Winning Essays - 2009 Contest!
LoveMatters.com Pro-Life Essay Contest…
Archdiocese of Los Angeles
50 Catholic High Schools -- 30,000 Students
Topic:
“Abortion is Deadly”
First Place
………… Elizabeth Chapin
Second Place
……… Bronwyn Bennett
Third Place
………... Megan Golbranson
Read their winning essays BELOW...
Congratulations to our winners!
Elizabeth, Bronwyn and Megan wrote great essays!
When you read their essays below, you'll see that these students
have a unique talent for writing... and they're sure to help save many
moms, babies and families from the deadly pain of
abortion!
Also... THANK YOU to all the other wonderful students who submitted pro-life essays...
We
received many, many excellent essays, and this made it very challenging
to pick the winners. All of you are to be congratulated for great pro-life essays!
Also...
Many THANKS to everyone who donated time and treasure to help... including
everyone who assisted, volunteered, judged essays and helped in
other ways to make this possible! May God bless you and yours!
This essay contest was part of a huge pro-life
LoveMatters.com newspaper distribution to 30,000 students...
Fr. Sal Pilato, Superintendent of Catholic high schools in
Los Angeles, helped make it all possible. With his approval and
assistance, we were able to give a copy of our 32-page LoveMatters.com
newspaper to 30,000 students at 50 Catholic high schools in the
Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Praise God!
Want a LoveMatters.com Distribution and Essay Contest in your Diocese?
Call us for details at: 310-378-0067
Also very important...
Donations are urgently needed to continue reaching students with our
LoveMatters.com newspapers and essay contests. Please consider
giving a tax-deductible donation today so we can reach more students
and save more moms, babies and families from abortion and sexual
sins.
Please MAIL your tax-deductible donation payable to "Pro-Life America" to:
Pro-Life America
Attn: LoveMatters.com Essay Contest
1840
S. Elena Ave., #103
Redondo Beach, CA
90277
You can also donate with a credit card
over the phone at: 310-378-0067
The winning essays...
First Place
Elizabeth Chapin
Sophomore
Villanova Preparatory High School
A voice is
something we often take for granted. What do we use it for? How often do we
regret using it? And how often do we meet someone who has no voice at all? We use our voices to speak simply, but also
for emotions that cannot be expressed through words. We laugh with our voices,
we shout, we sing, we whisper, and we cry.
We use our voices
to say what is important to us. We speak out on issues we hold dear. We say
with words how much we love someone, and we can say with sounds how happy or
sad we are.
But
to have no voice at all, to be left without a means of sharing your ideas, your
beliefs, or your dreams, is something else entirely. Not to be able to say how
much you care – what would that feel like?
There
is someone like that right now -- someone who has no rights and no say in what
goes on around her. There is someone who will never be able to tell her hopes,
or pains, to others. There is someone who will never have a voice – because that
someone has been killed. That someone is an aborted baby.
What would it be
like if that baby had a voice?
What would it be
like if a baby could describe to us the warmth of the womb, the comfort and
security of the darkness she was wrapped in? Would she know it was dark? Or
would she simply feel safe and protected by her surroundings? Would she be able
to feel herself growing, or her hands separating into fingers? Perhaps the tickle of a spine beginning to
form?
She might grow
accustomed to the sounds of voices in the world beyond her – the sounds of her
mother’s voice speaking a language she could not yet understand. The
tiny universe of the womb would be forever to the baby, anything and everything
she could know. She would move her tiny
feet through the fluids, feel the blood rushing past the holes that would
become ears.
In the distance
there would be the constant thumping of the heart, a rhythm she would learn to
live by. She would be enveloped in a pod of motion, and would try to move along
with it. She would kick her feet against a wall, a barrier between the baby and
the outside. An outside the baby might not live to see.
Who
can give voice to the unborn? Death takes away their voices, and their chance
to speak out against the horrors done to them. The “Abortion Methods” article
in the LoveMatters.com newspaper
shared the brutal truth and hard facts of abortion. During “the
procedure,” babies are killed by suction, by violent extraction, by
dismemberment, and by poison injection.
Sound like a
horror movie? Many would be inclined to
agree, including women who have suffered through an abortion. They still have
their voices, and many use them to speak out against the mistake of killing an
unborn child. Michaelene Jenkins, from San
Diego, California,
described her abortion in vivid terms: “...I wanted to scream. I wanted it to
stop. I suddenly knew there was a baby inside. They were killing my baby!”
And
abortion doesn't just take the voice from the child. It can also take the voice
of the mother. Hundreds of young and middle-aged women have died from injuries
caused by abortion. What would they say if they still had a voice?
Abortion
is deadly. It steals life from the baby,
and it takes a life from the mother – either her unborn child's – or the
mother’s own. What would have happened to the millions of voices lost to
abortion? What could have been achieved with the dreams of those children and
mothers?
Abortion kills
hope. It kills the future, and it kills a child's chance to speak out. Give a
baby a voice, and let the child live.
