ITUSVILLE, FL — Priests for Life and its youth outreach, Stand True, today announced the winners of a pro-life essay contest for students in junior high, high school and college.
The topic was Why I Am Pro-Life in a Culture that Promotes Abortion. The top prize in the junior high division was $300; the high school winner will receive $500, and the college winner will take home $1,000.
Maggie DiAntonio, a homeschooled seventh-grader from Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, was selected the winner in the junior high category for her essay, Why I Am Pro-Life, a beautiful and deeply personal composition that explained how her pro-life convictions were bolstered by living with three disabled siblings.
“Maggie’s first-hand experience of growing up with brothers and sisters facing significant challenges has given her compassion and deep insight into what a culture loses when we see the disabled as less worthy of the right to life,” said Priests for Life National Director Frank Pavone.
Elijah Baral, a homeschooled 10th grader from York, Pennsylvania, took a very unique approach in his winning essay, A Modern Day Proposal, which highlighted the inhumanity of the pro-abortion worldview in a way the judges said they had never seen before.
Bryan Kemper, youth and street activism director for Priests for Life and founder of Stand True, described Elijah’s essay as a brilliant exercise in exposing the absurdity – and cruelty – of pro-abortion advocacy.
“I thought I was reading a pro-abortion essay at first,” Kemper said. “But then Elijah flipped the script. It was very clever.”
Eliana Aynbinder, a Long Island resident and member of the class of 2028 at New York University in Manhattan, was chosen the winner in the college division for her essay, Hope Has a Heartbeat, which focused on the holistic, pro-woman nature of the pro-life movement.
“Eliana wrote with real understanding that pro-lifers’ commitment to women who choose life doesn’t end with the birth of their child,” said Priests for Life Executive Director Janet Morana, who also co-founded the Silent No More Awareness Campaign. “In her essay, she wrote that being pro-life ‘isn’t just about preventing abortion, it’s about promoting a culture of love, support and understanding.’ Young leaders like Eliana give me hope that a culture of life can be restored in our nation.”
Read the winning essays at StandTrue.com
The Priests for Life team looks forward to welcoming these winners at the National Prayer Service to take place at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., on the morning of the March for Life, Jan. 23, 2026. Winners will receive a special plaque, a cash prize and recognition in the media communications of Priests for Life.
