12-Year-Old Stuns Pro-Choice Teacher and School with Pro-Life Presentation (On YouTube)

LifeSiteNews ^ | Monday February 16, 2009 | Kathleen Gilbert

[GonzoII]

Monday February 16, 2009

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12-Year-Old Stuns Pro-Choice Teacher and School with Pro-Life Presentation

By Kathleen Gilbert

TORONTO, February 11, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - 12-year-old "Lia" of Toronto has become a star at her school and on Youtube with her five-minute pro-life speech, crafted for a school competition.  Despite discouragement and outright opposition, Lia's presentation was so well done that she reportedly won the contest she was told she would be disqualified from, due to the "controversial" message of her speech.

Lia's mother broke the story of her daughter's win in an e-mail to the Moral Outcry blog. LifeSiteNews.com attempts to contact Lia and her parents for comment were unreturned by press time. The speech, however, is available in its entirety on Youtube, where it has been viewed over 100,000 times and sparked a heated discussion. (See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOR1wUqvJS4&feature=channel_page)

"What if I told you that right now, someone was choosing if you were gonna live or die?" begins the charismatic seventh-grader in a practice recording of the speech posted on Youtube.  "What if I told you that this choice wasn't based on what you could or couldn't do, what you'd done in the past, or what you would do in the future? And what if I told you, you could do nothing about it? 

"Fellow students and teachers, thousands of children are right now in that very situation.  Someone is choosing without even knowing them whether they are going to live or die.  That someone is their mother.  And that choice is abortion."

Lia, speaking easily and with sunny enthusiasm, fires off answers to several common objections in the brief speech. 

"Why do we think that just because a fetus can't talk or do what we do, it isn't a human being yet?"  She asks.  "Some babies are born after only five months.  Is this baby not human? 

"We would never say that. Yet abortions are performed on 5-month-old fetuses all the time.  Or do we only call them humans if they're wanted?

"Think about the child's rights, that were never given to it. No matter what rights the mother has, it doesn't mean we can deny the rights of the fetus," she said. "We must remember that with our rights and our choices come responsibilities, and we can't take someone else's rights away to avoid our responsibilities."

Lia's mother says that the topic was of her own choosing, and that she was determined not to back down, even after teachers told her it was "too mature" and "too controversial."

"She was also told that if she went ahead with that topic, she would not be allowed to continue on in the speech competition," Lia's mother wrote in the email to the Moral Outcry blog.  "Initially, I tried helping her find other topics to speak on, but, in the end, she was adamant. She just felt she wanted to continue with the topic of abortion. So she forfeited her chance to compete in order to speak on something she was passionate about."

But according to updates posted on the blog (http://bound4life.com/blog/2009/02/06/y-o-p-p#updates), Lia's pro-choice teacher was so moved by the speech that she decided to allow her to participate in the competition after all. Lia won for her class.

The speech then sparked a controversy at the school wide competition last Thursday, where the school principal and teachers reportedly all agreed that Lia's speech was the obvious winner - but the judges had decided to disqualify her because of the topic. 

By the end of the day, one judge who was offended by the pro-life speech agreed to step down, leaving the remaining judges to reverse the decision and declare Lia the school wide winner, advancing Lia to represent her school at a regional competition.

Lia's mother said the girl's determination to present her message stemmed from her family's participation in the pro-life movement. 

"We were invited to participate in a 'Life Tape Siege,'" she wrote.  "Once my kids heard of this invitation, they all agreed: 'We have to do that!'  Since then, Lia's passion for seeing abortion end has continued."

URL: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/feb/09021605.html

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[Syncro]

You are correct, I read too fast.

Your scenario sounds good!

[Northern Yankee]

I’ll let her in to my school!

[MHGinTN]

'Even though you can't see them or hear them at all,
A person 's a person, no matter how small.'

[MountainFlower]

God promised to raise up a new generation who would stand for Him. She is just the start of it. GO LIA! May God bless her, and protect her and the rest who take a stand!

[MHGinTN]

Perhaps it is because they are so recently come from God’s presence, but the young know abortion is killing alive children and are not so easily persuaded that it is okay to ‘take away the right to life of another, to avoid responsibility.’ Sad that our poseur-in-chief cannot discern such a simple truth.

[Guenevere]

bttt

[MountainFlower]

what you said!

[Junior_G]

This one must have been one of those "pro-aborts" instead of a "had-abort". A "had-abort" would have not conceded their "right" in any way.

