American Life League (ALL) has launched its annual pro-life essay contest. Spokesperson Susan Ciancio says middle and high school students are being asked to seriously think out their pro-life ideas.
"Moral courage is vital in today's society," the middle school prompt begins. "Standing up for your pro-life beliefs requires moral courage. Imagine that you have a friend who believes that a woman has a 'right' to abortion. How would you defend the preborn baby to her and explain that the baby has a right to life?"
High schoolers are asked to write about the spirituality concept of cura personalis, or "care for the whole person."
They have from now until November 6th to submit their papers, and they have a chance to win awards, including publication of their papers and cash and other prizes.
"They can put together these ideas in a well thought out essay and really try to explain what they're thinking," Ciancio tells AFN. "In so doing, they are also strengthening their faith and strengthening their beliefs and becoming better able to argue their points, because that's something they're going to have to do in the future."
She adds that those judging the essays are also involved in a learning process.
"We look at what students know and what they don't know and what they think, or maybe what they have the wrong ideas about or any misconceptions, and we try to build future lessons on those to clarify anything they might be confused about or to help explore things that maybe they say they want to learn more about," Ciancio details.
Keeping in mind that today's students are the future of the pro-life movement, she says the contest helps ALL prepare future Culture of Life Studies Program courses.
