National Contest Gives Platform to Pro-Life Teens
by Jenni Parker
April 28, 2004
(AgapePress) - In many states around the U.S., high school students are getting a chance to speak up for the unborn and others affected by sanctity-of-life issues as the teens participate in competitions designed to help them learn to voice their pro-life convictions.National Right to Life is again sponsoring its annual youth speech competition, the Jane B. Thompson National Oratory Contest, which is scheduled to be held in Arlington, Virginia, in July at the National Right to Life Convention.
The student competition, which is open to public, private, and home-schooled teens, requires the participants to research, write, and present their own pro-life speech on abortion, euthanasia, or infanticide. Eliminations proceed from local and regional speech contests and progress to contests at the state and national levels, with a grand prize of $2,500 awarded to the national winner.
Emerging Pro-Life Voices
The competition attracts a dynamic kind of youth. Tabitha Worrell of Hot Springs, Arkansas, is a 14-year-old high school junior who has been home-schooled for eight years and who keeps busy with her church youth group, debate club, 4-H, her home-school group, and volunteering at a local hospital. After she graduates, the teen plans to pursue a nursing career. In the meantime, the statewide winner will be representing Arkansas at the national competition this summer.
Last year's winner in Colorado was Kristi Burton, another home-school student, who said competing in the oratory contest sponsored locally by Colorado Right to Life was one of the best experiences she had during her high school years. She says the contest was for her "a great opportunity to learn how to speak in a comfortable environment," and that it "also gave me a chance to stand up for what I believe in."
Burton compares the slaughter of the innocent unborn children in America to the slaughter of millions of Jews during the Nazi holocaust. She encourages other youths to get involved in saving babies' lives. And Burton says the Right to Life oratory contest is a great way for teens to learn to speak out on moral issues, a skill that will "be a wonderful asset for you in the years to come."
Regional winner Danielle Parker of LaVergne, Tennessee, agrees that the experience of competing is valuable. The 16-year-old LaVergne High School student, who aspires to be an attorney and an actress -- and maybe to run for public office one day -- placed third in last year's regional contest. But she says she feels a lot more poised this time around. She recently took first place in the Rutherford County division and will go on to contend at the state level on May 22 for a chance to represent Tennessee at the national competition.
Parker's division-winning speech described the parallels between abortion and chattel slavery. She feels it is important for people to realize how allowing the U.S. courts to deny the humanity -- and thereby the rights -- of the unborn threatens the civil rights of all. "Abortion truly does affect everyone," she says, "and it's something we should all be concerned about."
Parker says her father, a pastor and a member of Black Americans For Life, inspired her to learn more about the pro-life movement and to get involved in public speaking about the issue. "There are a lot of things I'd like to change, like ending abortion and improving education. I'd like to be able to influence things for the better," she says.
Last year, Katie Beebe of Cabot, Arkansas, won both her state contest and the national contest. In her winning speech she spoke of the importance of recognizing that life truly does begin at conception. And where a human being's life begins, so, Beebe implied, should their rights.
The teen noted that those rights which the Founding Fathers set forth in the Declaration of Independence were acknowledged as inalienable and given by God, the same "higher power" that gives life and creates human beings in His own image. "It is not up to an unprepared mother or an abortion doctor to take away the precious gift that was given to us when we were conceived," Beebe stated.
The Future Is Now
Through local Right to Life chapters nationwide, impassioned pro-life youth are learning to speak out for the rights of the unborn. And as Bianca Hovey of Human Life of Seattle noted a few years ago when her group organized a youth oratory contest for the first time, the young people are filling their adult counterparts with immediate pride and long-term hope.
Hovey commented that such teenagers are not merely the future of the pro-life movement, but "they are a very important part of it right now. They are on the 'front line,' since many of their peers are the ones seeking abortions. In a unique way, teenagers can be very effective pro-life advocates by supporting and educating their friends."
Meanwhile, contest organizers report seeing tremendous positive effects on the young people themselves as a result of their participation. Many say in preparing competitive speeches the contestants gain the ability to articulate their beliefs while coming to understand the imperative of protecting vulnerable life, whether in the womb, the intensive care unit, or a nursing home. The experience can help form a basis for their immediate influence of peers as well as a foundation for their lifelong involvement in the pro-life movement.
