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Teen defends pro-life movement with new program

By Rosemary Bernth
Globe staff reporter
(Email Rosemary)

While some high school students are preparing for school to start, one is preparing to launch a new, national pro-life program called Teen Defenders.

Jake Dagel, a senior at Spalding Catholic High School, is the national youth director for the organization Pro-Life Unity.

“I oversee all the activities that involve youth with our contacts throughout the nation,” he said. “We have various projects and I founded the one called Teen Defenders, which is a youth outreach program for ages 13 to 19. The cool thing about Teen Defenders is that we are completely youth orientated. There’s very little adult involvement, so pretty much anything that goes on with that is being completely directed by youth.”

Dagel said he is currently working to establish state directors for the program. Once those have been set, getting chapters set up will be the next course of action.

“The main focus right now is setting up state directors and from there establishing the Teen Defenders’ main goal and objective,” he said. “So right now I’m trying to find that help because being one person makes it very difficult.”

Dagel said he first became interested in the pro-life movement after going to church and hearing the priest talk about abortion.

“I remember going home and asking my parents ‘What is abortion?’,” he said. “All they told me was that the mom didn’t want the baby and had it killed. So I’ve always known it was wrong. I wanted to do something about it but I wasn’t sure how.”

During his freshman year, a group from Remsen-St. Mary’s came to his school to give a pro-life presentation. Part of the presentation was showing a video of a partial-birth abortion, which Dagel said “once you see that, it triggers you to do something about it.”

He then called the spiritual director of Remsen-St. Mary’s and asked how he could get more involved. He said he gave presentations and even started a Facebook group, which caught the eye of Pro-Life Unity President Peter Shinn.

“That’s how I started getting involved with Pro-Life Unity and that’s led me to where I am today,” he said.

Just recently, Dagel and a few members of Pro-Life Unity took a weeklong trip along the East Coast to raise awareness about abortion, calling it the Face the Truth Tour. The tour consisted of making three stops each day to hold up graphic signs of abortion for an hour and a half at each stop. The team visited Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., even stopping in front of Vice President Joe Biden’s house.

Mass was offered every day, along with speaker presentations.

“I think it was very successful,” said Dagel. “We saw many people come to the reality of the evil abortion truly is. More children have died from abortion in our country than anything that’s happened in the world. Abortion isn’t a political problem. It’s a morality problem and until we can have the conversion of people’s hearts to where they realize what’s happening, nothing’s going to change and it’s going to continue to get worse.”

Dagel said he believes God has called him to speak up against abortion, whether it’s talking to individuals through sidewalk counseling in front of Planned Parenthood or in front of church groups as a public speaker.

“I’m here because God has me here for a purpose and I honestly feel that I’m doing what he’s asking me to do,” he said. “Not enough people are opening up their mouths about it, so someone has got to get out there and talk about it. I feel that’s something I need to do.”