Editor’s note. Starting yesterday and extending into next week, NRL News Today will repost all six of the winning essays from the 2026 NRLC Essay contest. Today we are posting the second-place winner in the Senior Division, grades 10-12, followed by the third place finisher on Friday. Next week we’ll repost the three Junior Division winners which are grades 7-9….
Why I Am Pro-Life
Christine N.
Texas
Love. Love conquers all. Love is love. I love you. While love has come to encompass so many definitions, the Christian definition of love is this: to will the good of the other.
What does the definition of love have to do with why I’m pro-life? Well, there are always two people involved in a pregnancy: the pregnant woman, and then there is “an other.” As in, the preborn child. Today’s culture often portrays the issue of abortion as a dichotomy. Either you love the woman and forget the fetus, if you’re pro-choice; or love the fetus and hate the woman, if you’re pro-life. In reality, I’m pro-life because I reject this false dichotomy. I’m pro-life because I choose to love them both.
Now, although the dichotomy is a false one, I recognize that it feels real for many women across the nation. As a student largely surrounded by pro-choice classmates, I’ve learned that many of them view abortion as a lifeline for women who can barely provide for their own needs, much less those of a child. But this is where the definition of love comes in. Whereas many would offer them the quick “solution” of a trip to the abortion clinic, our duty as pro-lifers is to show them true compassion, to accompany them in the trials of motherhood. We are called to actively will the good of these women and their children, to empty ourselves for their sake-by offering our time, money, and companionship.
Some might object, “Why would you make women go through all that for a clump of cells that won’t even feel anything?” I could respond from a biological standpoint, which involves the scientific consensus that life begins at conception and developmental milestones. Or I could take the philosophical route, where we discuss how abortion depends on dehumanization and why the preborn child’s right to life supersedes the mother’s right to bodily autonomy.
But whereas those paths are closer to my head, the one closest to my heart is that of love himself: Jesus Christ. Being all-powerful, he didn’t have to die on the cross for us. He could’ve saved us with a snap of his fingers, or he could’ve abandoned humanity entirely. But no, he didn’t choose the quick solution. He picked up the cross meant for us, bearing on his scourged back and pierced hands the suffering of all humanity.
When Jesus said, “This is my body given for you. Do this in remembrance of me,” he was in one way pointing at his death. While most of us aren’t called to endure a torturous death, every child of God is called to love like he did.
As pro-lifers, that means accompanying women in crisis pregnancies, no matter how much it costs us. That means looking at preborn children with the eyes of God, as human persons who are infinitely worthy of life and love. Because at the end of the day, I’d rather have loved too much than not enough.