Advocacy Speech Topics

Advocacy speeches about health can focus on patient care and the proposed government-run health care system. Patient care topics can advocate why the importance of losing weight, finding a trainer, joining a health club, eating better, searching for a better doctor, fighting cancer or getting treated for a particular disease. Speakers can also address the proposed government-run health care system and advocate either for or against it. Topics can also include advocating for the system and how it benefits those with severe medical problems, those who can’t get insurance and those who pay a lot of money for prescription drugs out of pocket. On the opposite side, speakers can advocate how the system will force people to wait in line for a doctor and drive up the cost of private insurance.

Speeches about education can advocate for or against charter schools, lessening the emphasis on sports and increasing the focus on classroom learning pr advantages and disadvantages of homeschooling. Topics can also advocate online education as a way to reach rural school systems, smaller class sizes for personal attention to students and longer school days and years so teachers can cover more material. Advocating an increase in education to pay for books, computers, new schools and even programs can all make great topics. Speakers can also argue for the elimination or continuation of the teacher tenure system and how it either promotes poor classroom performance or keeps teachers well informed in their field.

Speeches that deal with social problems often become highly controversial as to the way to deal with the problem, encouraging speakers argue and advocate their point of view. Arguing for more money for police to fight the war on drugs, why abortion is immoral, how physician-assisted suicide is unethical and why capital punishment is cruel all make great speech topics. Advocacy speeches can also include why spending more money to fight the drug problem won’t help, why abortion should be the personal choice of women, why physician-assisted suicide is better than suffering and why capital punishment is justifiable. To support claims, speakers can use government data or personal experience about how a particular social problem affected their life, changed them or allowed them to succeed.

Advocating on behalf of the environment, speakers can address issues in government regulation on both a national and international basis, as well as policies that can affect the economy. Advocacy topics can include allowing companies to drill offshore for oil exploration, protecting land from further development, passing laws to protect oceans from overfishing and protecting animals on the endangered species list. Speakers can argue for why the government needs to take these steps to protect the environment or why they need to loosen regulation to grow the economy. Speeches can also focus on advocating alternative forms of energy such as solar, wind and hydroelectric.