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BETHESDA, Maryland, January 24, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – For conservatives, “social justice” often gets a bad rap: co-opted by liberal groups, the term has come to signify for pro-lifers something misguided at best, and socialistic at worst.

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But two speakers at the 2011 Students for Life of America’s (SFLA) National Conference, speaking to a crowd of 1,800 pro-life youth, helped set the record straight, arguing that true social justice has the courage to face the victims in our midst that others won’t acknowledge: the mother and unborn child scheduled for an abortion.

“Being pro-life should be at the very top of the social justice list,” said SFLA Executive Director Kristan Hawkins.

“Psychologists will often refer to a woman who’s considering having an abortion like a person who’s depressed and considering suicide: she can only see the supposed solution in front of her,” continued Hawkins. “There’s nothing to the left and nothing to the right.

“Social justice is about changing what’s at the end of the tunnel for that woman. Not just telling her that she should be pro-life and to get on a different track.”

This, she said, is “real social justice” – unlike the counterfeit advocated by the abortion business.

The key to restoring “balance and harmony to people and communities,” is to restore relationships, particularly family relationships, that provide the support women need more than material help, she said.

“Baby booties don’t put food on the table for her. We have to talk to a scared young mom. We have to understand exactly what she’s going through and the real nature of her problem. And with her, by talking to her, we will find the best solution.”

“Planned Parenthood tells that woman, nope, can’t do this. You can’t be a mom and be in school and have a productive career. But when you have the opportunity to say to her, ‘yes,’ yes, you can carry that child … you will save lives!”

“Bella” producer Jason Jones reflected on the popularity on college campuses of other “social justice” issues, such as environmental causes, which he said take “zero courage” to support.

“How much courage does it take to speak out against clubbing baby seals at the University of Miami?” he asked the crowd, many of them leaders and members of pro-life campus groups across the U.S. “Who do you know that’s clubbing baby seals?

“But your classmates, every day when you go to class, you’re looking at somebody who has had an abortion recently or will soon be considering an abortion. So it takes real courage.”

Those who fight for the unborn on campus, he argued, are the true leaders of today’s social justice: to illustrate this, Jones asked the audience to recall the most chilling display in the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum: the pile of victims’ shoes.

“[In] their society … somebody said, ‘people to the left, shoes to the right.’ And they destroyed the people that have incomparable worth, and they saved shoes, bits of leather that were practically worthless,” said Jones. “It said it all. Is our culture much different? We say, ‘baby to the left, college education to the right.’”