Annual Pro-Life Essay Contest Winners

Every year, the St. Teresa of Calcutta Pro-life Ministry at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Lourdes holds a student essay contest. The winners are announced on Mother's Day each year and reprinted in the Inland Catholic magazine in the January/February issue to mark the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision.

CATHERINE CASEY

Before I even knew what abortion was, I was praying for it to end. It always seemed a natural part of our family life to pray for an end to abortion. When I grew older, my family took me to hold signs and pray in front of abortion clinics. My mom warned me that we might get yelled at and to prepare myself. She was right. We did get yelled at, but surprisingly we got thumbs up and supportive honks more often. There were some people who just looked at us, probably wondering why we cared. We are bombarded with the message that the fetus is not a child, just a choice. Everyone knows murder is wrong and deep, deep down everyone’s instincts tell them that abortion is murder. I believe that is why our presence at the abortion clinic, which reminds them of this possibility, created such a stir. When I was at my local Youth Symphony practice, I noticed a Planned Parenthood sticker on another girl’s violin case. I felt I should try to talk to her. I went up to her and said, “You know abortion is the killing of innocent babies.” She replied, “If the parent doesn’t want it, then it isn’t a baby.” The fact is, at the moment of conception, a fetus has 46 chromosomes and the same genetic makeup that it will have outside of the womb (1). This means that who you are today is no different than who you were from day one in the womb. As Christians, we also know that the pre-born baby bears the image of God and, therefore, has intrinsic value. The humanness of the baby is not dependent on whether it is wanted or not. As this student and I continued to talk, I eventually realized that many other students had come up behind me to back me up. I was so happy to know that there were many others that believed the truth and not just what the media was telling them. I realized that in speaking up, others were willing to join me and together we could help people think beyond the shallow ideas that the media had taught them. Our voice is important for whatever messages people believe about abortion being good, deep down they struggle with it because they are fighting their instincts.

1 “How to Prove Life Begins at Conception.” Catholic. com. Catholic Answers Press, July 16, 2016, Web. April 3, 2018.

ALEXANDRA CASEY

In my American history and literature class this year, we read the short story “The Lottery.” It was written in 1948 about a farming community in America which, through a lottery system, chooses one person to be stoned to death each year to ensure a successful harvest. Tessie, a wife and mother, chooses the ticket with the black mark — she will be the one sacrificed. In the end, even her husband and children throw a stone at her. The people of this town thought with a group mentality, which caused them to habitually perform this shocking ritual without examining its rationale. These townspeople had accepted the idea that it was admissible to sacrifice a human life in order to ensure a better harvest for the rest of the town. As unbelievable as this story may seem, we can see this mirrored in our culture today with the issue of abortion. The idea that it is all right to kill a baby in the mother’s womb because it creates an inconvenience for the mother and father is commonly accepted. This change in perspective
has occurred unexpectedly. An article came out on March 11, 2018, in The Washington Times about an English professor, Kay Haugaard, who used “The Lottery” for many years to spark discussions in her class. She wrote that she has noticed a grave shift in her students’ responses to the story. In the 1970s and ‘80s, most of her students reacted with horror to it and quickly recognized the author’s message of the dangers of blind conformity. However, the student responses have dramatically changed. In more recent years, students claimed that it was boring, while others felt it was “neat.”(1). In one class, when the teacher pressed her students, none was willing to openly admit that the practice of human sacrifice was morally wrong. One student explained that, “she had been taught not to judge and if this practice worked for the villagers, why should she argue differently?” (2) Sadly, this is a perfect example of growing relativism in our society. Relativism is the idea that moral principles are determined by our culture and are therefore subject to individual choice. It does not examine the intrinsic moral value of an action, with disastrous consequences. The idea that it is acceptable to abort a baby in utero because it creates an inconvenience for the parents does not examine whether it is intrinsically evil to kill a human life or not.

We must not just accept what we hear without examining it in light of moral absolutes, or else we will be subject to the whim of the day. We should follow the lead of the Catholic Church in speaking out against moral relativism and join in the fight for moral truth. In this way, we will not repeat the mistakes of the people in “The Lottery.” No one spoke out to save Tessie, but we must speak out and save each individual, including the vulnerable, defenseless and those deemed not worthy of life.

1 Piper, Everett. “Who Are You to Judge?” Washingtontimes.com. The Washington Times, LLC., March 11, 2018. Web. April 8, 2018.

2 ibid

CORRINE SANBORNE

I am pro-life because every being has the right to live. There is a lot of discussion on mother’s rights vs. baby’s rights, but if babies could support themselves after birth, would we even be discussing whether abortion is acceptable? Elderly people who cannot support themselves and those who are in a coma or brain dead are given the best care possible, rightly so, but why aren’t babies in the womb given the same respect and treated like they are just as precious? Our law states that if a pregnant woman is murdered, it is counted as a double murder, because both the mother and the unborn child have been murdered. If the mother chooses to kill her unborn child, however, it is not considered murder. Why do we give the unborn child justice in one case but not the other? Are we really that unsure of the value and dignity of an unborn child?

If someone was driving late at night and saw a person crossing the road, the driver would, of course, stop to let the person cross. If the driver was in the same situation, but this time is unsure it is a human, we would naturally assume that the driver would stop, because the driver would want to err on the side of caution and not accidently kill someone. If some people still question if the baby in the womb is a life, shouldn’t we still take care of it, in case it is a life?

The Pro-life Contest rules are as follows:

1. Entries must reflect the general theme of respecting life and may include thoughts on abortion, infanticide, euthanasia and stem cell research.

2. Essays should be 500 words or fewer. If you use statistics or quotations in the essay, they must be referenced by the use of footnotes and a bibliography.

3. Entries must be typewritten and double-spaced with pages numbered. Each will include a cover page with the entry form completed. The entrant’s name or other identifying information cannot appear elsewhere in the entry.

For more information, visit www.spokanecathedral.com/pro-life-ministry.