Kudos to you for raising this point. I don't often hear discussion of how women who have had abortions are almost obligated to fiercely defend the practice, lest they feel guilty for offing their own children. During the presidential campaign when I had to listen to female coworkers hysterically rail against Sarah Palin, I always silently wondered how many abortions they'd had. You disagree with Palin on the issues? Fine. You think she's dumb? Fine. You despise her with every bone in your body and wish she'd get hit by a bus? Ok...how many abortions have you had, exactly?

[MrB]

Another question:
“If she had killed Trig and had her daughter kill her own baby, would she be OK in your eyes?”

Honestly, I had someone actually admit that the reason they hated her so much is that she knowingly gave birth to Trig.

[fabian]

bump for a very bold young lady...

[agrace]

I’d love to see actual numbers on this, although it would be an extremely difficult statistic to compile for obvious reasons.

I agree with both - there are plenty of women who’ve had abortions who have swung way to the pro-life side - myself included, to be utterly frank - I am appalled by my decision at 18, which was immature but done with eyes wide open (I’ll explain why I had such clarity, why I believe almost all women do), and as a result, I wouldn’t have another abortion even if it meant saving my own life.

At the same time, there are plenty of women who are still rabidly in favor. We see this evidenced on a reasonably regular basis right here with posted articles authored by women who have a vehement but horribly skewed perspective of morality when it comes to abortion, some who actually seem to brag about their choices, clinging to the notion that their abortions have saved them tons of grief in life rather than the opposite.

From personal experience I believe that those women cling desperately to their viewpoint because they can’t bear to face what’s behind curtain number two, so much so that they keep it all stuffed way down in deep dark places they don’t ever visit, and distract themselves from it by yelling against it. These women are in psychological trouble, but it’s too emotionally dangerous to admit it.

As a woman I can speak to this, because despite the propaganda they’ve been force-fed for decades, women do know that the baby isn’t just a clump of tissue. They have an inherent knowledge of their child and a God-given desire to protect him. I knew my baby was a baby, but I shut my eyes to the reality of it in order to get through to the other side of the worst thing I’ve ever done in my life.

But that’s the thing - you never do really get through. Abortion traumatizes women because their very souls cry out against what society insists is perfectly acceptable. And do those years of pro-choice propaganda have an effect? Absolutely. While it doesn’t eliminate that inherent awareness, it allows women to put it aside.

Don’t misunderstand me - are these women responsible for their own decisions? Absolutely. Abortion trauma for the mother is self-inflicted. But she has accomplices, and they all have to answer one day to the One who gave them life. And if I wasn’t assured years ago of His very undeserved forgiveness, I frankly don’t know how I would get through the rest of my life, and might be in denial as many of these women still are.

[agrace]

Me too, Calico. :)

[MrB]

I was so relieved to see that you “took it to the Cross”.
Indeed, He forgives, even when you don’t forgive yourself.

The lies of this world are inherently damaging, and those who don’t see the Spirit of Truth will never get over their trauma.

Indeed, it is “emotionally dangerous” for these women to address their guilt, especially when most have turned their back on the one Source of healing available to them.

[montesquieu]

bump for later!!

[Humble Servant]

Thanks for talking about this. I can only imagine how difficult it is. I worked for 4 years in psychiatric hospitals, and met at least 2 women that I know of who had serious depression issues years after an abortion. The worst part of it was that, for all the training we received about “validating” peoples’ feelings, the industry was so deeply mired in liberal dogma that we were not allowed to help them with any sense of remorse; only to reassure them that what they did was perfectly alright. These women were hurting deeply for their whole adult lives, and being told basically to shut up. There are no statistics that I know of on Post-Traumatic Stress (one of the great Liberal Shiboleths) for abortion; I believe the APA doesn’t want to sweep it under the rug; they want to bury it out in the woods under a big rock where no one will ever find it. I weep for the lost children, and weep for the women we have lied to.

Have you ever thought of establishing a group (or maybe there is one I’m not aware of) for people who’ve been through this for mutual support and / or activism? You (and a lot of other people) might be surprised at the numbers.

[afraidfortherepublic]

THis young lady had better not enroll in beginning sspeech at LACC. That nasty professor would censor her!

Excellent speech by a great speaker.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Have you ever thought of establishing a group (or maybe there is one I’m not aware of) for people who’ve been through this for mutual support and / or activism? You (and a lot of other people) might be surprised at the numbers.

Is this the work that Project Rachel does?

[Humble Servant]

http://www.hopeafterabortion.com/hope.cfm?sel=A31Q

Yes, indeed! Thanks for the lead, it looks like a good organization, and I’ll keep it handy. God Bless.