Where are all the Canadian Pro-lifers?

This is just an observation I've had once I started this blog, and began to seriously research pro-life issues. I am finding it really difficult to find active pro-life blogs by Canadians, or really any pro-life information from Canadian sites. The vast majority of pro-life sites that I've found through Twitter and Google are American. In terms of the traffic on my site, here's the breakdown:

United States: 383
Canada: 96 (minus a bunch of my own views before I realized how to stop Blogger from tracking them)
Australia & United Kingdom: 8
And then a bunch of other countries with a couple of views each.

So, where are all the Canadian pro-lifers? Is the abortion issue just a lot more important in the States? How can we have that same momentum here in the great white north?

Update: Sweet post by Suzanne at Big Blue Wave here ... and some awesome ideas! I know at my high school we often had Coffee Houses for good causes - though never a pro-life cause (of course), even though we were a Catholic high school. But so many students got involved, and if there was a place for all of them to go, with an overall pro-life message where they could contribute, a lot of students would get involved ... and it would be a great way to get some people thinking :)

Raising Kids As a Student, The University Series: McMaster University

I decided to start with McMaster University, because out of all the universities I've looked into so far, this will be the easiest to write about. First, a little background on the school:

McMaster was founded in 1887, and is ranked in the top 100 universities in the world. McMaster is a research-forcused university, and uses a student-centered, problem-based, interdisciplinary approach to learning known as the "McMaster Model". The school's homepage can be found here.

Location

Hamilton, Ontario

Size

21 173 full-time undergrads

3025 full-time graduates

296 acres, 45 buildings

I began my search at the Campus Health Centre website, whose mission is to "enhance education through health, and health through education". Their services relevant to sexually active or pregnant women include E-fill, which provides female students access to their birth control prescriptions online, sexuality choices counselling, other birth control options, pregnancy testing, emergency contraception pills, screening for sexually transmitted infections, as well as STD prevention counselling. As far as I could see, there was no information available regarding pregnancy options beyond what to do if you forget to take your birth control pill. On their Health Topics page, there are two articles listed under the label Sexual Health: B.Y.O.C - Bring Your Own Condom, and The Birth Control Pill and Pregnancy. In the Birth Control and Pregnancy article, they briefly mention actual pregnancies: "The cost of unintended pregnancy in Canada is a burden to the healthcare system with $30 million being spent on providing abortion in 1998". Nothing on what to do if you are pregnant, nothing on the options open to pregnant women beyond a brief mention of the costs associated with abortion. Thanks McMaster for reminding me that $30 million of our tax dollars are spent on killing. At least we both agree that its an unnecessary burden on the health care system.


So I had to continue my search elsewhere. McMaster also has a Student Health Education Centre (SHEC), which provides peer-based health education, resources, and support. Under their list of services they include a few possibly relevant services regarding pregnancy: confidential peer support, resources (books and pamphlets), and free confidential pregnancy testing. As an aside, they also offer free feminine hygiene products - pretty awesome.


So anyway, by this point I got a little impatient so I searched "McMaster pregnancy" in google, and found McMaster's policy pages on pregnancy and parental leave (here and here). Both pages only apply to McMaster employees and their families. I think (not 100% sure though) that graduate students would fall under this policy, but not undergrads. 


I also searched "McMaster daycare" in google and found that the school has a licensed daycare centre run by the Student Union. From their website [emphasis added]: 
"The Child Care Centre provides educational programs for children 18 months to 6 years old. The Centre also offers a program for senior kindergarten children as well as a day camp program during the months of July and August for children 5 to 7 years old. We provide an escort from GR Allan Elementary School back to the centre at ~11:30 a.m. after morning kindergarten during the school year.
The Centre's first line of clients are the children of McMaster undergraduate students. The Centre also accepts, on a priority basis, enrollment of children of graduate students, McMaster staff and faculty, and the community at large."
The Daycare hours are Mon-Fri 7:30 am - 6:00 pm, which is not bad considering undergraduate students often have classes starting at 8:30 am, but is not so great for those students who find themselves with night classes.   
The daycare fees for full time care (5 days/week) are as follows (effective Spring 2011):

