Family News in Focus
 
 
July 26, 2002

Camp Trains Teens for Pro-life Activism
By Bob Kellogg, correspondent

Being a "Survivor" isn't a game for young pro-life activists.

Fifty young pro-life activists are getting training and practical application at a two-week Survivors camp in California.

At the camp, however, you won't find any basket weaving or horseback riding. Fourteen-year-old Melissa Lindsley explained Week 1: "During the first week, we have several different workshops on media and on pro-life apologetics and the legal background (of abortion) and anything that has to do with abortion activism."

Fifteen-year-old Sauna Layman said Week 2 activities are even more "in-your-face."

"We go to conferences and protest there," Layman said. "And we do media and other protests at beaches and at clinics."

A target this year was a California Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (CARAL) luncheon promoting the so-called "emergency contraception" (EC) pill. Sixteen-year-old Arianna Grumbine, who went in undercover, said the pro-abortion sponsors lied when they denied the pill was a form of abortion.

"Most of them were actually there to find out how they could promote emergency contraception and to ... support the luncheon," Grumbine said. "It was hardly at all a learning experience for anybody there."

They also obtained CARAL's list of pharmacies where emergency contraception pills can be obtained.

"You have to get a prescription to get birth control at a pharmacy, but for EC there's no prescription needed, no parental consent and no age limit," Layman said.

Grumbine added: "We basically told all the pharmacies that we went to, 'If you are on CARAL's list, you are on our list.' "

This was the fifth year for the camp.
http://www.family.org/cforum/fnif/news/a0021557.html