How Students for Life Is Mobilizing a New Generation in Missouri, Kansas

When Ally Pendergraft helped restart a dormant pro-life club at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Mo, she expected some interest. Months later, football players and art students alike spent evenings crocheting baby blankets.

SPECIAL METRO VOICE FEATURE | By Lyra Thompson

As president of Choose Life, Pendergraft is among the dozens of leaders of college pro-life groups in Missouri and Kansas affiliated with Students for Life of America (SFLA).

Their activism comes at a time when abortion remains a divisive issue, especially among younger generations. According to a 2026 Pew Research survey, only 34% of 18- to 29-year-olds nationwide believe abortion should be illegal in all or most cases, the lowest percentage of any age group.

Locally, the results are only slightly higher. In Kansas and Missouri, 42% and 43%, respectively, believe abortion should be illegal.

But despite these numbers, college students across the U.S. are standing up for the rights of the unborn and educating their peers about the dangers of abortion. Most of the student-led groups are connected to SFLA.

A Mission for Life

Students for Life’s mission is to “recruit, train, & mobilize the pro-life generation to abolish abortion,” according to the organization’s website. The organization has mobilized nearly 1,700 groups throughout the country.

Metro Voice spoke with Reagan Barklage, Vice President of Field Programs at SFLA, to learn more about the organization’s work within Kansas and Missouri. Of the nearly 1,700 groups, she says, Missouri has 64 and Kansas has 22.

Barklage’s commitment to the pro-life cause began in childhood. “I was raised in a very pro-life family,” she said. “But it wasn’t until I was a preteen in middle school when I stumbled upon a diagram of a partial-birth abortion procedure that I truly understood what abortion was. And I, from that day, just felt a fire to do something about it.”

That passion eventually led her to start Mizzou Students for Life at the University of Missouri, where she attended college.

“When I was out on campus, Planned Parenthood was advertised everywhere, but there was no alternative. And I just took that upon myself. If Planned Parenthood can be advertised, we have to have alternatives because women have to know they don’t have to choose between their education and their child.”

Now, Barklage lives in St. Louis and manages the SFLA field team. “I provide more of the support to the staff rather than being out and about,” she says. “Making sure that they have updated trainings and statistics and numbers, and that they are getting the materials that they need.”

The field staff works directly with student groups training future leaders, organizing events, and providing the needed support and resources.

What Student Groups Actually Do 

All of Students for Life’s activism is based on what they call “the Five Pillars”: Effective Education, Rapid Response, Industry Impact, Public Policy and Supportive Services.

In practice, this involves campus outreach and community service. Events vary by campus, but some common activities include diaper drives, tabling and displays, and partnering with local pregnancy centers. Some groups even participate through sidewalk counseling and prayer outside abortion clinics.

Another arm of SFLA that many groups participate in is Standing With You, which supports college students facing unplanned pregnancies. This looks like providing diapers and other resources, getting campus accommodations such as a reserved parking spot and larger desks, and offering scholarships and housing.

However it may show up, every college pro-life group is united by a common mission. The ultimate goal is to “change the culture by having conversations to change hearts and minds,” Barklage says.

A Local Pro-Life Group in Action

While many Students for Life groups have hundreds of members, others are just getting started. One such group is Choose Life at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Mo. Student Ally Pendergraft is the club’s president.

The college had an active pro-life club in previous years called Abundant Life, but when the leaders graduated, the group lost momentum. This past year, Pendergraft decided to take over and restart it under a new name. She shares that marching in a Walk for Life event sparked her passion, and a conversation with her dad inspired the club.

Pendergraft’s dad had brought up starting a club. “I answered, ‘we do have a club,’” she shares. “And he said, ‘well, why don’t I hear about it?’”

That realization led her to reflect on the broader abortion issue and why few people really knew what it was. “The term is thrown around so much,” Pendergraft says. “It goes over people’s heads because they’re like, ‘it’s nothing special.’”

But the truth, Pendergraft says, is that abortion is a big deal. “It’s as extreme as having heart surgery. That’s what I want people to hear when they hear [someone is] going to have an abortion…If it comes down to it, you don’t want it to happen.”

Through the club, Pendergraft has turned her passion into action.