Second Place
Bronwyn Bennett
Junior
Villanova Preparatory School High School
Statistics don’t
impress everyone. The horrifyingly high numbers of unborn children killed each
year—each day—could make anyone pause, and maybe realize for a moment how much
grief the world carries for these forgotten infants, and the mothers who are
tortured by their losses.
But numbers don’t
have as terrible an impact as truth. When we hear the true stories of women who
have suffered for having an abortion, or the grief felt by parents whose
daughters are killed during these “surgeries”— which happens much more often
than abortionists will admit — the reality of abortion’s sickening effects
begins to sink in. (See tragic deaths
reported in LoveMatters.com.)
I
come from a family that believes in the value of life above all. My older
sister and I were both adopted, through a private agency, in closed adoptions.
I was fortunate; my birth mother never doubted that adoption was the right
choice.
I
came very close to never meeting my sister. She had a different birth mother.
Her mother was 26 years old, and alone, when she got pregnant under violent
conditions. At first, she chose abortion – she did not want to have this man’s
child. Only hours before my sister would have died, her birth mother sat in a
waiting room alone…and she saw a poster offering counseling for women facing
pregnancy. The reality struck her that she was carrying an unborn human being,
waiting to live — and she was waiting to let that baby die.
She called the number
on the poster. With the agency’s help, she found a family to live with until
the baby arrived. The family protected her and kept her pregnancy a secret.
Within a year after my sister’s birth, the adoption was final. The biological
father never knew the baby existed.
The
debate over abortion has become one of the most controversial and emotional
issues in political or moral terms. Both the pro-life and the pro-choice groups
come armed with many statistics, assurances and testimonials to promote their
view. But on closer inspection, many of the pro-choice arguments use false or
exaggerated information. One of their foremost claims is that a woman’s body is
her own, and that she alone decides what to do with herself. If she does not want a nine-month pregnancy, they
say there is no logical reason not to abort.
However, with
conception, a new life begins: a child’s life. There is no better way to say it
than the way LoveMatters.com says it:
“A woman’s body
does not have two beating hearts, two blood types, two heads, four eyes, four
arms and four legs. A pregnant woman and her baby have all these and more. And
what about when she’s pregnant with a male baby? That’s not her body…it’s a
unique baby boy growing in her womb.”
Some professionals
and doctors encourage frightened young women that an abortion is safe, and
clean, and harmless. But in every procedure, the baby’s body is mutilated and
torn apart, limb from limb. (Explanations and details are available on many
websites, but few show photos… have you noticed that? They rarely show you what
these deaths really look like.)
Many mothers – or
are they just “women” since abortion seemingly takes away their child and their
responsibilities as parents – are injured, sometimes permanently.
In many cases, women
die from excessive bleeding because of punctured uteruses or lacerated
cervixes, or from septic infections, or from other complications.
There is no
safety, no guarantee in aborting a life. It is not an “inconvenience” to be
forgotten. It will leave its scar.
This
weekend, my older adopted sister, Megan Makaria Bennett — makaria is the Greek word for “blessed”—celebrates her twenty-first
birthday with our mother, grandmother, and her godmother. They are enjoying
this landmark birthday with all the love and pride we share for her.
I am seventeen
years old, preparing for my senior year and for college after that. My life is
the greatest gift God has given me, along with many talents, friends, and
dreams. Abortion plays no part in life. It is nothing but murder.
Third Place
Megan Golbranson
Sophomore
Saint Monica Academy
“A person’s a person
no matter how small.” This quotation
from Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who is becoming more and more relevant as
this generation deals with the consequences of the 1973 Roe vs. Wade
decision– the verdict that made the most notorious murder, the killing of the
innocent unborn, not only legal, but commonly accepted and even encouraged.
Since 1973, pro-life
and anti-life groups have been founded.
Debate, conflict, and division have resulted. Questions concerning
conflicting rights and freedoms have arisen. What is life? What is considered
human? And, most importantly, when does human life begin?
To
justify the legalization of abortion, abortion advocates maintain that one or
both of the following notions is true:
(1) a mother’s right to her
“personal freedom” outweighs her child’s right to be born
(2) human life does not begin until
birth
If both these
statements are false, then pro-abortionists cannot justify the “right” to kill
unborn children.
As
to the first notion… Is a mother’s right to “personal freedom” more fundamental
than a child’s right to live? What is
this “right” that abortion-seeking mothers claim?
In March 2008,
Barack Obama asserted that bearing a child is a punishment, saying, “if (my
daughters) make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.” This assumes a child is a burden, and the
mother wants to be “free” from this burden. Pro-abortionists contend that
babies can be expensive, inconvenient, and unwanted. They claim that a woman should have the right
to terminate a pregnancy.
It is true that
bearing and raising a child can be a financial and emotional hardship to
some. But should a child’s own mother be
allowed to kill him or her simply because raising a child is expensive,
inconvenient, or unwanted? This theory does not make sense. A child of any age can be expensive or
inconvenient. But parents cannot kill
their four-year-old child, for instance, just because their food and clothing
are expensive.
Furthermore,
abortion advocates argue that “personal freedom” includes a right to act in
accordance with personal beliefs and opinions. They argue that the morals and
beliefs of pro-life advocates should not be forced upon those who have
different opinions.
