By Maria V. Gallagher, Legislative Director, Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation
The tragedy of New York’s new sweeping abortion law, the “Reproductive Health Act” passed on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, is having a profound impact on young people—if the essay contest I recently judged is any indication.
A number of students cited the injustice of the Empire State’s abominable abortion statute in the essays they submitted to the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Essay Contest.
Take, for instance, Marie-Therese, a homeschooled 10th grader. In an essay she entitled, “Darkening the Golden Door,” the high school sophomore wrote this compelling introduction:
Imagine you were to take out a lease on an apartment for nine months. You do not have to pay for rent and your food and utilities are provided; however, you must leave after the nine months are up. As attractive as this may sound, there is a catch: at any point, your landlord could decide to kill you, even while you are moving out. This is, in essence, what New York’s newly passed ‘Reproductive Health Act’ allows to happen to unborn children.
Marie-Therese then movingly wrote of the horrors of late-term abortions, the giant loopholes within the RHA, and the special dangers awaiting New York babies who have been diagnosed with disabilities in their mothers’ wombs.
The young writer ends by remarking:
New York Governor (Andrew) Cuomo celebrated the passing of this bill by having One World Trade lit pink to ‘celebrate this achievement and shine a bright light forward for the rest of the nation to follow’ (Governor’s Press Office). Whereas New York once stood as a beacon of refuge, harboring a lady who encouraged the teeming masses to find solace and shelter in America, we are now using monuments such as One World Trade Center to encourage the celebration of a pro-abortion legislature and actively hope that the rest of the United States, and the world, follows in its footsteps.
Darkening a golden door, indeed.
Meanwhile, Stephen, a high school senior, expressed his disgust with the New York law and others which can give rise to infanticide.
I never thought that living in my own country, the United States of America, would I have ever seen the day that flat out murder would be legalized. Our own Declaration of Independence, which was written by our founding fathers, states, ‘We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’
Unalienable rights cannot be taken away nor denied…
…Infanticide is the deliberate murder of a baby after it has been delivered and deemed completely separate from the mother. Unfortunately, what is considered to be a societal norm in many Third World countries such as India and Nepal, is now spreading to the United States starting in the state of New York.
It is so tragic that these young people have to deal with the disturbing reality of late-term abortions and infanticide. Yet, with their gift of communication, they are raising their young voices in defense of the most vulnerable.
As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., once wrote, “Every society has its protectors of the status quo and its fraternities of the indifferent who are notorious for sleeping through revolutions. ”
That does not include pro-lifer youth. They are vigilant. They will not rest until every baby is loved in life and protected in law.
With their winning mix of passion and idealism, they can indeed start the revolution of love which will change the world—and make it safe for all babies and their mothers.