The Turning Point USA student chapter at Iowa State brought Maggie DeWitte, local pro-life advocate and executive director of Pulse Life Advocates, to educate students on shaping politics in a lecture at the Memorial Union on Jan. 29. 

Isaiah Alexander, a junior majoring in agricultural studies and the vice president of Turning Point USA on campus, shared what the group hoped to gain from the event. 

“The goal is to put forward the pro-life agenda,” Alexander said. “We should be encouraging women who are pregnant to keep their babies because they are, in fact, human, from the moment of conception all the way till birth. The other part of this event is that we’re doing a baby supply drive, so everybody who comes is invited to bring diapers, wipes, whatever it may be.” 

Taylor Johnson, a freshman studying landscape architecture, said they came to this lecture because it aligned with their values. 

“I feel like a lot of times, my beliefs are just something I keep in the back of my mind,” Johnson said. “They’re not something I actually act upon, and talk with other people about. It’s just so important to have those conversations with people because when you stop talking, bad things start happening.” 

DeWitte began her lecture with a six-minute video created by Pulse Life Advocates to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States. The video showed DeWitte giving a separate speech from the one she would give that night, lecturing to a small crowd about the Declaration of Independence. 

She stated that, alongside the context of it being used to fight for equal rights and to abolish slavery, the line “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,” proved that an unborn person has those rights, thus making abortion murder. 

DeWitte shared with the audience the purpose of the organization she is a part of, Pulse Life Advocates. 

“Pulse Life Advocates is the longest-standing, statewide pro-life organization in Iowa,” DeWitte said. “We were formed in 1972. Our mission is simple: to educate Iowans on the sanctity of human life, from fertilization until natural death. And we tackle all the life issues from embryonic stuff, cell research and human cloning, to contraception, abortion, to end of life, physician-assisted suicide, euthanasia and anything in between.” 

DeWitte emphasized her opposition to abortion and her hope that this generation of college students would be the ones to get rid of it entirely. 

“I think that people will look back at this time in history, in the same way that we have looked back at the Holocaust and slavery, with disbelief,” DeWitte said. “It’s devastating at the loss of life that we have had over this time. That we guise it under healthcare and bodily autonomy instead of what it actually is: violent murder.”

DeWitte said people who see abortion as a right are “brainwashed,” and “a sickness that has really enveloped our society and made it seem normal.” 

During the lecture, she shared the history of the fight to end abortion. She’d mention how all of the praying for its end was answered in the Roe v. Wade overturning and Ames Planned Parenthood’s closing. 

DeWitte’s next focus was the combination medication prescription of Mifepristone and Misoprostol, or as she called it, “The Abortion Pill.” She described her issues with it and how she feels it is dangerous. 

“The abortion industry has found a new, insidious way to spread their culture and death through the abortion pill,” DeWitte said. “That, by far, is our biggest battle right now. This dangerous drug is rampant… The majority of what we see in the abortions right now, somewhere between 70% and 80% of all abortions are done through the abortion pill.”

An article from Johns Hopkins lists that in 2023, medicated abortions made up 63% of all abortions in the US. 

DeWitte discussed the dangers of abortion through medication. 

“I can’t tell you enough how dangerous this drug is, and we, in a pro-life movement, have known this for years,” DeWitte said. “Within the last year, there’s a study that came out… one in 10 women who ingest this dangerous drug has a severe adverse event — severe meaning sepsis, infection or hemorrhage. It’s 22 times higher than what the FDA had previously told us about this drug.”

This statistic is supported by the Ethics & Public Policy Center, whose president, Ryan T. Anderson, describes as a “conservative think tank.” This group was accused of misinformation and misappropriation of data by another conservative organization, Americans for Prosperity USA.

DeWitte outlined her experience in the pro-life movement, sharing stories of her time advocating for her beliefs, one of which was when she was protesting outside of the Planned Parenthood near Drake University. Across the street was a very busy barber shop, and one day the owner came over to have a conversation. 

“We talked civilly,” DeWitte said. “He said a lot of things that I did not agree with much at all, and I’m sure I said a lot of things that he did not agree with at all. But what he said to me is that he understood a little bit more why I was there, and he had an appreciation of my conviction and my passion… Now, did I persuade him? I don’t know. But, I know that I made an impact by just being there and being open to having a conversation.”

DeWitte also spoke about her work in the foster care system and how that formed her pro-life beliefs. 

“I worked at a group home, the foster care system and then I worked in the adoption community,” DeWitte said. “I was working with all of these people with really quite horrid situations, and it gave me that perspective to do the work that I’m doing now… never once did I say, ‘Yeah, you know what? They would be so much better if they just killed their own unborn child.’” 

Many ISU students and community members attended the lecture and brought items for mothers in need, which will be donated to pregnancy centers across Iowa. 

Zoe Kloppenburg, a junior studying interior design, shared how she felt after the lecture.

“I came in knowing most of the basic information,” Kloppenburg said. “It was nice that she mentioned resources and some statistics and now that I know that information, I can go out, and I can be not only an advocate but a person to help other women.” 

If you’re interested in attending a lecture by the Iowa State University Lectures Program, click here to learn more.