Preschoolers: $827.00/month

Toddlers: $975.00/month

For part time care:

Preschoolers: $509.00/month for 3 days/week, $343.00/month for 2 days/week

Toddlers: $600.00/month for 3 days/week, $400.00/month for 2 days/week

There is no information offered to undergraduate students on how they could go about paying for the childcare. For instance, they don't mention any possibilities of bursaries, government aid, or financial aid provided through OSAP or McMaster. 


Either way, it is great that the university does offer a daycare specifically for undergraduate students' children. If only it wasn't so hard to find that information, and if only there was more resources available to undergrads (and graduate students) on how to deal with having a kid during school. There is absolutely no information as far as I could see on University policies regarding the completion of exams and assignments, or class attendance, for women who are pregnant or have young children.


There is one more service that I thought could be useful to pregnant women and student families known as McMaster Bread bin. They provide anonymous food assistance and distribution to McMaster students in need. This is actually a great program, so check it out.


However, McMaster University seems to fall short overall. And that, dear readers, is why this school is the easiest to write about ... as in, there was very little to actually write.

Conscientious Objection

A survey conducted in the UK found that a growing number of med students believe that doctors should be able to refuse to provide treatment that they object to on moral, cultural, or religious grounds. An article The Guardian mentions procedures such as contraception, or treatment of someone who has overdosed on drugs or alcohol, but focuses primarily on abortion, which elicited the strongest response.

The survey found that:
- almost a third would not perform an abortion for a congenitally malformed foetus after 24 weeks
- a quarter would not perform an abortion for failed contraception before 24 weeks
- a fifth would not perform an abortion on a minor whose pregnancy was the result of rape

Research Dr. Sophie Strickland says "In light of increasing demand for abortions, these results may have implications for women's access to abortion services in the future."

The article goes on to describe how this has become an increasing worry in some health care circles in the UK. First off, obviously I think that's awesome - though of course, it would be better if the demand for abortions decreased along with the availability of abortion services. The scary part is what the pro-choicers have to say about this:

"Abortion is taught increasingly infrequently in medical school, and students may not be required to engage much with the reasons why a woman may find herself with an unwanted pregnancy and the distress this may cause. All of us involved in women's reproductive healthcare need to ensure that young doctors understand why women need abortions, and that this is a profession to be proud of." - Ann Furedi, chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service

"Once qualified as doctors, if all these respondents acted on their conscience and refused to perform certain procedures, in may become impossible for conscientious objectors to be accommodated in medicine." - Dr. Strickland

Now in the cases of the treatment of individuals who may die from overdosing on drugs, obviously doctors should be required to perform life-saving procedures. It is the purpose of a doctor to save lives, after all. But the article focuses primarily on anti-abortion views, and that is where these quotes become a little frightening.

Never mind that it is inconceivable to my mind how the abortion profession could be something to be proud of ...! How can anyone be proud of terminating pregnancies when the vast majority of abortions are performed on women and babies who are perfectly healthy? I don't see how anyone, pro-life or pro-choice, could think that that is a good thing, because to my mind it indicates that other options are not widely available to these women, who then feel like abortion is their only "choice".

But to suggest that doctors should be forced to perform a procedure that they believe kills a unique individual ... that is horrifying indeed.

We cannot pass on our sins ...

I just read this amazing opinion piece by Abby Johnson and I had to share it. Everyone should read this.

Abby Johnson: Abortion Doc Told Patient "I Will Take Your Sin"

The thing that horrifies me most about her story is that despite how obviously torn up and scared the woman was about her abortion, the doctor still went through with it. I still can't figure out how he could care enough to say "this is my sin, not yours", but not care enough to refuse to perform the so-called "treatment" that the woman was so conflicted over. You can't reverse an abortion. At the very least, you'd think that pro-choicers and abortion doctors would want their patients to be 100% sure that this was what they wanted - because once its done, they can't go back.

