Alabama students are fighting to save more than just unborn babies

Typically, the pro-life lobby attracts white, gun-toting conservative men who hate women and back the death penalty. But Holly Baxter discovers the movement has had a facelift, luring younger female activists who also support refugees, prisoners and, surprisingly, pregnant women

The student group at the March for Life in Washington (Bama Students for Life)

Tuscaloosa is a small, picturesque college town in the centre of the state, home to the University of Alabama and their formidable football team the Crimson Tide. “When you come to Tuscaloosa, you say, ‘Roll tide’,” explains Georgia Gallagher, when we meet on a bench just outside campus at lunchtime. That’s the team’s chant, which you can find written on posters round the city and emblazoned on sweaters and T-shirts in local stores. People say it to each other as they pass on the street during big game days.

The university takes community seriously, which is why Gallagher chose to study here in the first place. She went to a close-knit school in her own state, she says, as we cross the campus and come to an air-conditioned Starbucks to shelter from the heat. She chose the University of Alabama because it had a reputation for being especially social and a selection of good sororities to join (the Greek life as it’s often referred to).

Gallagher lives in Alpha Delta Pi, where each student pays a certain amount to the organisation in exchange for room and board. They even have their own chef, she mentions proudly. Greek life sometimes gets a bad rep: not a year goes by without a “mean girls” story about rejection and bullying, and murky tales of hazing and “pledging’’ have led to criminal trials in the past. But Alpha Delta Pi is a relatively wholesome organisation, where young women are expected to keep up certain grades and to do a certain amount of charity work on top of that.