Solidarity That Makes A Difference: From Words To Action / For Life magazine no 15, 2026

by Teodora Diana Paul, President, Students for Life Bucharest

I want to tell you a story about solidarity—about how caring for others can change lives. Solidarity is not an abstract concept. It is (self-)taught, put into practice, and has a concrete impact on people’s lives:

June 2025. Andreea, a volunteer at Students for Life, calls me. Her roommate, Maria, a master’s student, was pregnant. She had argued with her boyfriend and was considering an abortion. She didn’t know how she could take care of the child on her own. At the same time, she felt that abortion was not a good decision.

I spoke to Andreea and asked her to tell Maria that she could receive support during her pregnancy and after giving birth, and that she was not alone. In fact, abortion seems like a solution because of a lack of support, not because a woman wants it. In the long run, most women realize that it was the mistake of their lives.

Three days later, she wrote to me that Maria was calm—she had made up with her boyfriend. Hm, this calm is on the waves… 

July 2025. Maria is in another crisis with her boyfriend, and Andreea gives her my number so she can call me directly. She told me that she knows abortion is not right, she believes it is a serious sin, and she doesn’t want to do it, but she sees no other solution. She was scared, she felt alone, her boyfriend wasn’t supporting her, and they were arguing a lot.

We talked for almost an hour. Summary: “The difficult, critical situation you are in is temporary. It will pass, even if you can’t see how right now. Sure, life with a child isn’t easy, but you have the chance to develop a relationship with this child, a chance that abortion irreversibly takes away. There is support, centers where you can get help. You are not alone.”

In the end, she told me she was keeping the baby. That evening, I put her in touch with the ROUA Centers—she wanted professional counseling. There, too, the community of mothers stood by her. 

November 2025. We had become friends, so I plucked up the courage to ask her:

“If we hadn’t met, and you hadn’t had the support of ROUA, would you have had an abortion?”

“Yes. Because, at that moment, I was extremely scared and all I wanted was to get out of the situation I was in, and abortion was the only option I knew. I had no idea about support.”

January 2026. Maria was struggling with contractions and, shortly after, gave birth to a beautiful baby boy.

I think about how much information mattered in this case. If Andreea hadn’t been with Students for Life, would she have known where to refer Maria for support? Without it, Maria would have had an abortion out of fear and lack of alternatives. Concrete solidarity—from a volunteer, a community, those who know how to be there—made the difference between life and death. This is the theme of this year’s March for Life, “Solidarity for Both”: about the child and the mother, about being there for them and not letting fear or lack of resources decide for them.