Last summer, Elizabeth Trisler of Ohio won the National Right to Life Oratory Contest at the group’s convention in Charlotte, NC. After she won, her representative in the Ohio House, John Adams, made arrangements for Elizabeth to accept an honorary resolution in honor of her accomplishment. (These sorts of resolutions are often given at the beginning of Ohio House legislative sessions to winners of sports championships, academic contests, etc.) Elizabeth was supposed to have been presented with her resolution on February 3. But a few days beforehand, Ohio Speaker of the House Armond Budish—who is pro-abortion choice—said he “had a problem with the subject matter”, and pulled the plug. So Elizabeth was told she would be receiving her resolution in the mail, instead of on the Ohio House floor. Ohio Right to Life’s Mike Gonidakis responded to Speaker Budish’s decision:
Perhaps his real message to Ohio’s teens is that excelling in public speaking isn’t worth being honored if their views are different than his.
Even the ACLU — very definitely not a friend of unborn children — came down on the pro-lifers’ side, saying that the speaker’s decision amounted to “teaching young people that the answer is to silence those who disagree with us.” (Somebody should tell that to the Student Society at the University of Victoria in British Columbia.) Happily, Speaker Budish realized yesterday that it’s not a smart move to play the part of a censoring bully, so he’s changed his mind, and Elizabeth will now receive her resolution on the House floor. Check out Elizabeth’s award-winning speech here. ***I also just found out that Elizabeth and her mother will be interviewed on The O’Reilly Factor tonight (Thursday, Feb. 11) at 7:00pm central.***
