Pro-Life speaker visits SMU

by WilsOn KubWAyO

Cardinal Staff

Over 30 students showed up with much enthusiasm to hear the Students For Life guest speaker, Michael Ottman on Tuesday, March 11. Ottman is a sophomore and a coordinator of campus ministry at Benedic- tine College.

He was born in South Korea, and was adopted by a family from Andover, Minnesota when he was just three months old. Ottman never had a chance to see his biological father or mother. “I was conceived by rape and I thought that God made me by accident,” Ottman said. When Ottman found out that he was conceived by rape, he felt hopeless, but he also real- ized that his mother had chosen life, giving him a chance to live when she could have had an abortion.

While growing up, there was nothing else Ottman wanted to do more than search for his mother in South Korea. This became a dream for Ottman, not only to see his mom, but to see his birthplace. He begged his parents to take him there and the long journey of searching for his biologi- cal mother began. When they arrived in South Korea, a Korean woman said something to Ottman in the native language, which Ottman does not speak, and she seemed disappointed that he did not understand.

“She thought of me as a stranger,” says Ottman. “I began to ask myself, ‘God, who am I? I don’t even seem to fit in with my own peo- ple!.’” Later, they heard a rumor that his biological mother did not want to see him, because, as they soon found out, he was conceived by rape. Ottman was already in pain, but this rumor was devastating. “I was really down, it definitely made me feel worthless” Ottman 

explained.

They left South Korea without ever meeting with his biological mother, and “even now, I don’t really know whether my mom exists or not,” said Ottman. But Ottman continued on to explain that he has learned how to deal with all these struggles, and said “I feel a lot of peace now, with all the struggles I had before and all the emotions, and anger.” When asked the question of what he wanted to get across to his audience, Ott- man responded, saying, “I really encourage people to respect life, because when one person is spared from abortion and gets to feel like a human be- ing, the gift of life is so much more than we can ever imagine. Appreciate life for what it is; you never know what it can bring.”