Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 20, 1995 TAG: 9505230014
SECTION: RELIGION PAGE: C4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"There's no easy way out of an unplanned pregnancy but there are plenty of alternatives to abortion. ... Instead of relying on the quick fix which has so far been the cause of death for over 30 million unborn babies, we need to rely on education" to stop abortion, she writes.
McCabe, a 10th-grader at Rockbridge County High School, won first place in a recent essay contest sponsored by the Catholic Pro-Life Foundation of the Blue Ridge.
She was one of dozens of Catholic youngsters in western and central Virginia who participated in the "Gift of Life" essay and poster contest. The competition asked students to "present a pro-life perspective" on the subjects of abortion or euthanasia.
The contest is one in a series of projects the foundation is sponsoring to raise awareness about alternatives to abortion, according to Tony Conrad of Clifton Forge, a member of the foundation's advisory board.
The foundation's mission statement reiterates the official Roman Catholic position that "all human life - from the moment of conception until natural death - is sacred." That means spreading a message opposing euthanasia as well as abortion, the foundation says.
In recent months the foundation has paid to have anti-abortion inserts placed in the student newspapers of most Western Virginia colleges, erected billboards throughout the region, sponsored a "spiritual adoption" program in area parishes that helps raise funds for Crisis Pregnancy Centers, and sponsored ads on WXLK (K-92) radio.
In her essay, McCabe says taking a public stand against abortion is to risk the loss of friends. "For a person to express the fact that he is pro-life is about equivalent to coming out and saying he's gay."
McCabe won $75 for her first-place entry among ninth- through 12th-graders in the region's Catholic parishes who do not attend Catholic schools. Separate contests were held for students in the Roanoke and Lynchburg Catholic schools.
The $75 first-place award for a poster on the theme went to Stephanie Conrad, a fifth-grader from Clifton Forge.
In the Catholic school division, first-place in the essay competition drew a $150 scholarship for Kristin Maria Wente, a senior at Holy Cross Regional Catholic School in Lynchburg.
Writing in opposition to euthanasia, Wente described her grandmother's battle with cancer. "Although we as humans have been given free will, we have not been given the knowledge and power to rightfully decide when a life is or is not worth living."
First place in the poster contest for Catholic school students went to Kelly Claire Hulse, an eighth grader at Holy Cross Regional school.
Participants came from 14 Roman Catholic parishes from St. Patrick's in Lexington to Sacred Heart in Danville.
by CNB