Joanne of Arc's blog

Kim Headley at our Students for Life event in January 2023  — Photo: Joanne Of Arc

By Joanne of Arc for Quebec Life Coalition 

On Saturday, January 14th 2023, Quebec Life Coalition hosted a Students For Life Event in Montreal, Quebec.

The purpose of this event was to encourage all pro-life students to come together for an afternoon of discussion, training and networking.

Amongst the different speakers that were present at the event, we have invited Kim Headley from Campaign Life Coalition who is their Assistant Youth Coordinator to speak about her involvement in the culture of life.

Kim has agreed to speak with us after the event, so that you could get to know her better as well as learn more about why you should get involved in Students for life in Montreal. 

Quebec Life Coalition: Can you please present yourself, your age and your current job position?

Kim Headley from CLC: My name is Kim Headley. I'm 27 years old from Aurora, Ontario. I studied business at Seneca College in Toronto and accounting at Ensign College in Salt Lake City, Utah. I am now working as an Assistant Youth Coordinator and Administrative Assistant at Campaign Life Coalition. Some of my responsibilities are planning activities for youth such as pro-life movies nights, game nights, virtual pro-life club activities, planning the annual trip to Washington DC for their March for Life, as well as planning the national youth summit and banquet here in Canada. I also help to make social media content for our Instagram and TikTok and do a few different administrative and clerical tasks to help our accounting team.  

Quebec Life Coalition: How long have you been working for CLC? 

Kim Headley from CLC: Nine months! I started as an intern in May 2022 and was hired full time in September 2022.  

Quebec Life Coalition: What does a day to day look like for you?  

Kim Headley from CLC: It depends! Sometimes I am sending emails all day to different schools, sometimes I am in our accounting system keeping the books up to date, and sometimes I can be planning out next youth event. Every day I do a bit of both youth outreach and administrative tasks.   

Quebec Life Coalition: What is the most important aspect of your job?  

Kim Headley from CLC: The Biggest project CLC has every year is the March for Life. The most important part of my job is to help plan all of the youth activities such as the Candlelight vigil for the victims of abortion, the youth banquet, as well as the youth summit. 

Quebec Life Coalition: In January, we had the pleasure to host a Students for Life conference during which you shared your testimony about how you became pro-life. For those who didn’t have the chance to attend this event, can you share your journey in a nutshell?

Kim Headley from CLC: Growing up, I was pro-choice. It wasn’t until my first semester at College in my English class when everything changed, and it happened in a way I never would have expected. My teacher had everyone make a video about anything they wanted to. A girl in my class did her assignment on human rights violations. She started by showing pictures of victims from different injustices, saying they were horrible and evil to do, while still being completely legal at the time. Then she showed a picture of an aborted fetus… 

I still can’t forget that image. That was the first time I had ever seen abortion victim photography. My classmate said this was also horrible and evil, even though it’s currently allowed in Canada. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing – this was actually what an abortion looked like. Before that moment, I thought the preborn child was just a “clump of cells.” That’s the lie we’re all told, right? Well, that photograph forced me to start re-evaluating my opinion on abortion, but I didn’t become pro-life overnight.

For months, that picture kept creeping into my mind. I couldn’t forget it. That’s when I started looking into it more for myself, and doing my own research, which is how I slowly came around to becoming more and more pro-life. At some point later on, I saw a video of a first trimester abortion, and that was it. I was done being pro-choice. I was pro-life, right then and there, without exception, but if I was going to be “pro-life” now, how could I sit by and not do anything about it? It wasn’t enough for me to just be pro-life. I couldn’t just have this opinion and not do anything about these babies being killed.

I needed to be more involved in the pro-life movement, so I googled pro-life organizations in Toronto and found Toronto Right to Life where I was given apologetics training on how to have effective conversations about abortion and then I started doing “Choice? Chain" with Toronto against abortion, a project between Toronto Right to Life and CCBR. After a while of doing occasional activism, I decided that I still needed to do more for the movement. I wanted to do something more productive with my time. So, I decided to do a pro-life summer internship.

This past summer I had the privilege of interning for Campaign Life Coalition and was hired full time in September. Now I get to work full time in the pro-life movement, getting to use what I went to school for, as well as doing something I am passionate about. 

Kim Headley sharing her testimony at our Students for life event in January — Photo: Joanne Of Arc

Quebec Life Coalition: What does it mean to be pro-life to you today?

Kim Headley from CLC: For me, being pro-life means to believe in human rights for all human beings. We need to protect all human life from conception to natural death. The pro-life syllogism is simple: It is wrong to kill innocent human beings. Abortion kills innocent human beings. Therefore, abortion is wrong. 

Quebec Life Coalition: Why is it important to be active in this movement according to you?  

Kim Headley from CLC: It is important to be active in the movement because we need to be actively helping to save lives. It isn’t enough to just have the opinion that abortion is wrong, we need to be working to end abortion either by doing street activism, posting on social media, or working with politicians to enact legal protection for the unborn. We need to be changing people’s hearts and minds on the issue to make abortion both illegal and unthinkable. 

Quebec Life Coalition: What is the pro-life movement like in your area?

Kim Headley from CLC: The pro-life movement is strong in the Toronto area with different right to life groups in almost every major city. However, we are still treated with hostility while doing activism. Toronto is very pro-abortion, we get a lot of backlash but that’s why we know it’s important to keep doing what we do.  

