Abortion - Pro Life - HIGH SCHOOL WINNER

HIGH SCHOOL WINNER

True to Life
Katherine Bugos, Lebanon, Oregon

The little girl stood on the sidewalk holding tightly to her mother's hand. Her mother was talking to a group of people standing on the sidewalk holding large white posters. Her mother wasn't very happy and little Emily wondered what was going on. Why were the people standing on the sidewalk? Why was her mother angry at them? Emily tried to sound out the words on the posters. The first word she did not understand but the other two words made her eyes grow wide with wonder:" Kills Children". She wanted to ask her mother what the first word, A-b-o-r-t-i-o-n, meant but she dare not interrupt. What could be so horrible as to kill children and why was her mother defending something that kills children? The questions flooded the little girl's innocent mind.

Little Emily did not understand the adult conversation going on above her but she caught bits and pieces of it. Her mother was saying things like "It's my choice" and "It's a free country!" Emily's little ears picked out the word `fetus' several times. That was a word she knew. She remembered the time a lady came to her school with small, rubbery models of babies at different stages growing in their mommies' tummy. The lady had let Emily hold the lifelike babies, but when Emily told her mom about it, she got mad. Her mom told her it was not right to call it a baby and the lady was wrong for doing so. She told Emily that the right word was `fetus'. Emily was bewildered at her mother's exasperation but she complied nevertheless.

Now, standing on the sidewalk in the cold wind with her mother's defiant voice above, Emily wondered what the rubbery models had to do with all of this. Emily, in her innocence, was too young to grasp the significance of the conversation. She was too young to know that 4,000 babies are torn from their mother's tummy each day. She was unaware that a-b-o-r-t-i-o-n spells MURDER. She knew nothing of the lies and evils of the abortion industry that had consumed America since the legalization of abortion, and that her mother was only one of the many victims of these lies. Emily's mother, too, was unaware of this. When she was still young, Emily's mother had been taught the code words of the abortion industry. Raised in an abortion-minded society, she had become seeped in the untruths of choice, women's rights, and tolerance of evil. Like so many other Americans, the lies held Emily's mother in darkness, closing her mind to the light of truth.

To the pro-life warrior who accepts the challenge of standing up for life even in the face of opposition, it seems a hopeless task. It seems that for every one step forward, we take two steps back and we never seem to make any progress. It seems as though the hearts and minds of men and women like Emily's mother are immovable mountains that will never budge. But it is at times like these that we must remember that faith moves the immovable. We must remember that the greatest ally one can have is truth; and truth is what we've got. Who else is so fortunate as to be assured of ultimate victory, aside from those who stand in defense of truth?

It's easy to get discouraged but we must never give up. The babies who will die today have never died before. Every day of legalized abortion is a new cause for sorrow. We still have a chance to make a difference and reach out to the babies and mothers who are still in danger. And while, for the time being, Emily's mother might not change her views, an indelible impression had been left in the memory of young Emily of a sign that reads: "Abortion Kills Children". Someday she may see the truth in the testimony and take her place in the pro-life movement. Be that as it may, we must be careful not to measure truth by our amount of success. Even if we never convince another person of the truth we treasure, even if we never pass another piece of pro-life legislation, even if all our attempts fail... the truth will not change. One can only pray for the strength to be the last one standing for life if it would ever come to that. As Pope Liberius said in 355 AD "My standing alone doesn't make the truth a whit weaker.

" No matter what new code words the abortionists and feminists come up with we will fight to expose them to the truth, for we are fighting for life. The truth will set us free and America will, once again, be a free country. We will be the voice of those who never got a chance to speak. Notice that the last letters of the word "American" spell "I CAN". WE CAN and will speak the truth that will uncover the evil of abortion!

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