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NRL News
The First
Place Winners in the Editor’s note. The following essays were written for the National Right to Life Pro-Life Essay Contest. Elizabeth Faiella won first place at the senior level—grades 10-12—and Clare Kossler won first place at the junior level—grades 7-9. The
Horrors of Abortion
The afternoon was hot, and legislators fanned themselves with their copies of constituent testimony. From my seat at the back of the hall I watched a girl, not much older than I was, take the microphone. She spoke clearly and articulately, saying she was mature enough to make her own decisions, that this bill requiring parental notification before performing an abortion was completely unnecessary, and that her parents had no business knowing whether or not she decides discreetly to end the life of her child. She was seventeen. There is no doubt that many of the abortions performed in America are the result of insufficient education about the horrors of that procedure. The process is physically excruciating and emotionally scarring, leaving the mother with lifelong aches. The death of the unborn child is grisly and horrible; it is hard to imagine that anyone with a clear knowledge of the atrocious way in which the fetus is handled would still consider an abortion. But what do teens learn about abortion? They learn that it is painless, easy, and convenient. They are told not to worry about a thing. They are told, “Well, don’t get pregnant, but if you do, you could always have an abortion.” No mention is made of the fact that 97% of women who had abortions experience intense pain during the procedure, or that abortion is especially painful for younger patients, or that hemorrhage, cervical laceration, and severe infection are common complications of abortions. No mention is made of the psychological agony of Post-Abortion Syndrome, or of the multitudes of women who deeply regret their decision to have an abortion. No description is given of the gruesome treatment of the fetus during suction aspiration. No, these topics are labeled as distasteful and offensive--as a pro-life group found when they visited the University of New Hampshire. The public is often unwilling to face these facts, and many find photographs of aborted children to be repugnant. But why should people be so disgusted by the results of abortion if it is simply “a medical procedure?” Young people must also be informed of abortion alternatives, such as adoption. They must know that there is hope for their children to have a bright future in a loving home. Across the United States, families are ready and eager to adopt newborns, and Crisis Pregnancy Centers are prepared to counsel and help mothers as they deal with their difficult decisions. Each woman should be informed that she does have a right to choose--to choose a safe, happy life for herself and for her child. A
Person’s a Person “A person’s a person no matter how small.” Parents everywhere in America read their children Horton Hears a Who to teach them that they should treat everyone the same no matter what their differences are – size or otherwise. No one seems to have read that story to our government. It insists on allowing abortion, and yet the fetuses being killed are in fact just little people. Maybe America should take a leaf out of Dr. Seuss’s book by remembering that a person’s a person no matter how small, and permanently ban abortion. Some people think that fetuses aren’t people. Our nation made the same mistake many years ago when we didn’t count African Americans as people. This caused us to enslave them. Eventually, we managed to stop slavery determining that African Americans were in fact people. We can determine that fetuses are people by our scientific studies and technologically advanced ultrasounds. At six weeks, the unborn child’s heartbeat begins and the head begins to form. At ten weeks, the essential organs are already working. Later on, when the doctor performs an ultrasound, it is a baby that the mother sees on the screen – not just a dispensable part of her body. Just like slavery was stopped when it was clear African Americans were people, abortion should be stopped because fetuses are people. A little contradiction resulting from abortion is that a fetus has protection from a murderer yet not its own mother! The argument can be made that a murderer has killed a fetus that is wanted. The mother just kills an unwanted “part” of her body. But, the reality is that we pro-life activists do want that baby. We are like Horton, who begs, “Please don’t harm all (our) little folks who, have as much right to live as us bigger folks do.” Every life is important, and for all we know, that baby could change the world forever. A fetus should be protected in all circumstances, regardless of who is trying to harm it. When America finally figures out that everyone counts, even a tiny fetus, we can be the country our founding fathers had hoped for. We look back on slavery and think that the government was so blind as to ignore it. Fifty years from now, people will look back on abortion and think that we are the blind ones. Is that really the impression we want to make on history?
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