First, a little context...
The theology curriculum at our high school culminates with an Apologetics course. Students are challenged to contemplate and express the veracity and sensibility of Catholicism, while polishing academic and social competencies that are essential for their character growth. In particular, critical thinking, logic, oral speaking, and rhetorical debate are embedded into the instruction of the course.
The fourth level of the classical curriculum is rhetoric, in which students focus on supporting perspectives with reasonable and logical evidence, while appealing to universal principles that corroborate with the truth. Apologetics provides a venue where students can practice such skills, but also assent to the pillars of our Catholic faith without intellectual coercion. This has the intended effect of 'making the faith their own', as our headmaster, David Thibault often remarks.
Now, we will share with you an original work, authored by our Student Government president, Ms. Mary Bocko. She puts forth a very principled, yet subtlety passionate defense of why the fight for life must continue. We will let her speak for herself...
The ongoing debate of abortion continues in both the private and the public sphere. Although the choice to terminate a baby is woman's personal action, the culture embraces her attitude as well: the fetus has no human worth. Therefore, the issue cannot be left alone to the personal opinions of each individual: inevitably, all of society is affected by this problem.
When all of society allows abortion - a reality around the globe at this very moment - it becomes the acceptable norm; people accept the institutions of government, believing that the intentions and thoughts are for the common good. This is not the case. Therefore, we cannot sit by and watch as the problem continues privately and publicly.
Again, the action of performing an abortion is personal, according to the culture. Each woman wants to defend her rights; men want to live successful and happy lives. These are normal feelings in a democratic society where social equality reigns: for each person has individual rights, which cannot be denied. When this fact is used to defend a right to abortion - because it is the woman's body or the man's life - liberal-democratic rationale announces that these people are entitled to their own opinions. Thus, people who do oppose abortion could continue their lives easily as others who are participating in abortions. This is the trap that can ensnare us: one person cannot 'judge' another, thereby harming or damaging the equal rights of others. It is difficult to discuss problems between varying beliefs or options because no one's opinion is allowed to be judged.
But it becomes more than discussing a personal problem or judging another person's actions. In countries throughout the world, abortion is legal; society in general accepts that a small "murder" is moral and legal. This idea is engrained in culture and consequently affects all those involved in it (opposed or supportive of abortion). Hence, we cannot give up the fight against abortion because it affects our entire global and local community. If our society does not regard the dignity of the human person, then the very essence of human identity is likewise disregarded: that we are dignified beings. We cannot let society - and ourselves - lose our identity.