Quebec Life Coalition: What kind of suggestions do you have for the pro-life movement youth in Quebec right off the start? 

Kim Headley from CLC: Start voting pro-life first. If you have social media, share posts from pro-life organizations on your story or page. Learn apologetics training so that you can adequately defend the pro-life position when you inevitably get messages from your pro-choice friends. Attend activism as often as you can.  

Quebec Life Coalition: What kind of specific actions should the pro-life youth involve themselves in to make a positive change in their respective area?  

Kim Headley from CLC: Activism is one of the best things you can do. Showing abortion victim photography is the best way to change hearts and minds. You can’t ignore those pictures. It can be very difficult to do choice chain, no one likes looking at those pictures. It is heart breaking to see, but it exposes the evil of what abortion does to children. We need to prioritize the lives of preborn children over the feelings of people seeing the images.  

Quebec Life Coalition: Why are politics important to be familiar with when involved in this movement?  

Kim Headley from CLC: Politics are important to be familiar with when being involved in this movement because several different Canadian political parties don’t even let their candidates run unless they support abortion on demand. You need to know what each party stands for, and what your specific representative in each party stands for.  

Quebec Life Coalition: How can our participation in politics be beneficial to the pro-life movement? 

Kim Headley from CLC: There are hundreds of different issues to care about when voting. It is important to vote pro-life first. Make it a deal breaker for you. When you vote pro-life first, you are sending a message to politicians that you will not compromise on your beliefs. Politicians need to know that they will lose votes if they don’t defend the right to life. To be in a place to change the law in Canada, we need more pro-life MPs and MPPs, that will only happen if we reach out to our local representatives and educate them on the issue. They may already be pro-life, but they might need a little push in the right direction to know that they have the support of their community if they openly consider themselves pro-life. The more politicians talking about the issue from a pro-life standpoint, the better. 

Kim doing various activism for the pro-life movement — Photos: Kim Headley/CLC

Quebec Life Coalition: How can the pro-life movement grow in areas where it is inactive? 

Kim Headley from CLC: Doing activism can help the movement grow. Often at activism we get people that come up to us to tell us that they agree with what we are doing. We can ask these people if they would also be interested in participating and that can help the movement grow in your area.  

Quebec Life Coalition: How can pro-life students make a change in their respective neighborhoods?  

Kim Headley from CLC: Be the change that you want to see on your college campus. If no one ever talks about the issue, be the one to talk about it. It can be scary at first, but you never know who is on the fence about the issue. 

Quebec Life Coalition: What were your highlights of your visit to Montreal?  

Kim Headley from CLC: I loved Montreal! It was so inspiring to see so many young students come out to the conference. The highlight of my trip to Montreal was hiking at Mount Royal. I loved the view of the entire city. Montreal is beautiful, the people are so nice, and the food is delicious.  

Quebec Life Coalition: What is one thing you would like everyone to remember after your conference for students for life?  

Kim Headley from CLC: Campus pro-life clubs can make a big difference in your community. I became pro-life when a girl in one of my college classes did a presentation on abortion. Don’t be afraid to stand up for your beliefs, especially in the classroom because it is possible to change someone’s mind. Even if they don’t change their mind right away, you can open the door for them to start looking more into the issue. 

Quebec Life Coalition: To conclude, March For Life in Ottawa is coming up ! Can you tell us what March for life is about, when it happens and why youth should join?  

Kim Headley from CLC: The March for Life will be on Thursday, May 11th, 2023, on Parliament Hill. It is the largest yearly protest on Parliament Hill. The National March for Life is a heartwarming, inspiring, peaceful, and energetic gathering of women, men, teenagers, and kids from all around the nation. Every year, thousands of pro-lifers gather on Parliament Hill to march through downtown Ottawa to mark the decriminalization of abortion that resulted from the 1969 omnibus bill, which was signed into law by Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau. The event is the most well-known platform for Canadian pro-lifers to demand for justice for the 100,000 unborn children who are killed by abortion each year in their mothers' wombs. On the day of the March, we will also be having a youth banquet at the Ottawa Conference and Events Centre. Youth are treated to musical entertainment and a delicious three-course meal. Afterwards, a dynamic speaker shares, Isabel Brown, will share her story and encourage the students to stand for life and make a difference in their homes, schools, and communities. The day after the March will be the pro-life youth summit. Approximately 500 students and young pro-lifers ages 13-29 will attend our six-hour structured summit intended to educate and inspire.   

Shortly after an optional Mass and breakfast, our youth summit commences. Students will listen to two influential keynote speakers, Dr. Calum Miller and Autumn Higashi. Then youth will have the opportunity to attend some breakout sessions of their choice. These sessions are run by speakers with expertise in particular fields and aim to provide students with more practical skills. Breakout sessions in the past have covered topics such as running a campus pro-life club, counselling women in crisis, becoming politically involved, apologetics training, and so on. The day is interspersed with breaks, lunch, games, and promotional videos from our sponsors, with plenty of time for youth to visit exhibitor booths. Students go home with summit bags containing information, sweets, and promotional items from our sponsors. Talk to your schools, teachers, chaplains, youth group leaders, club leaders, or church to start planning your trip. You won’t want to miss any of these events. 

Kim Headley and Maeve Roche from CLC with their friend at the March for life in Washington — Photo : CLC