‘Even without faith I would still be prolife’

Hannah, a graduate from Glasgow, is involved in ‘Project Truth’ that takes place each year.  She tells us what it’s all about and why she is so passionate about being prolife.

Have you always been prolife?

I have always been prolife; growing up my mum and dad were involved in the local prolife group, so we were always taught about life in the womb from when we were young. The injustice of abortion in my head has just been a natural progression from then to now.

When did you decide to be proactive in your prolife beliefs?

It was in the final years of high school – roughly 16-17 years old when I started getting involved in things like SPUC and Sisters of the Gospel of Life in Glasgow who run a crisis pregnancy centre.  With SPUC I have been involved primarily with the Project Truth Roadshow.

For those who don’t know, can you tell us what Project Truth is?

Every summer we go onto the streets of Scotland and we set up a stall with information on the development of the baby in the womb.  We focus on the first 10 weeks which I think is very important because it shows the humanity right from the early stages of pregnancy.  We talk to the public and it’s all about engaging with people in conversation which is so important to do regarding the abortion issue, it’s always a really good week in my year.  We also go into schools and speak to 14-15 year olds about what we do and the development of the baby in the womb to get them talking about abortion.

Have you ever faced any challenges whilst taking part in these events?

Yes, obviously there are people who have a preconceived notion of what prolifers are and what we believe.  They will expect us to be intimidating or harsh, so it’s good when you can show people that we are all just normal, logical thinking individuals.

Do you think there’s any challenges that young prolifers in particular face?

Part of the challenge is in itself that people think prolifers are only the older generation – whereas in reality most of us on Project Truth are students!  There’s this idea that it’s an outdated opinion to have, so I think people are surprised when they see so many enthusiastic and well-educated young people getting involved in Project Truth. Other than that, the main difficulty is dealing with people’s emotions; you can know all you need to about the prolife stance and have all the evidence but when someone is really hurt by abortion, trying to have empathy at a young age is hard, most of us haven’t experienced such deep emotions in life just yet.

Have you had any stand-out moments during Project Truth?

Last year I had been speaking to a guy for a while and I think he could see his argument was going nowhere so he pointed out my crucifix around my neck and brought up that I was Catholic and that the only reason I was prolife was because of my religious beliefs.  I tried to explain that even without faith I would still be prolife, I think people look for some reason why your argument is invalid when they are struggling to argue theirs and they will say that we are only prolife because we are religious or young as an excuse to dismiss our argument.  I also remember a girl who was around 15-16 years old with her younger sister who was playing with the fetal models and she turned to me and said “is this really the actual size?” She was horrified that abortions were happening to babies at such developed stages because most teenagers aren’t ever taught that.

What would you say to young people to help them get involved in the prolife movement?

I would say if you’re around when Project Truth is taking place, come along for an hour just to see what it’s like, a few of us have done that.  You can come on an afternoon or less if you want and simply get the conversation going – even if it’s only talking to the other prolifers – I found that really encouraging when getting into it myself.  Everyone can do something within the prolife movement, we all start small to begin with.

To find out more about Project Truth

If you live in Scotland and are interested in going to visit the team then contact Louise for information about times and locations by emailing  projecttruthuk@gmail.com or visit their Facebook page @projecttruthscotland.

Mary Conroy