ABORTION

What if I told you that, right now, someone was choosing if you were gonna live or die? 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?

Every day a hundred and fifteen thousand children are dying through abortion. A hundred and
fifteen thousand. That means that five thousand children would die every hour. All those lives...gone. All
that potential...gone. And all that hope in the future...gone.

Now, I know what some of you might be thinking, "Oh, it's not really killing. After all, a fetus isn't
a child...right? Why do we think that just because a fetus can't talk or do what we do it isn't a human
being yet? Some babies are born after only five months. Is this baby not human? We would never say
that, yet abortions are performed on five month old fetuses all the time. Or do we only call them
humans if they're wanted? No, fetuses are definitely humans, knit together in their mothers by our
wonderful Creator who knows them all by name. And this gave me the huge reason for my advocacy, to
fight against the legality of abortion here in the Philippines.

I know some people say that the mother has a right to abort. After all, her life is dramatically
impacted by having a baby. But I'm asking you to 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. Talking
about the mother's choice...the mother may have had a choice not to have unprotected sex in the first
place. 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.

And who's to say abortion is the easy way out? I don't think people understand the effects of
abortion on a woman. Women who've had an abortion tend to have more mood disorders substantial
enough to provoke them to harm themselves. In addition, women who've had an abortion are five times
more likely to have problems with drug and alcohol abuse. Abortion leaves a woman feeling lost and
uncertain about their future.

Thank you for taking time to think about the issue of abortion, to think about the unborn, and to
think about the effects of abortion on a mother. If you walk away with anything after this speech, walk
away with the words of Horton. You know him...the elephant that risked his life to save that little speck?
Remember him and his famous quote:

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