Each year McQuaid Jesuit sends a contingent of high-school students to the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. in January. Yet this year, the event fell during the school’s exam week, and students were unable to attend.
But some students still wanted to have an event to spark pro-life discussion, so they began planning a student oriented pro-life conference, which took place April 9 at the University of Rochester.
About 150 people attended the 2011 Break for Life, which was hosted by the University of Rochester Students for Life.
The healthy turnout has prompted planners to begin talk about making it an annual event, said Chris Hood, director of Christian service for McQuaid.
"I’m very pleased with the conference," Hood said. "It was a lot of good energy. All of the local speakers were excellent, which speaks very highly of Rochester."
Of those attendees, about 100 were students, he said, and they hailed from Catholic and public schools, homeschooles and colleges.
Hood said the group may be open to changing locations.
"We’d like to see the conference rotated with other hosts who could offer participation and leadership," he said.
He pointed out that students played a large role in planning the event, including determining topics and identifying speakers.
Those speakers were: Dr. Emily Nazarian of the University of Rochester Medical Center, who spoke about the scientific basis for life beginning at the moment of conception; the Rev. James R. Harden of Compass Care, who spoke about dispelling common abortion myths and how to help a pregnant friend; Anne LeBlanc from Rochester Area Right to Life, who spoke about stem cells from the patient’s point of view; and Jann Armantrout, diocesan life-issues coordinator, who spoke about the connections among all life issues.
Carol Crossed and Hannah Murphy from Feminists Choosing Life talked about the importance of language and filtering the media; Dorina Hayes of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign gave a personal account of abortion; and Nicholas DiFonzo of Rochester Institute of Technology spoke about creating a pro-life culture on campus and refuting pro-choice arguments.
Amanda Lord of Students for Life of America spoke about being pro-life on campus; Dr. John Sullivan of the University of Rochester Medical Center spoke about respecting human dignity at the end of life; Dorina Hayes, Francis Goodwin and David Poirier spoke about abortion from male and female perspectives; and Yahweh Ballet performed its Life Ballet.
During free time at the conference, students were able to create their own pro-life buttons, design a T-shirt for next year, write letters, sign petitions and learn more about area pro-life organizations.
"A number of students said they felt it was a good use of their time, which was what we were hoping for," said Brendan Murphy, 17, a junior at McQuaid Jesuit. "We didn’t want it to be boring."
Murphy said he learned more about the work that crisis pregnancy centers perform and how to better defend his pro-life beliefs. Those beliefs stem partly from his family upbringing and partly from his contact with people who decided not to have an abortion.
"Being able to see the joy that is the result of that decision has affected my pro-life beliefs," he said.
Anne LeBlanc, of Rochester-Area Right to Life and a parishioner of Holy Name of Jesus Parish in Greece, spoke at the conference about patients whose conditions have been successfully treated by adult stem-cell treatments, which do not involve the destruction of embryos.
She told the story of one patient with Parkinson’s disease who was able to return to his hobby of big-game hunting after adult stem-cell treatment. She also cited several local cases in which people have been treated with adult stem cells, including a young man in Canandaigua who had paralysis.
LeBlanc said she hopes hearing about pro-life successes will help motivate young people to get involved with local pro-life groups.
"It was wonderful to see all these young people who were enthusiastic and attentive," she said.