It's so sad.

Abortion to Save the Mother?

These are two amazing photos taken by a med student in India. The mother of this baby was diagnosed with cancer in her cervix, and had a hysterectomy as treatment. The baby was also removed as a result, and here he or she is, completely whole and absolutely beautiful. I was reading over the comments on the image and I wanted to clarify a few things, specifically comments along this vein:

"Yes, I'm not convinced abortion is a crime because, unlike you, I realise that not everything is black and white. Is this abortion a crime? That's what this is - the fetus has been aborted to save the Mother's life (albeit it as a side-effect of having the womb removed) - do we consider this a crime, or is the greater crime to allow the mother to die?" - Yottskry

"Pope Ratzinger will condemn to hell the mother, doctor, and all who participated in this sad, but necessary surgery. Her other ix children will continue to have the love and nurturing of a healthy mother. Perhaps that doesn't matter to the anti-abortion fanatics?" - Sirman42

So I guess the first thing we have to do here is properly define abortion. Is it simply defined as the ending of a pregnancy, regardless of the circumstances? This definition would include miscarriages, and procedures such as this one which inadvertently cause the baby's death. So obviously, if this is how abortion is defined, there are some instances where abortion is a morally acceptable or, at the very least, a morally neutral act. If, however, you define abortion as an act which is performed with the singular purpose of intentionally causing the death of the baby, then our opposition to abortion is hopefully easier to understand. In this case, the procedure that the mother went through would only be considered a hysterectomy, not an abortion. This is because the intention was not to kill the baby, and the action did not directly cause the baby's death. The baby died because the entire womb was surgically removed, not because a doctor dismembered the baby or burned the baby with a saline solution. If this was an abortion as pro-life Catholics define it (since I am a Catholic, that is who I can speak for), then the pictures of this baby would not look beautiful at all.

So, to address the first comment. If you define abortion as the intentional killing of a baby, yes it is a black and white issue because it is always wrong to intentionally kill someone. That is not what happened here. The baby died as a side-affect of the mother's treatment, NOT because it was aborted. And anyway, a hysterectomy is not included as an abortion procedure on any abortion websites I've read.

To address the second comment, Pope Benedict would not condemn this woman, her doctor, or anyone involved in the procedure, to hell, because they did not intentionally kill a baby. They treated the mother's illness. And sadly and very regrettably, the baby died as a result. As long as the intention is not to kill the baby, this is allowed in Catholic teaching. We are against elective abortion. We are against abortions which tear apart the baby's body, or burn it until it dies ... we are not against performing standard, life-saving medical procedures, when the procedure is one that would be used in the case of both a pregnant or non-pregnant woman and when the procedure does not intentionally cause the death of the baby. We are for doing everything possible to save the mother AND the baby, but we recognize that sometimes, it isn't always possible to save both.

Hope that clarifies the issue for all the pro-choice people who might come across this. It is extremely frustrating when people misunderstand your position, and are against it without really knowing what the position is. It happens all the time with Catholic teachings, and it happens all the time to pro-lifers. That's where ignorant statements about the Pope condemning people to hell come from. Incidentally, the Pope cannot condemn people to hell anyways. In fact, the Catholic church has never decisively stated that anyone is in hell, because no one can know the state of someone's soul before they die. Only God does. :)

I'd like to end this post with another quote from the comments.

"what nobody notices is that the foetus we are looking at has just died, or is dying, from hypoxia. not a very pleasant way to go. i have no issue with the reason the abortion was performed, or the fact that it was, but just wish to point out that entities in situations that make them photographable, and that look pretty and fascinating may be suffering, unbeknownst to us because we can't recognise the signs" - restiform body

I don't agree with everything restiform body said, but it is important to remember that while the photos of this baby are beautiful, the baby is dying, and we should acknowledge that.

