{"id":311066,"date":"2026-10-21T04:58:54","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T04:58:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/311066\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T04:58:54","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T04:58:54","slug":"students-for-life-chalk-outside-fml-dissenters-pour-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/311066\/","title":{"rendered":"Students for Life chalk outside FML, dissenters pour water"},"content":{"rendered":"

Students for Life gathered outside Fairchild-Martindale Library on Tuesday for \u201cNational Pro-Life Chalk Day,\u201d<\/a> organized by Students for Life of America<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lehigh\u2019s chapter of Students for Life of America \u2014 a nonprofit anti-abortion organization that joins high school and college students across the country \u2014 deviated from what they\u2019ve promoted in the past.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last year, during the organization\u2019s chalking events, themes included advocating against chemical abortions<\/a> and Planned Parenthood<\/a>. This semester\u2019s event focused on female victims of sexual abuse and support for women after abortion.<\/p>\n

Students in the club drew on the sidewalk while the club\u2019s president, Angel Casta\u00f1eda, \u201827, walked back and forth monitoring the activity.<\/p>\n

\"\"Jillian Colon \u201827 writes anti-abortion and pro-women messages in chalk outside Fairchild-Martindale Library. Colon was the only female member at the event. (Alexandria Braxton\/B&W Staff)<\/p>\n

Jillian Colon, \u201827, \u2014 the only woman at the event \u2014 wrote in support of improving maternal health and expressed being pro-children before and after birth, something she said the pro-life movement doesn\u2019t advocate enough for.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One sentence read: \u201cPro-life means pro-improving maternal health.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to a study<\/a> published in the American Journal of Public Health, mothers in states with active abortion bans are more than twice as likely to die during pregnancy, childbirth or during the postpartum period in comparison to states where abortion is accessible.<\/p>\n

Colon said she ran the message by the other members of the club, and they approved it, so she thinks they agree with her opinion.<\/p>\n

She also said as someone who was once pro-choice, she empathizes with the pro-choice movement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Colon said she made the ideological switch when she became a Christian and heard stories about women who, despite their struggles, still wanted to have their children.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince it\u2019s something that affects women in a particular way, I do think women should be at the center of it,\u201d Colon said. \u201cI\u2019m comfortable being a woman in this movement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colon said she considers herself conservative and believes in conservative values, but doesn\u2019t think only conservatives can be pro-life.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Students not part of Students for Life America walked around the library as the sun set, taking photos of the chalk and discussing the content among themselves. One student joked about pouring water on the messages once the students finished.<\/p>\n

A student, who asked to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of her story, said the event was intentionally provocative and was intended to incite a reaction from students.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She said as someone who has had an abortion, she found out she was pregnant while in another state on vacation and couldn\u2019t find access to reproductive healthcare. She said the fear of not knowing what to do and having to wait until she was in a state that allowed abortion access was paralyzing.<\/p>\n

Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade \u2014 a landmark supreme court decision that guaranteed federal protection for abortion \u2014 states have been able to decide their own abortion laws. As of Aug. 16, 13 states<\/a> have full abortion bans with few exceptions and 41 states have gestational limits.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The student said she attends Lehigh on financial aid, and if she said if she carried out the pregnancy, she wouldn\u2019t have been able to care for her child financially.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I had been subjected to what these people want, I would have not been able to go to school,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She also expressed concerns about male anti-abortion advocates framing pregnancy as something good for women to be entrapped in.<\/p>\n

Benjamin Salvucci, \u201829, said the matter of abortion is partially a man\u2019s business because they contribute to pregnancy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Salvucci said he\u2019s disgusted by people online claiming they\u2019d have an abortion if they were pregnant with a boy, claiming it\u2019s \u201csexism in the most literal sense of the word.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said men should speak just as loudly as women because the issue affects everyone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMy sex, my gender doesn\u2019t determine the validity of my argument,\u201d Salvucci said. \u201cYou can\u2019t discount my opinion simply because I can\u2019t get pregnant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Salvucci said Students for Life\u2019s events haven\u2019t historically received positive feedback from students.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Salvucci said the Students for Life Groupme consists of 70 to 80 members, but about six students regularly attend meetings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Three were at the chalk event.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said low meeting turnout is due to their 6 p.m. meetings on Mondays, where students are often busy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do have a lot of people who are interested, and would come if they had the time,\u201d Salvucci said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By 8 p.m, the dissenters poured water on the messages, washing away specific words that changed the sentences.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd yes, I don\u2019t like abortion,\u201d became \u201cAnd yes, I like abortion.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease don\u2019t pour water,\u201d became \u201cpour water.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Students for Life gathered outside Fairchild-Martindale Library on Tuesday for \u201cNational Pro-Life Chalk Day,\u201d organized by Students for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311067,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[5877,119,121,120,5400,1197,50,1198,295],"class_list":["post-311066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-4-minute-read","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-clubs","tag-feature","tag-politics","tag-student-and-campus-life","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}