It’s become rare lately to hear any anti-abortion argument without also hearing the words “eugenics,” “Margaret Sanger” and “genocide.” In the past few years, the grim metaphors have become even more targeted.
Pushing the Holocaust metaphor, a youth-led anti-abortion group, Students for Life of America, has created an award for students who educate and speak out against abortion called the “Sophie and Hans Scholl Award,” which refers to a German brother and sister who organized against the Nazi regime in Germany during World War II. Both students were executed. In 2005, their story was dramatized into the film Sophie Scholl: The Final Days, which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2006. On Thursday SFLA is honoring a student with that award at the group’s annual spring banquet in Arlington, Va. An SFLA press release for the banquet includes Sophie Scholl’s final words:
“„“How can we expect righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone willing to give himself up individually to a righteous cause. Such a fine, sunny day, and I have to go, but what does my death matter, if through us thousands of people are awakened and stirred to action?”
“Today, there are students just like Sophie and Hans across the country that continue to speak out against injustice on their campus,” states the release.
Mary Powers, spokesperson for the Students for Life of America, said the award recipient’s name won’t be released until ceremony but that “she” is a university student, and like Sophie and Hans Scholl, has demonstrated bravery in getting the word out to students about abortion.
The SFLA banquet — timed to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which was passed March 23, 2010 — is featuring testimony from Dominique Monlezun, national coordinator for Medical Students for Life of America, which recently conducted its first tour, visiting 21 college campuses across the country. The group is most vocal over “conscience” protections for medical professionals with regard to abortion, which the president updatedlast month, narrowing the regulations put in place by former President George W. Bush. Also speaking at the SFLA banquet are David Bereit, national coordinator of 40 Days for Life, who leads tours around the country to protest against abortion and Planned Parenthood, and Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), who this year has co-sponsored the following anti-abortion rights bills: To see more legislation Harris has sponsored during this session, go [here](http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/R?d112:FLD004:@1(Rep.+Harris+Andy):).