NRLC Oratory Contest Winner Turns the Tables on the Pro-abortion Attacks on Pregnancy Resource Centers

By Lisa Andrusko

Public speaking is usually at the top of people’s biggest fears, but not for the high school-age contestants who participated in this year’s National Right to Life Oratory Contest. The contest is held every year in conjunction with the National Right to Life Convention, this year hosted by the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation in Pittsburgh. Each participating state sends their winning contestant to the National Right to Life Contest, where their speeches are judged by people from around the country. 

The 2023 winner was Pennsylvania’s own Clare C. from Waterford. She was presented an award and check and gave her speech before Seth Dillon’s talk at the closing Banquet.

Clare, the ninth of ten children and home educated, began her speech by pointing out that an internet search for crisis pregnancy centers brings up not a list of locations but “article after article appears bashing them. They are called unethical, fake clinics, and providers of misinformation. The first article that came up for me was by the American Medical Association Journal of Ethics and titled ‘Why Crisis Pregnancy Centers are Legal but Unethical.’ Accusation after accusation was thrown at crisis pregnancy centers,” Clare says of the AMA article. 

Then she cleverly pivots, and using studies and health department reports, sets out to prove that “each accusation was actually true of abortion clinics. Now let’s consider how abortion clinics are legal but unethical.”

Clare recounts how the Pennsylvania facility run by infamous abortionist Kermit Gosnell violated the HIPAA Act by failing to secure patients’ private information. She notes that “none, not one, of the five Illinois Planned Parenthood facilities, the nation’s top abortion provider, were licensed by the state. Not only that, but of the 13 clinics that were licensed almost 200 health, and sanitary, and life code violations were discovered.” 

Finally, Clare tells her audience that the AMA article claims that these pro-life pregnancy centers “don’t abide by the four fundamental principles that are guides to medical practice.”  And again, Clare, takes those four principles and lays out that it is in fact the abortion clinics who miserably fail to adhere to those guiding principles.

“Therefore,” Clare concludes, “by the four fundamental principles, by their unlicensed status, and by their violation of HIPAA it is the abortion clinics which are legal but unethical.”

Oratory Contest Coordinator Scott Fischbach, NRLC Executive Director, said ”Congratulations to Clare and to all those who participated in the 2023  National Right to Life Oratory Contest.” He added, “To participate in the 2024 National Right to Life Oratory Contest, please contact your state affiliate of National Right to Life.”

To purchase a recording of Clare’s speech and all the talks given at the National Right to Life 2023 Convention, please go to NRLConvention.com.