Long Island Coalition for Life, Inc.

Oratory Contest
Pro-Life Speech on Abortion
by Thomas Varacalli
2nd Place Winner 2007


Today all of us have assembled here to defend and celebrate the most fundamental thing in the universe: life. According to the dictionary, the definition of life is "the condition that distinguishes organisms from inorganic objects and dead organisms." All of us know life because we are living it but we have lived life longer than we can remember it. We were living before we were born: when we were in our mother's womb we were not an inorganic object or a dead organism. Although dependant upon our mothers, we were our own persons.

From the moment of conception, when the egg and sperm fuse, a genetic code is created that is unique to that new individual. It is not a growth of flesh from the mother; it is an embryo - a new person destined for this world cocooned within its mother so it can grow. It is not the right of the mother to remove that embryo and kill it.

By the beginning of the third week, a cardio-vascular system is in place. Blood is circulating and a heart is beating. By the sixth week, there is a nervous system with a budding brain and an established spinal cord. By the eighth week, the limbs, lungs, liver, stomach, pancreas, and thyroid are growing. The embryo is one to one and half inches long and has its own fingerprints.

Despite this, abortion - the removal of the embryo to end a pregnancy - is legal in the United States. 23% of abortions - a total of 300, 000 annually - are killed within the first six weeks; that means that 77% of abortions - around one million a year - kill an embryo with a beating heart. A mother can legally kill her unborn child at any time for any given reason. A pre-mature baby can be born five months after conception and be kept alive because of the achievements of modern technology, just like my own 20-year old cousin was, but a baby at eight months can be butchered piece by piece out of his or her mother's womb for the simple reason of that it would interfere with education, job, or career. The number one reason why women have abortions is because they are unmarried; 42% of women cited that as their reason why they want their son or daughter killed. 38% of women said that it would interfere with education/job/career and/or that they have completed their childbearing. Only 1% of women cited rape as their reason and a mere 0.5% cited incest.

The process of an abortion takes only 5 to 10 minutes. However, that abortion never seems to go away; the destruction of a baby is heavy on the conscience and malpractice by doctors can have disastrous consequences. One survey showed that thirty to fifty percent of women who had an abortion suffer from sexual dysfunction; nineteen percent suffer from the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD); sixty percent of woman thought of suicide, twenty eight percent attempted suicide and fourteen percent attempted suicide more than once. The effects of abortion on a woman can create alcohol, drug, eating, and child abuse problems as well as lead to high rates of chronic relationship problems that often lead to divorce and single mothering. One abortion often leads to another.

Abortion is truly devastating. The genocide of 42 million unborn babies is a black stain on the soul of America; with every passing day that stain grows. Every twenty four seconds, another baby dies in this country; 3,600 die each day. Half of the American people either refuse to see this evil or are still ignorant to this issue. The majority of American politicians are not firm in this issue and the Democratic Party use abortion as an unholy litmus test for their candidates within their party.

Abortion is the central issue of the day and will determine if America will become either to follow Pope John Paul II in a "culture of life" or a "culture of death." Many new issues are now arising in this nation because of the lack of respect some people now regard life with. Embryonic stem cell research, cloning, and euthanasia are hot button topics. Sadly, all three of these issues are being accepted by too many Americans.

We must fight and protect life from the moment of conception to natural death. We must protect the most sacred and fundamental thing in this universe from a secular nihilist ideology. As the late John Paul II said, "We must proclaim to the world that no one has the right to kill unborn life."

Thank you,
Thomas Varacalli,
2nd Place Winner,
Long Island Coalition for Life, Inc.


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