Saturday, May 27th, 2017
Local teen runnerup in state Right to Life contest
By Tom Stankard
ROCKFORD - A local home-schooled student's passion for the pro-life cause led him to earn second place in the Ohio Right to Life Oratory Contest last month.
Soon-to-be high school senior Titus Meyer, 17, Rockford, competed with several other speakers from across the state who showcased the "pro-life generation at its best," according to Ohio Right to Life Communications Director Katharine Franklin.
To compete at the state level, Meyer first won a local competition against five other speakers in March. The contest was hosted by the Mercer County Right to Life.
This was Meyer's first time competing, he said. Each contestant had to research, write and present an original, 5 to 7 minute pro-life speech.
For his speech, Meyer argued how abortion is the modern day holocaust.
A visit to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. a few years backed inspired his speech, he said.
"Abortion intentionally targets an entire group of human beings for the purpose of mass extermination," he said. "Science has shown that people are human from conception. They are just as human as us, as Jews in the Holocaust."
In his speech, he talked about his visit to the museum, where many signs that said "never again" were displayed.
"We've already got a holocaust going on in our country," he said. "Fifty-six million pre-born children have died annually between 2010-2015 worldwide. I believe that being human gives us value. As a civilized society, just as we don't support the legal killing of 2-year-olds, we shouldn't support the legal killing of pre-borns."
On the state-level, Meyer said his competitors were prepared and well spoken.
"I took away quite a few things," he said. "There was one speech how many women are coerced into having abortions by boyfriends or other people in their lives. There was a really wide variety and I got a lot out of it."
Ohio Right to Life Executive Director Devin Scribner said in a release "all the contestants exhibited critical thinking and sincere passion for the biggest human rights issue of our time."
Meyer said he looks forward to competing next year.