Update 29/03/2012:
Hi Everyone. I noticed that this is a really popular post, so I thought I'd make a small addition. I talk above about how this photo would not look beautiful if it had been a typical elective abortion procedure. To contrast the above photo, I thought I would show you all some pictures of babies who have been aborted, according to the definition I use above. Here is a video called Created Equal. I warn you, it is VERY graphic (and I have not checked if the images and videos have been verified by a doctor - but they seem consistent with images I have seen which have been medically verified - but of course I am not in the medical field so I cannot say with any certainty whether this is actually the case or not). So watch it if you feel you can (and take it with a tiny grain of salt). I burst into tears halfway through and probably won't ever see it again if I can help it.

Update 25/08/12:
Here is an excellent post by Abolitionist Society of Oklahoma that explores this issue in a very logical framework (I encourage you to read through the whole thing!):
Abortion and the Life of the Mother 

10 Reasons to be Pro-life

1. The right to life trumps every other right, since you can't have rights if you're dead.

2. Women often feel that they have no choice but to abort - where are their options? No one should feel that it is too difficult to have a baby.

3. No one can look at pictures or videos of abortions and not feel uncomfortable about the practice.

4. Life begins at conception - and personhood begins when life begins. Insisting otherwise simply imposes subjective ideas on the status of our fellow human beings.

5. Women who choose to go through with their pregnancy are looked down upon because they could have had it easier if they chose an abortion - like that's really being pro-choice.

6. Abortion survivors, and other children whose mothers wanted to abort them, should never feel like they shouldn't have been born.

7. Fathers have no control over the fate of their children if the mothers decide to "terminate" them, and that is not fair.

8. Abortions aren't the simple, painless medical procedures that some pro-choicers make them out to be.

9. Everyone deserves to have their chance at life protected - even those who are handicapped, unwanted, or  inconvenient, and especially those who are helpless and voiceless.

10. Being pro-life is being pro-women - pregnancy is a natural, beautiful fact of life, and something only women can do! It is not a disease, and it doesn't need to be "cured". It is an amazing gift.

What are your reasons?

Reaching Out

I haven't written for awhile, simply because I've been having one of those weeks where you constantly feel stressed out, but looking back, you can't really figure out what was bothering you. At least its finally Friday, and I can start this new week fresh :)

I've been thinking a lot about some pro-life outreach issues. How to explain why the unborn are valuable and deserve the same right to life that every born person has. How to discuss abortion issues in a civil and informative way. How to be a witness to life everyday with friends and family without causing conflict between people.

Even though it shouldn't be, sometimes being a witness to life seems like such a challenge. It can be so easy to slip into an apathetic mindset, because this is such a big issue. It doesn't seem appropriate to discuss abortion with family / friends / boyfriends / children / etc... and sometimes it gets to the point where it is really hard to talk about abortion at all.

I am currently at that point in a lot of my relationships. Discussing abortion is such a terrifying thing to do because I don't want to learn something about the people I care about that will lower my opinion of them. Sometimes it is so much easier to just live in ignorance. And then there is the fear of what others with think of me when they find out that I am pro-life in all circumstances. Will they be willing to talk about my views, to consider my reasoning fairly, and to do their own research into being pro-life? Or will they just dismiss my ideas as the convictions of a religious nut who is incapable of thinking for herself? Its difficult to even post pro-life stories on Facebook because I don't want to start flame-wars.

But it always helps to remember that this is exactly how the pro-choice/pro-abortion side will shut us down. By silencing our voices and dismissing our ideas, and influencing the culture around us until it is too late to do anything about it. So always remember, by keeping silent we are helping abortion remain legal.

Besides, isn't the life of at least one baby worth our discomfort?

