Maeve Roche
The French sociologist Émile Durkheim said flags are emblems of social solidarity with transcendent qualities to represent the unifying values of a collective group of individuals. In March of this year, the Pro-Life Flag Project prompted pro-life organizations across the United States to share their opinions on the potential creation and distribution of a unifying, pro-life flag. On May 24, the Pro-Life Flag Project launched an online design contest via the contest-hosting website entitled 99designs.
The project’s mission statement says the objective of the pro-life flag initiative is to “make this symbol as prominent and well-known as the (pride) flag. …With the wide reach that pro-life organizations have, we can create an America so full of the pro-life flag that every day, millions of people will be reminded of the reality of abortion and of the determined pro-life movement that fights to abolish it.”
As an incentive to encourage pro-lifers to submit their design ideas, the organizers announced a monetary prize of several thousand dollars based on donations to the project; on July 21, $2000 was donated.
On June 29, the project’s team sifted through submissions and narrowed them down to six finalists that would then be voted online by the public. The finalists were unveiled July 7, and on July 23, the winner was announced after more than 6000 online votes were cast.
The winning flag was created by Brazilian artist Nanda Gasperini.
Gasperini said the flag’s white background represents the desire for non-violence in the womb and the innocence of the unborn child. The two baby feet represent the humanity of the unborn child, while the two pink hands represent the protective nature of mothers. The circle formed by the mother’s hands suggests imagery of the womb and its security. The blue and pink parallel stripes emphasize the two distinct human beings present during pregnancy and form an equal sign which reinforces the desire to attain equal human rights for both parties. The blue and pink coloration can represent both the sexes of the unborn children as well as the distinction of two human beings: mother and child.
The Pro-Life Flag Project acquired a license on the final design so that pro-life non-profit organizations “can freely reproduce, promote, copy or sell items with the flag design.”
The Pro-Life Flag Project’s website details a list of partnered organizations, including Students for Life of America, the March for Life Education and Defense Fund, Rehumanize International, the Consistent Life Network and 68 other American and International Pro-Life Organizations that contributed to the initiative. Pro-life researcher Michael New of the Charlotte Lozier Institute tweeted an optimistic sentiment suggesting that “someday we will have our own Iwo Jima scene where we will plant the pro-life flag at what used to be the last abortion facility in America!”
Although the project is an American initiative, Canadian pro-life leaders have conveyed interest in implementing the flag.
Campaign Life Coalition’s national president Jeff Gunnarson told The Interim he believes the pro-life flag will unite Canadian pro-lifers “against the abhorrent pro-death culture” and “reinforce the message in society at large, whether at schools, churches, March for Life events, on flag poles or in people’s homes.” But he also provided a caution, saying that pro-lifers should avoid abusing the flag’s message by using it as a bargaining chip such as arguing that because an institution flies the pride flag, it should also display the pro-life flag. “The pro-life movement should fly it on its own merit,” said Gunnarson, explaining, “The fact that babies are being killed in their mothers’ wombs should be reason enough to fly this flag in their memory and to remind people there are at least two bodies — two human beings — involved in abortion.”
A spokesman for Pro-Life Alberta told The Interim that they are in favor of a Pro-Life flag since it “provides an additional opportunity to publicize pro-life views to the general public.”
Alliance for Life Ontario executive director Jakki Jeffs told The Interim that a pro-life flag would become a totem of “our pro-life ideals, our pro-life aspirations to promote, respect and protect every single human life no matter what their age or stage (of development).” She said that when grassroots pro-life supporters see the flag, they would recognize in it, “our values and most of all our duty, to fight for the lives of children in the womb, to protect their mothers from the abortion industry.”
Jeffs also said it would be “a rallying point for us all, calling us to stand together, work together and to sacrifice together in order to defend human life when it is in jeopardy.” She also said it would serve as “a reminder to our society that our country was built on a foundation which recognized freedom and justice for all, and we will not be silent until we have achieved this again.”
