speak in front of a room filled with my peers about my (counter-cultural) views on abortion. Openly rejecting a woman’s supposed right to abortion is not a popular stance at the University of Virginia (UVA), or most universities in America for that matter.
I am the president of UVA’s pro-life student organization. I’d like to say that we’re “small but mighty,” but in reality we’re just small. It’s no secret that Gen. Z is quite liberal, which only compounds these issues on college campuses. But still we press on—this semester, my club has prayed outside of our local Planned Parenthood, written pro-life chalk messages on sidewalks across campus, and most importantly, co-sponsored an event called “My Body, My Voice.”
As a project of UVA’s Civil Discourse Initiative, “My Body, My Voice” centered students from across the university in a moderated panel discussion of abortion. I spoke for the pro-life perspective alongside a friend of mine, facing off against two other students who defended the right to abortion. We tackled questions such as the right to bodily autonomy, the legal ramifications of recognizing personhood at conception, and the next steps for our country.
I was petrified for days leading up to the panel. What if I misrepresent the pro-life position? What if I make a fool of myself? What if I lose friends? I know firsthand how unpopular the pro-life position is at UVA. Even so, two days before the abortion panel, UVA’s pro-life club did sidewalk chalking across campus. We wrote messages such as “a person’s a person, no matter how small,” “choose love, choose life,” and “love them both” featuring colorful drawings. I returned home to study even more arguments against abortion, turning pages with my still chalk-dusted fingers.
To my gratitude, our event was a success. My fellow panelists were lovely people; I admired their conviction despite our disagreements. I learned a lot from them, and I’d like to think that they learned something from me as well. Despite the legal complications that would arise from recognizing fetal personhood—my fellow pro-life panelist and I argued—preserving innocent human life should always be priority. We recognized that some laws and policies would have to change, but we should be willing to move mountains for the most vulnerable among us.
More importantly, the event succeeded in encouraging attendees to think for themselves and presented them with a well-rounded overview of both sides of the abortion issue. One of my friends, who was pro-life already, told me that the event made him even more convinced of the pro-life position. That’s a win in my book. I left the event with a renewed confidence in UVA students and the state of civil discourse on campus.
By the following morning, however, most of the pro-life chalk messages had been vandalized. Students poured water on them and replaced our words with “bans off our bodies” and “reproductive rights are human rights.” I’ve even seen students on their hands and knees actively scrubbing out our messages. This is Crayola sidewalk chalk; our messages are far from permanent. But that doesn’t stop people from trying to erase them as soon as possible.
When he founded UVA in 1819, Thomas Jefferson wrote that it would be committed to “follow[ing] truth wherever it may lead,” a statement that has been admirably upheld—at least on the outside. However, I’m not so sure that Mr. Jefferson would be happy with the state of affairs today. One case-in-point being the erasure of the pro-life sidewalk chalking.
To UVA’s credit, it places due importance on issues of free speech, even ranking first in the 2025 FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression) assessment of free speech at universities. But despite how well-received “My Body, My Voice” was, it seems that we still have a long way to go in establishing respect for opposing viewpoints. I’d like to ask the students who erased our messages: What are you so afraid of? Why can’t you stand to look at a chalk message with which you disagree? Why erase our chalk messages, rather than hosting a similar chalking activity for your own views?
I know that no one’s mind is going to be changed by a sentence on the sidewalk. But we leave our mark to show people that we’re here. There are pro-life students at universities, and even the prestigious liberal ones at that. We need to continue to speak up and to model respectful and productive discussion about the most important social issue facing America today. I am optimistic about the future of this debate thanks to the dozens of open-minded students who attended “My Body, My Voice.” I just wish there were more of them.
—
Image credit: Pexels