Seeing Hope (3)

This is an amazing report on prenatal surgery for spina bifida:

http://www.npr.org/2011/07/11/137712436/a-prenatal-surgery-for-spina-bifida-comes-of-age

How anyone could believe that the unborn aren't human after reading about this is beyond me. I mean, a single surgery done before birth can have such an amazing affect on the rest of the baby's life! If the unborn are not truly alive, then why does the prenatal phase have such an impact on "actual" (i.e.: postnatal) life?

How to be best friends with a pro-choicer

One of my oldest and closest friends is about as pro-choice as you can be. She is also one of the only people who I've ever managed to have a civil discussion on abortion with. This is probably because we both hate conflict.

The last time we talked about abortion she agreed that an abortion decision should not just involve the mother - but also necessarily involves the father and the child in the womb. She did not deny the dangers of having an abortion (i.e.: infertility, infection, even death), or the fact that a fetus can feel pain. She even found it very difficult to answer the humanity/personhood arguments against abortion (in fact, every time we've discussed abortion she's changed the subject at that point). But in spite all of this, she firmly believes that abortion-on-demand is a good thing. Her reasoning behind this?  It would not be fair to "impose her ideas of abortion on others".

Most pro-choicers I know also follow this line of reasoning.

I find it hard to understand how people who are otherwise strong, smart, and eager to impact the world around them, can have such a laissez-faire approach to the abortion debate. My friend, especially, is a mystery. She's a bit of a socialist, and is eager to have government mandate, require, and involve itself in so many issues - except for abortion.

I find it hard to understand, but I don't find it at all difficult to be friends with her. We share so many interests and hobbies, and like so many, she is simply blinded by the culture around her. I'm probably one of the few people she is close to who challenges her world view in any way.

I also happen to hope that eventually she'll come around and be mostly pro-life. The funny thing is, I'm sure she thinks the same thing about me - that I'll eventually come around and be pro-choice.

(don't worry, that will never happen!)

Question of the Week:

This week I'm curious about YOU my readers :D

Select the option that best describes your beliefs.

1. I am pro-life and Christian.
2. I am pro-life and atheist.
3. I am pro-life and agnostic.
4. I am pro-life and Muslim.
5. I am pro-life and adhere to another religion.
6. I am not pro-life.

Vote on the poll to the left! :)

NOTE: Question of the week is lasting for two weeks this time :)

The Abortion Question

"The abortion debate will not go away. The fundamental issue at stake is not reproductive freedom but the desire to extend human rights to all - even the smallest and most vulnerable human beings among us."

I don't remember where I found it, but this quote is so beautiful and so very true. The fundamental question is not whether a woman should have control over her own body (after all, how many of us have real conscious control over everything that our bodies do anyways?), but whether a growing, unborn baby deserves the basic right to life.

In Canada, each of us, at one point in our lives, did not have a right to be alive. We aren't alive because we are individual humans with intrinsic value and dignity. We are only alive because of a single external factor ... our parents wanted us. Or at the very least, our mothers couldn't bring themselves to kill us.

Look at yourself in the mirror. Look at someone you love dearly. Should they have been killed if their mother had decided it was necessary? Think really hard about that question, before you decide whether or not a single person should have control over the continuation of your loved one's life.

Maybe it would be easier to think about with a concrete example. My best friend's boyfriend is from a country where abortion is outlawed except in certain cases. This man's mother unwillingly gave birth to her son. If abortion-on-demand had been legal, he would be dead now. Should he have died because he wasn't wanted? Take a look at some of the abortion survivor videos in the "Pro-life Media" page. These are people who should be dead, but managed to survive. Would you be able to look them in the face and tell them that they should have been "terminated"?

I know I couldn't.

The Dark Knight and Abortion

The Dark Knight. Probably one of my very favourite movies. I have yet to meet someone who doesn't think its one of the greatest things they have ever seen. The Joker is a terrifyingly perfect villain, and besides, who doesn't love Heath Ledger?

