Our Annual High School Oratory Contest was held virtually the third week of May. We had 20 contestants who gave powerful speeches in defense of life. Our first-place winner was Bergen Johnson from Manistee and Mason County Right to Life. Our second-place winner was Ethan Huizen from Grand Rapids Right to Life, and our third-place winner was Blaze Cerbins from Holland Area Right to Life.

From Bergen’s speech:

“But what is abortion? Hey Google, what is abortion? One of the first things to pop up will say, “The deliberate termination of a HUMAN pregnancy, most often performed during the first 28 weeks of a pregnancy.” Planned Parenthood cannot say that it is a human pregnancy; but, one of its many large money donors Google can’t come to say non-human, a clump of cells, they say human pregnancy. That seems odd but moving on, that is what abortion does to you. Be quiet and move on, it was your right as a woman. Its empowering to have that choice but in reality, almost all women that have had an abortion don’t ever come to move on and get over it.”

From Ethan’s speech:

“Once people start taking the role of God in deciding when life should end, it is a slippery slope and many lives are affected in tragic ways. An example of where this slippery slope leads is the Netherlands, where they have gone so far as to widely practice involuntary euthanasia. As stated in a 2014 article by the American College of Pediatricians, “Frequently it is the Dutch physician who decides who lives and who dies.” Also in the Netherlands it is even becoming acceptable for people to request euthanasia because they are elderly and tired of living or who might otherwise live for many years, such as young people with mental illness. This ideology ultimately devalues life, and if we let our society continue to slide, what is to stop it from being acceptable to request euthanasia if you are depressed, have the flu, or simply have a bad day.”

From Blaze’s speech:

“According to Dr. Warren Hern’s book, Abortion Practice, which was written to train doctors to perform abortions, he defines an unwanted pregnancy as a “disease” a “parasitic illness” for which the treatment of choice is abortion. This is false science because this so called unborn “clump of cells” is genetically distinct from its parents. These cells have all the genetic material needed to drive their human development. Granted, it is an immature human, but human nonetheless. Pro-Life apologist and author, Scott Klusendorf writes, “Unlike sperm and ovum, the zygote possesses the active capacity to develop into an embryo, fetus, infant, child and adult. Living things do not become entirely different creatures in the process of changing their form. What they are stays the same.”

For more information about future contests, contact the State Contest Coordinator Emily Kroll, ekroll@rtl.org, or your local affiliate.