Some of Choose Life’s activities this past year have been crocheting baby blankets, diaper and bottle drives, and touring Pregnancy Care Center (PCC) in Springfield, Mo. On a more personal level, Pendergraft shares that the club sparks conversations.

“We donate our time, honestly, and just sit in fellowship to talk about the hard things or the questions people are asking.”

She was pleasantly surprised by the club’s turnout in its first year. “I was not expecting it to kick off the way it did…but we’ve been doing really well.”

One of Pendergraft’s favorite aspects of the club is how it brings together so many different students. “People come and gather that you wouldn’t usually see in the same group,” she said. “I’ve had football players crochet along with people who are in art.”

Besides trying to work around students’ busy schedules and secure more funding for the club, one challenge Pendergraft has faced is in learning what it means to be a good leader. “I am very much a person who wants to take on everything and do it all instead of delegating tasks and having people help me where they can.”

Over the next year or two, Pendergraft hopes to see the club grow. She wants to have a team from SBU participate in an annual Walk for Life, incorporate a Bible study into the club, bring in nurses from PCC to speak to students, and create more understanding of the pro-life cause.

“I’m definitely praying because I will be honest, I have a certain vision that is not in my control whatsoever,” she says.

Breaking Through a Culture of Apathy

On non-Christian campuses, SFLA groups face a lot of opposition and hostility. But on many Christian campuses, a large barrier is apathy. Students may use the label of pro-life but are not firm in their convictions.

Data supports this. A recent Gallup poll showed that in 2025, 37% of 18- to 29-year-olds called themselves pro-life, but only 15% believed abortion should be illegal.

Barklage has seen this mindset firsthand with her work in Kansas and Missouri. “Especially in the Midwest, there’s always been a lot of apathy,” she says. “It’s like, ‘well, I’m pro-life, but I’m not going to really do anything about it. I’m not going to tell anybody what they can and cannot do.’”

Pendergraft expresses a similar sentiment. “On a Christian campus, it is very easy to hide under the name of a Christian.” One of her goals with Choose Life is to give pro-life students a deeper understanding of their beliefs. “I want people to be able to answer the question of are you pro-life and why?”

Barklage shares the confidence and convictions students have gained through involvement with Students for Life. “I’ve just seen how students have risen up and had that confidence to confront the issue…I’ve seen students do hard things, getting involved in politics, or even wanting to do something scary like door knocking.”

Success in Small Ways

Barklage shares that one of the hardest parts of Students for Life is not always seeing tangible results. “We’re not like pregnancy centers where we get to hold a baby that we save from abortion.”

She says it’s important to remember they are planting seeds and might not get to see what comes of them. “We’re not going to change everybody’s mind in the moment. We’re not going to save every single baby. But we’re still doing something that’s really important.”

On the other hand, that makes the moments when they do see results more meaningful, she said.

Barklage shares a very recent story. “One of our staffers sent a picture of a baby [he had] saved.”

The woman had messaged the pro-life advocate on Instagram back in January, then sent him an update when her baby was born.

“Thanks so much for everything you did,” the message read. “Because of you, my baby’s here.”

Building the Next Generation

Beyond local groups, Students for Life has a few large-scale events to develop young pro-life leaders on a national level.

One event is the National Pro-Life Summit in Washington, D.C., held the day after the March for Life and attended by roughly 2,000 people.

Another is the National Leaders Collective (NLC). The NLC consists of the country’s top pro-life students from a variety of fellowships. Each summer, those students are trained and equipped in D.C. and engage in outreach efforts. This year’s event happened from June 18-22.

Prior to the summer outreach, members of the NLC participate in a book study and meet with a pro-life mentor in their field. Barklage says students from many different fields learn how to take the pro-life cause wherever they go.

“If we have someone that’s wanting to be a pro-life OB-GYN, we’ll try to pair them with a pro-life OB-GYN,” she explains. “Or if there’s somebody who’s studying marketing, we’ll try to match them with somebody who’s in the journalism or marketing field so they can see how to live that out if they choose to go that route after college.”

For Barklage and Pendergraft, the mission is to equip students to carry their pro-life convictions into politics, medicine, marketing, art or whatever field they choose, building a better future for the unborn.

–Lyra Thompson | Metro Voice