What can pro-life adults learn from youth?

We’ve all heard the saying “out of the mouths of babes,” and we know that kids often make wise statements and offer insights that we, as adults, may not have considered. This even holds true regarding pro-life beliefs.

Many years ago, when my middle son, Nick, was just seven years old, we were in the car listening to the Catholic Channel on the radio. I didn’t think he was paying attention, as his favorite program on the channel had not yet begun. The host was talking about abortion—a topic we had just introduced to the kids because they read a prayer card from church about spiritually adopting a baby in danger of abortion. Suddenly he piped up from the back seat of the car and said, “Mommy, you cannot be Catholic and for abortion.”

Indeed. Out of the mouths of babes. I told him that he was exactly right. I wish more people—especially in politics—understand now what this small child understood then.

American Life League’s Culture of Life Studies Program knows the importance of listening to kids and learning from their unique point of view. Their childlike innocence can teach us so much. Just look at the wonder they express when they encounter a pregnant mother or the empathy they show when someone is hurt. Somewhere along the line, people lose this.

That’s why we must teach kids from the time they are young that all people have value. And then we must listen when they talk, as young people can teach adults too. ALL has several years of data from kids and parents demonstrating this. And one of the ways we learn from young people is through their own words—in the Culture of Life Studies Program’s annual Pro-Life Essay Contest.

Since nearly its inception, CLSP has held a pro-life essay contest for kids in middle and high school. This is a chance for us at ALL to listen to young people so we can understand what they know and don’t know regarding pro-life principles. We have read many amazing essays over the years, and they have aided us in gearing our lessons, our blogs, and our social media posts to helping students and parents understand the sanctity of life, the value of all human beings, and the importance of treating others with respect. We can then teach them ways to stand up for their beliefs.

These essays not only help us sustain the moral courage to stand up for our beliefs, but they help other young people. Kids today emulate what they see and hear. What better way to teach than through the words of our youth!

So, whether the students write about bullying, abortion, euthanasia, or anything else related to pro-life Church teaching, their essays give us all valuable insight.

For instance, the first-place winner in the 2019 5th and 6th grade category wrote: “If the mother does not feel supported, intense fear and anxiety may make her think she has no other choice but to abort. The mother might mistakenly think that, after an abortion, she will feel free again.”

This is an amazing insight for an 11-year-old!

And we know there’s truth in her statement. A woman who works in an outreach program for post-abortive mothers once told me that every single woman she counseled who had had an abortion said she did it because she felt she had nowhere to turn and no one to help her.

That’s incredibly heartbreaking, and it tells us that, as a society, we must do better. We must work to serve others so that women who do not feel supported by family or friends will realize that support is out there and that there is, in fact, another choice—one that does not result in the death of her baby.

We see further insight from a young woman who wrote her essay about suffering. In this second-place essay in the 2018 essay contest, she wrote: “When we say yes to a cross, Jesus never makes us carry it alone. He helps us. He makes it lighter. He uses it to sanctify us.”

These beautiful words from the “mouths of babes” give us hope for the future. And they strengthen our resolve to continue addressing young people, to further the dialog with them, and to help them understand the importance of building a culture of life.

This is vital because, on a daily basis, kids are bombarded by organizations like Planned Parenthood and by advertisements touting the importance of “choice.” They encounter women screaming about bodily autonomy. They hear lies about how women “need” abortion or about how women facing ectopic pregnancies will not receive treatment. It’s our job as educators and as parents to not only teach them the truth but to teach them to proudly stand up for that truth.

If we can reach children while they’re young and teach the value and dignity of all human beings, imagine the lives we could change and save!

This year we are again poised to listen to students. In just a couple weeks, ALL’s Culture of Life Studies Program will learn how 5th-12th graders in a post- Roe world propose to protect the sanctity of human life. These kids—who had never seen the illegality of abortion—now have the chance to share their thoughts with us. Throughout the month of October, students around the country have been diligently working on their essays for this year’s Pro-Life Essay Contest, which is cosponsored by the Institute for Excellence in Writing . And we couldn’t be more excited to read what they believe.

But though Roe has been overturned, abortion is not yet unthinkable. In many states, it remains legal, and now kids witness many governors—maybe even in their home states—erecting billboards inviting in women from other states to have an abortion. Maybe they’ve even seen words from the Bible used in support of abortion. This travesty must stop. And the only way it will stop is if we raise generations of children who value all human beings—from creation until death.

This is why it is so important to encourage students to articulate their thoughts, to learn to defend the principles we hold so dear, and to teach their peers that a baby is a human being from the first moment of creation and that abortion takes his life. Every time.

This is what we hope they have learned from us. Now we hope to learn how they plan to teach this to others.

• To learn more about the Pro-Life Essay Contest, visit prolifeessay.com. There’s still time to enter!