2020 Pro-Life Essay Winner

Pictured Annica Holvey and Ted Varga

The Knights of Columbus Council 14255 sponsored the 10th Annual Pro-Life Essay Contest this year. Grade 7 students from St. Sebastian School were asked write an essay or poem to reflect the general theme of respecting life, including thoughts on abortion, euthanasia, and the role that the Catholic Church plays in promoting a culture of life.

A Council committee reviewed the entries from selected finalists and determined the winner. On May 26, 2021, it was announced that Annica Holvey is the contest winner this year. Annica received a $100 VISA gift card which was funded by the Council. We are especially grateful to teacher Sally Weakland who worked with the students directly to assist with the contest. We also thank school principal, Mr. Rohr for allocating time for the award presentation with the 7th grade class.

We are very proud of our students who took the time to write. All of the essays and poems were very thoughtful. It is encouraging to see that they understand what is means to be Pro-Life.

Annica’s Winning Essay:

Respect For Human Life

What is abortion? Abortion is a procedure to end a pregnancy. In 2018, 619,591 legal induced abortions were reported to CDC from 49 reporting areas. About 121 million unintended pregnancies occurred each year between 2015 and 2019. Of these unintended pregnancies 61% ended in abortion. That translates to 73 million abortions a year. (“Unintended Pregnancy and Abortion Worldwide” Guttmacher Institute) I think that it's extremely sad that so many unborn babies get aborted. The Catholic Church opposes all forms of abortion procedures. Personally I agree with the church. I think that abortion is wrong because you are ending a life. A lot of people say that it is just a cell and it doesn’t matter. It does matter, it is a living thing at the end of the day. You are taking away the life of an unborn baby if you abort it and I don’t think that is right at all. 

The Church opposition to abortion is the principle that “each and every human life has inherent dignity, and thus be treated with the respect due to a human person.” (“Respect for Unborn Human Life: The Church’s Constant Teaching” United States Conference of Catholic Bishops) That’s the foundation of the Church’s social doctrine, including its teaching on war, the use of capital punishment, euthanasia, health care, poverty, and immigration. To claim that some live human beings do not deserve respect or should not be treated as “persons” is denying the idea of inherent human rights.

Pope John Paul II said that “As well as the mother, there are often other people too who decide upon the death of the child in the womb. In the first place, the father of the child may be to blame, not only when he directly pressures the woman to have an abortion, but also when he indirectly encourages such a decision on her part by leaving her alone to face the problems of pregnancy… Nor can one overlook the pressures which sometimes come from the wider family circle and from friends. Sometimes the woman is subjected to such strong pressure that she feels psychologically forced to have an abortion: certainly in this case the moral responsibility lies particularly with those who have directly or indirectly obliged her to have an abortion.” (“A Special Word to Women Who Have Had an Abortion” United States Conference of Catholic Bishops)