So, does this mean
that terrorists, for example, should be allowed to murder people because they
don’t share the “opinions” of people who say murder is wrong? Should polygamy be allowed and child abuse
be condoned all because the offenders maintain different beliefs? Of course not! Basic morals should be, and are, taken into
account in legal aspects. So again, the
right to kill cannot be supported.
Finally, the
“personal freedom” supporters claim a mother has a “right to choose”- to choose
to terminate her pregnancy or to choose to give birth. But the choice was made before the child was
conceived. People have the free right to
choose their actions, but also have the responsibility of properly dealing with
the consequences of bad choices.
So, as you can
see, in no way is a mother’s personal freedom more fundamental than a child’s
right to life, no matter how inconvenient or unwelcome that child may be.
The second contention
concerns, “When does human life begin?” In
order to answer this, we must begin by defining the word “human”.
Webster’s
Dictionary defines human as “…of, relating to, or characteristic of people or
human beings.”
So, what are the
characteristics of human beings? What
defines a human life?
Pro-abortionists
argue that a fetus is not human because it’s too small or too dependent or not
developed enough. They say that size,
dependency, and development define humanity.
This doesn’t make
sense. First of all, does size really
matter? A six-foot, two hundred pound
person, for example, is not any more human than a five foot, one hundred pound
person. Dependency, also, does not
define humanity. For instance, conjoined
twins are dependent on each other for survival. That does not make them
inhuman. What about infants, small
children, handicapped people, and the elderly? Do the pro-abortionists advocate
the killing of all those people dependent on others literally for survival?
Development also
does not determine whether or not something is human. People develop, mature, and grow every
second, every minute, of every day. This
does not mean we are becoming more human as we advance. Therefore, humanity is
not defined by these characteristics.
So, what defines
humanity?
To answer that, we
must begin by answering the question, “What is created at the moment of
conception?” The simple answer is, of
course, a zygote.
But what is that
zygote? Pro-abortionists claim that it is just a cell, a clump of tissue, part
of the mother. How can that be true?
From the moment of conception, the baby has a new set of genes, utterly
and absolutely distinct from the mother’s. Not to mention, the baby may have a
different blood type, eye color, skin color, or personality than the mother. A
human being has only one blood type, one set of genes. Therefore, from the moment of conception, the
life is separate from the mother.
It is also
important to remember that, even in the earliest stages of pregnancy, the baby
is human, not a “potential” human. The
zygote will change and grow and develop as the heart begins to beat, and he or she
rolls over in the mother’s womb, and begins to suck his or her thumb. The growing will continue after birth through
infancy, childhood, adolescence and adulthood.
Other than the
moment of conception, there is no other moment when you become human. As
Beckwith said in Politically Correct Death, “The unborn, therefore, is
not a potential human, but a human with great potential.”
The LoveMatters.com newspaper
says: “since abortion was legalized in 1973, 47,000,000… lives have been lost.”
And that is only in America.
What about the other millions of babies that have been aborted; that will be
aborted?
Maybe their tiny
hands would have held a paintbrush as an artist – the next Picasso. Maybe their little hands would have gripped a
racket and played professional tennis.
Maybe they would have grasped a pen – filling out papers as a United
States President.
We don’t
know. We never will know. Because they
were never given a chance.
President Ronald
Reagan once said, “I’ve noticed that everyone who is ‘for’ abortion is already
born.” And everyone already born has
been given a chance. What about the
unborn? What about their chance?
Yes, almost 50
million babies have been legally murdered, due in large part, to the
self-centered actions of abortionists, politicians, members of the media,
academia, pregnant women, fathers, parents, grandparents and more.
A person’s a
person no matter how small… no matter how dependent… no matter how
developed.
Every child has the right to
live.
As Pope John Paul II said, “America you are beautiful… and
blessed…The ultimate test of your greatness is the way you treat every human
being, but especially the weakest and most defenseless. If you want equal
justice for all and true freedom and lasting peace, then America, defend
life."
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Again... THANK YOU to all the wonderful students who
submitted pro-life essays! It was a blessing to receive so many
beautiful essays.
Looking forward... Would you like to bring LoveMatters.com pro-life
newspapers and our Essay Contest to your Diocese or city...
If so, please call us for details at: 310-378-0067
Also, we pray you will consider supporting our life-saving efforts with a tax-deductible donation today.
Students, babies, mothers, fathers and families are struggling with
crisis pregnancies right now... they need our help today, tomorrow,
next week...
But we cannot continue giving them life-saving
pro-life information and assistance through our 32-page newspaper and websites without your support.
Please consider MAILING a tax-deductible donation payable to "Pro-Life America" today:
Pro-Life America
Attn: LoveMatters.com Essay Contest
1840
S. Elena Ave., #103
Redondo Beach, CA
90277
You can also donate with a credit card
over the phone at: 310-378-0067
Thank you for helping us save lives and souls!
May God bless you and yours!
“Whatsoever you do for the least of My
brothers,
that you do unto Me.” Matthew
25:40
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