Young people are excited about sharing the culture of life: we can learn from their excitement.

At the 2018 March for Life and surrounding events, the crowd was surprisingly young. At the March, those under 25 seem to outnumber those over 25. Even the Washington Post estimated a few years ago that over half the marchers are under 30.

Some of the biggest events around the March for Life are also youth-focused. The morning of the March, the Archdiocese of Washington hosts two sold-out youth Masses: at the 18,000 seat Capital One Arena and at the 10,000 seat DC armory. If you look to training events and conferences, the biggest seems to be the Students for Life America conference the day after the march with 2,000 registered, mainly in high school and college. People came to the Students for Life America conference from all over: New Mexico, Florida, North Dakota, Scotland and Australia to name a few places.

The impact goes beyond numbers, to testimonies of how these young people are living their pro-life message with creativity and audacity. Hopefully that inspires us all, Regnum Christi or not, to support the culture of life more. Here are a few of these testimonies.

Liam MacKechnie from Glasgow, Scotland traveled to the US for the March for Life. He explained how when his mom was 16 she found out she was pregnant. At 17, when he was 2-months old, she was kicked out of the family home and his dad wasn’t interested in supporting them. Her perseverance moved him to be pro-life.

Jacob Polansky of Reicher Catholic High School in Waco talked about their recent Sock it to PP event where they sold baby socks and for each one they sold, they would send one to Congress with a request to defund Planned Parenthood. During the campaign, they collected so many socks that they had a pair for each baby aborted by Planned Parenthood in the last year.

Rebecca Gosper is the head of LifeChoice Australia. About the March for Life, she said: “I was super excited to be here and super excited to teach everyone back home about how amazing the pro-life movement is.” She explained her role as the director as teaching students how to explain pro-life values and helping women understand they’re smart enough and strong enough to have that baby.

Nathan Kocmoud graduated in Computer Engineering from Texas A & M and was making a lot of money doing software consulting. Then, as he explains, “I left it because my heart wasn’t really in it. I found 40 Days for Life, I started working here, and it is amazing. We are literally saving lives!” He currently uses his computer engineering skills for running the website and online store. He says, “I get so inspired when I see families, especially big families.”

Kimberly Bowler talked about Pure in Heart America, a young adult community aged 18-35 meeting in small groups every week for prayer and Theology of the Body discussion. She exclaimed, “Theology of the Body teaches us what it means to be human, what it means to be loved, what it means to make yourself a self-gift which is the very essence of being alive.”

Sophie, who is blind, leads the pro-life group at Loyola University New Orleans. She mentioned how they made $400 selling Krispy Kreme Donuts and gave the money to the local home for human trafficking survivors.

Megan Weber of the ex-abortion worker ministry, And Then There Were None , shared how one of Kermit Gosnell’s former staff has become pro-life. She now makes beautiful bracelets as a fundraiser. Ms. Weber said, “We just want to use this to re-humanize her to the pro-life community and let them know that although she did terrible things with her hands while in the industry, now she’s using them to do beautiful things. The beautiful jewelry is a reflection of the conversion and redemptions she’s experienced in her heart through Christ.”

Christina Marie Bennett shared her powerful personal testimony: “36 years ago my mother was scheduled to have an abortion. She went to the hospital and met with the counselor and paid for the abortion. Thankfully, a janitor who was African-American like my mother saw my mom and walked up to her and asked, ‘Do you want to have this baby?’ Even though my mother was in the white robe, she said, ‘yes,’ and the woman told her, ‘God is going to give you the strength!’ She walked back into the doctor’s office, they called her name and when she walked in she saw blood on the floor from the last abortion – they hadn’t even cleaned it up. She told the doctor that she was leaving and he got really upset and said, ‘No, you already paid for this.’ She responded, ‘No! I’m leaving.’ He yelled at her and said, ‘Don’t leave this room!’ But she left his office, ran out of the hospital and ended up keeping me. In the 11th hour God intervened when I was scheduled to die.”

High school student Adriana Martinez got excited from the Students for Life conference. She stated, “Being in a Hispanic-rich environment and community back home, I see that we all accept the life God has given us… This [conference] is giving us more information to speak to people about abortion.”

Purity Thomas was punched in the face while standing peacefully outside of Planned Parenthood. That didn’t make her stop being pro-life but instead encouraged her and she was retelling her story in the halls of the Student’s for Life conference.

Emily at the University of Michigan is engaged setting up tables in the middle of campus four times a year focusing on what she explains are, “Provocative questions like ‘should abortion remain legal?’ to start dialogues.”

Andy Ward of Xavier University was excited about the pro-life movement on his campus, saying “We are a pretty active group.” Then he described their big pumpkin memorial event where they place 350 candlelit pumpkins on the yard. He’s really impressed by the pro-life atmosphere on his campus.

Maggie’s Place in the Phoenix area is a home for homeless pregnant women that relies on young women volunteering for a year at a time to be there with the new mothers. Lucy explains their mission corps program which is, “a year or summer living in the homes with the mothers to build community.”

Crossroads runs a program where students walk across the entire USA over the summer wearing pro-life shirts, praying at abortion clinics, and presenting the pro-life message to all who will hear. They run four teams of college students who make the walk each year, giving up their whole summer for the cause.