NCLN head: 'Students must not fear oposition'

Mike Mastromatteo

The new co-ordinating director of the National Campus Life Network is optimistic that the pro-life message will continue to win more adherents among Canada's undergraduate community.

Shendah O'Neill, 25, of Surrey, B.C., believes lively debate, coupled with a strong reliance on hard facts, will be a key factor in convincing more people of the truth of the right-to-life position.

O'Neill succeeded Vanya Gobbi as head of the country's leading organization for pro-life university students in August. She is completing her second year of a master's degree program in child studies and education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education in Toronto.

O'Neill comes to the National Campus Life Network after heading up the Students for Life group on the campus of Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C. She also played a leading role in a youth pro-life symposium in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver, in April 1996.

In a recent interview with The Interim, O'Neill described her pro-life inspiration, and outlined her priorities and expectations for the NCLN. She said her parents' participation in Life Chains and other pro-life activities sowed the seeds of her strong pro-life beliefs.

Unlike many pro-lifers, who have become discouraged by constant hostility and contempt from the media and elsewhere, O'Neill believes opposition can have its positive effects.

"University students must not fear opposition," she said. "They really should capitalize on it. I don't find pro-life work difficult because of secularism."

"Pro-life work on a university campus is difficult for the same reasons it is in general - an apathetic majority not willing to give an opinion or make a stand. Those objecting to pro-life thinking help the cause, by creating discussion and debate. Those hurting the movement are those who will not recognize it as an issue."

O'Neill dismissed the notion of the university as a lost cause for fostering a right-to-life attitude. Although most universities tend strongly to promote anti-life positions, O'Neill believes students can be won over by a vigorous defence of pro-life truths.

"Many peers have only known abortion, and are ignorant of the pro-life viewpoint," O'Neill wrote in a recent issue of the NCLN newsletter. "For these, it will take a conversation, a pamphlet, just some plain hard facts.

"Moreover, some university departments are willing to lend a collective ear to our message, as long as it is scientifically, economically, legally and philosophically based, depending on their interests. We must personalize on these interests through personal education and preparation."

In addition to providing pro-life university students with support and resources to bring the right-to-life struggle to their local campuses, O'Neill faces other challenges at the NCLN. Among these are preparing for the 1999 symposium, scheduled for Jan. 8-10, 1999 at St. Augustine's Seminary in Toronto.

O'Neill also hopes to raise the profile of the NCLN at universities coast to coast. This is one of the main recommendations contained in the group's three-year strategic plan.

In addition, O'Neill plans to fine tune the NCLN's Internet website, and to continue taking advantage of the latest information technology to unite pro-life groups and individuals across the country.

"Constructing a website was a personal goal," she said. "It has been accomplished but it needs work."

Other goals include updating the list of university pro-life groups, improving the NCLN's financial picture, and attracting new personnel to the organization's executive.

O'Neill said it is too early to determine the full impact of university pro-life activity on attitudes toward legal protection for the unborn, but she says she sees some developments. As she noted in the NCLN newsletter, "Scientific discovery and a new compassion for the individual are changing our movement."

The National Campus Life Network can be accessed on the Internet at www.geocities.collegepark/field/6094.