Rachael de Souza, a student in her final year at the University of Western Ontario, spoke at the Halton Pro-Life Respect Life dinner on how her experience of a conference at her high school led her to become a pro-life activist and to found a pro-life club at her University. Her presentation is excerpted here.

I was born and raised in a strong Catholic family, so in a sense I was always pro-life. However, although I knew abortion was wrong I did not truly understand it to be the grave and horrific injustice that it is. I thought, well, I would never have an abortion, and if anyone came to me seeking advice on the matter I would tell them that abortion was wrong and advise them against it. But I didn’t feel compelled to go out and protest or to actively work to change the minds and hearts of our culture on this issue.Then, when I was in Grade 10, attending St. Ignatius of Loyola high school here in Oakville, a lady from the Halton Pro-Life organization came into our school and set up a table with lots of resources including those little plastic model babies. I was interested in the material. I took one of the model babies and I spoke to the lady. But I was most interested in why this was so important to her - why did she take the trouble to be at my school?

This question eventually led to others. I started to think why is abortion wrong? What does it actually mean to respect life? Does it really begin at conception? Could I successfully argue, even to myself, that a small cluster of cells in a woman’s womb at the beginning of a pregnancy is a person, a human being?

Although these issues started to come up in my thinking, I still felt they were irrelevant to me, and my life.

In Grade 11, one of my close friends, Nicholas McLeod, who now works for the Canadian Centre of Bioethical Reform (warning: graphic image here - Ed.), convinced me to attend and to actually MC the Halton Pro-Life high-school conference with him. I went into this because I thought “hey - it can’t hurt.” The conference was held on a couple of weekdays and because I had an important test on the second day, I could attend only the first. However, after that one day, I left the place feeling entirely changed - my mind spinning.

I remember getting into a small group in the morning and talking about what it means to love. In our discussion we learned that love is a constant active choosing to be responsible and to answer the genuine needs of another.

I remember the speaker, Pedro Guevara-Mann (a producer with the Salt + Light Television), showing us a clip from the movie “The Princes Bride” where the hero, Wesley, in disguise, says to the process, “Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.”

He spoke to us about how our society tries to tell us that things do not have to be difficult, we don’t have to struggle, we can make things easy for ourselves - but this is a lie. If a girl has an unwanted pregnancy, our culture says she doesn’t have to struggle though having the child, she can make things easy and have an abortion. But there will be other pains associated with this so-called “easy route” - and a life will be lost.

I remember learning for the first time that the majority of children who are aborted are aborted not for reasons such as rape but for reasons of mere inconvenience. I was stunned. All these ideas began to move around in my head, and I started to connect the dots. I began to understand why that lady gave up her time to come to my high school with her table full of stuff. I began to find answers to my questions. Most importantly, these questions started to really matter to me - because I began to care.

 I am currently in my graduating year studying literature and music at the University of Western Ontario. Two years ago I joined a group of students to begin a pro-life club there. Now, every day I am continually inspired by the dedication of the friends I work with, I am continually inspired by the courage and boldness of students across Canada working in this movement, and I am continually inspired by those of you here who have dedicated your time, your energy and, for some, your life’s work to fighting for this most important cause. I feel privileged to be able to make whatever contribution I can to add to the work of some many incredible individuals.

Imagine - if I had not attended that wonderful conference in Grade 11 I would not be before you today. The Halton Pro-Life high-school conference opened my mind and heart to this hugely important movement - to fight for the most basic right, the right to be alive, to fight for the dignity and significance of every single human life; to be the voice that cries out in place of all the unheard and unwanted of our society.