By Sadie T., 8th grade, Minnesota
Editor’s note. Last week NRL News Today posted the three winning essays in the Senior Division, grades 10-12, from the 2024 NRLC Essay contest. This week we are posting the three Junior Divisions winners, which is grades 7-9. This essay finished third.
Imagine this: it’s an early morning, the sun is shining, the birds are tweeting, you’ve just woke up and you are exhausted. Despite your body’s protests you manage to get into your car and drive to church. When you get there you sit down in a pew and, right in front of you, you see a little bundle of joy with a chubby face, two large, sparkling eyes and tiny hands and feet. The baby grins at you, making its already plump face even rounder. What do you do? You smile back, of course. Suddenly you’re not quite so grumpy, you might even be a little jolly, just because some random baby smiled at you. This has happened to me many times, and it is instances like this that remind me why I am pro-life. Babies prompt happiness in every person they interact with, whether that interaction is simply an exchange of smiles or a lifelong relationship. Babies bring so much joy into this world, and we need to protect them at all costs.
One of my earliest memories is of my best friend sleeping over because her mom was giving birth. I vividly remember first catching a glimpse of the picture of tiny baby Joe. I fondly recall later waving a stuffed donut toy in front of his face and trying to get him to say the word “donut.” I remember his first baby teeth, cheering him up when he was crying, his first day of kindergarten, his first lost tooth. I watched Joe grow up into the bright, energetic, inquisitive nine year old that he is today, and we’ve had our ups and downs, but I wouldn’t give any of that up, not in a million years. It’s utterly baffling to think that anyone would turn down that opportunity. You get to watch a person evolve. You watch their personality develop as they grow older and you get to know them along the way! Every baby aborted is another person you’ll never get to know; does that not elicit any sort of sorrow in you?
While I don’t have any experience dealing with the horrors of abortion, I can attest to the immense goodness that babies cause. The joy that babies bring is invaluable, and the baby itself is irreplaceable. The damage done through abortion cannot be undone. It causes so much harm and it needs to be stopped. That is why I will always stand up for life.