YAF Launches, Spearheads Pro-Life Campaign in First Week
The burgeoning Young Americans for Freedom chapter has big plans to get campus talking.
One of Mississippi College’s two newly chartered political organizations, Young Americans for Freedom, will present programming for Pro-Life Week starting Monday, February 17, alongside Students for Life. The weeklong campaign will be YAF’s first on-campus event.
YAF (pronounced phonetically by its members – “yaff”) and Students for Life kicked off their anti-abortion activism and education effort with the planting of 2,841 pink, blue, and white flags on the green space across from Aven Hall. The number of flags symbolizes the average number of abortions that occur every day in America. The flags will adorn the hill until the end of the week.
Other scheduled programming includes a presentation from a representative of the Center for Pregnancy Choices of the Jackson Metro Area, and a display in the lower commons depicting the timeline of a human pregnancy, which will be exhibited on Tuesday, February 18 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. On Wednesday, February 19 starting at 11 a.m., YAF and Students for Life will hold a prayer hour. To end the week, they will host a screening of the film Unplanned in Quick Hall from 9-11 p.m. on Thursday, February 20.
Camryn Robertson, a freshman double majoring in elementary education and political science, began spearheading the formation of YAF in the fall of 2024. As president of YAF and a member of Students for Life, Robertson was the main coordinator for Pro-Life Week.
“Our biggest goals for this week are to inform the younger generation on just how big the abortion crisis is, even after Roe v. Wade was overturned,” Robertson said. “We also want students to know that being pro-life does not mean we are just pro-baby – we are pro-mom, too. We want to do everything we can to inform students on ways they can actively support mothers who face unplanned pregnancy. Abortion is ugly, and motherhood is beautiful, and that is the biggest goal of this week – to just show how important it is to fight for life.”
Mary Hanks, the president of the Mississippi College chapter of Students for Life, was approached by Robertson about the partnership. Hanks thought the organizations joining forces would be mutually beneficial. “The two of our organizations together might raise more awareness,” Hanks said.
The two groups are aligned in their ideologies and their goals for the week. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to talk to people about it, because I think people are really quiet about the pro-life issue,” Hanks said. “I think if people had a safe place to talk about it – you know, we’re not going to fight them if they aren't pro-life. We just want them to talk to us about it.”
YAF was informally incorporated last semester by a core group of six underclassmen. With the support of Young America’s Foundation, the parent organization for Young Americans for Freedom chapters at colleges and universities across the United States, YAF’s six members were able to petition to establish a chapter at Mississippi College. The foundation granted the request, even equipping the group to take a trip to Capitol Hill in January to participate in the 2025 March for Life.
Jaycee Sloan, a founding member of YAF and sophomore pre-physical therapy student, was deeply affected by the trip.
“In one word, it was incredible,” Sloan said. “I’ve never seen so many completely different people all gathered in one spot for one reason, and for that to be such a special and important reason – the sanctity of life. It’s so important.”
Under the Mississippi College Student Organization Handbook, a petition to charter an organization must include provisions for a sponsor or sponsors. As of last Thursday, YAF meets the criteria: David Olson, an adjunct professor in the School of Business, signed on to sponsor.
Since before meeting the criteria to charter, though, YAF has long been at work in an unofficial capacity. They have already planned events for the spring, such as Pro-Life Week, and written a mission statement: “Young America’s Foundation at Mississippi College strives to ensure that increasing numbers of young Americans understand and are inspired by the ideas of individual freedom, a strong national defense, free enterprise, and traditional values that stand on Biblical truth and honor Christ.”
The foundation of YAF, alongside the rise of the unrelated College Republicans, comes after MC’s Turning Point USA chapter went inactive following the fall of 2024. Turning Point was the institution’s only politically affiliated student organization. Robertson, Sloan, and their cohorts hope that YAF will breathe new life into political discourse at Mississippi College.
“I feel like our campus doesn’t do a great job of talking about things that are important,” Sloan said. “It’s great that Student Engagement is hosting all these events – and it’s not their job to talk about ‘controversial’ things to students – but I feel like there’s a lack of discussion, just about everything. I think everyone just wants to stay in a space of contentment and comfort, and we get complacent. We kind of forget why we believe what we believe.”
“I’ve already seen God’s hand in everything that we’ve done so far,” Sloan continued. “I’m just hopeful that His hand will be seen through the rest of it, and that people will come to understand why we believe what we believe – and hopefully, we’ll get to change some minds.”
