Me, in the news!

I've been on the TV and in the newspaper several times, and the most recent was this Friday, after I had given a speech about why I was pro-life at a candle-light vigil for Penn State Students for Life. You can check out the full (front page) article here (but you might want to read my speech below here first): Students For Life Shed Light On Issue.

And here is the transcript of my full speech, because the Daily Collegian (understandably) cuts it down quite a bit.

Hello everyone. I'm John Montgomery, and I'm going to tell you why I'm pro-life. Sometimes I don't really know why I'm here doing all of this, being pro-life and trying to make the world more like that. I've never gotten a girl pregnant. I've never gotten pregnant either. None of my friends have ever had to think about dealing with an abortion, or ever really worry about getting pregnant.

No one close to me has ever had to choose whether or not they'd end an infant's life. So why am I here?

I have a friend, and she is awesome. Literally, it is amazing what she does. She's probably one of the most beautiful people I've ever met, and that's more than skin deep beauty, even though she's won state beauty pageants. She's got brains too, because she was the valedictorian of her high school class. If she was up here instead of me, she could talk circles around me. She competed in forensics, giving speeches, on a national level. She's kind and funny and she's the kind of person you'd want to have as a friend, and be a friend to.

She's never gotten pregnant. Like me, she also has not had people close to her who have dealt with all of the hardships and difficulties of abortion and pregnancy. However, despite all of that, she is the reason why I am pro-life. She is the reason why I am up here today talking to you all.

A few years ago, this friend of mine went on a retreat, and while there, she got a letter from her mom. Her mom told my friend that she loved her, but she also told her a secret. She had planned on aborting my friend when she had gotten pregnant with her. One choice, and my friend could have never been born.

Because of her, every time I think to myself, "What am I doing here? Why am I putting in my time to something that seems to make so little of a difference in the world? I'm only one person." But then I remember my friend. I think about her smile and the way she laughs and how she inspires people, including me. And I think about how I never would have known any of that if her mother had changed her mind on just one decision. One little choice, and my friend would have been gone. The world would have been that much darker if her mother had decided to abort her.

She's only one person too, but I care about her, and that makes all of this, every second, worthwhile.

Oh, and yes, the article isn't lying, I really was close to crying, both during my speech, and afterwards for quite some time. Real men aren't afraid to cry.