But what exactly does the Dark Knight have to do with abortion?

Well, watching that movie, abortion was one of the first things I thought of. I'm referring specifically to the scene with the two boats leaving the city - one boat full of criminals and one boat full of civilians, both so close to death. It is just so perfectly symbolic. I couldn't hope to describe the situation better than the Joker himself:

[over the PA] Tonight you're all gonna be part of a social experiment. Through the magic of diesel fuel and ammonium nitrate, I'm ready right now to blow you all sky high. Anyone attempts to get off their boat, you all die. Each of you has a remote... to blow up the other boat. At midnight, I blow you all up. If, however, one of you presses the button, I'll let that boat live. So, who's it going to be: Harvey Dent's most wanted scumbag collection, or the sweet and innocent civilians? You choose... oh, and you might want to decide quickly, because the people on the other boat might not be so noble. 

Of course we all know how this ends (and if you don't know - what the hell is wrong with you? watch the Dark Knight!!!!) - neither boat can bring themselves to blow up the other, even though they know that if they don't blow up the other boat, they will die.

I found this to be wonderfully symbolic of abortion, which pits the mother's life against her child's. If the mother allows her child to live, then the child ruins the mother's life. On the other hand, the child could die, the mother's life would remain intact. The Dark Knight seems to me to be a dramatic representation of the abortion debate - with one key difference. Both parties in the Dark Knight have some measure of control over their fate - after all, they can choose to blow up the other boat (hopefully before the other boat chooses to blow them up). But in an abortion, the baby makes no conscious decision to ruin the mother's life - he or she is simply existing as nature intended them to. The mother has all the control during an abortion decision.

I find it interesting that ultimately neither boat blows up the other, knowing full well that death is imminent (though of course they end up being saved by Batman - but that's an external factor neither party had any knowledge of). Both groups are shown to be remarkably courageous and ultimately GOOD by their willingness to recognize that their own lives are not worth the deaths of those on the other boat.

I like to think that most of us would make that same decision.  But with so many women (and men) out there in favour of abortion-on-demand, I sometimes wonder if that would be the case. So many people are willing to end a life to just preserve the status-quo of their own lives. I guess people are just innately selfish when faced with fear of the unknown?

Oh and P.S. SO psyched for The Dark Knight Rising!!! :D

Pro-lifers are rare indeed

During my undergrad, us students had an office to ourselves for studying and working on honours projects. I don't even know how many hours I spent in that windowless, unkept, uncared-for room, struggling to finish assignments and lab reports alongside my fellow students. Spending all that time together meant we learnt quite a bit about each other, even without ever having a face-to-face conversation.

One time, I was studying for a midterm when I happened to overhear a conversation between a couple of guys on the other side of the room. I missed most of it, but I did hear one line that resonated with me:

"Well, I actually know people who are pro-life. No really. There are actually people who are pro-life. Girls even. I know some girls who are pro-life."

This was said in a matter-of-fact way, but the people involved with the conversation looked at the speaker in mild surprise or disbelief. I froze, thinking that this conversation was rather odd considering that they had a valid pro-lifer sitting with them in the room, who was also a girl. But none of them knew that I was pro-life, and apparently they had defaulted to the assumption that I was pro-choice.

How many other people had my fellow students come into contact with who were actually pro-life? From their words, one would think not many, or none at all. But they were having this conversation when they all knew me, and yet they still thought they had never met a pro-lifer, and specifically they thought they had never met a pro-life woman. A couple of the students even went so far to voice the opinion that a girl couldn't be pro-life.

I was surprised and confused by their opinions. Sure, I didn't talk about abortion with many people so I didn't know what most of my friends' views on the subject were - but I still knew several people who were pro-life, and all of these people were women.

So why the disconnect? If these students knew me, and thought I must be pro-choice, then how many other "closet" pro-lifers did they know and mistake for pro-choicers? Obviously there is a problem when a group of people have never met one single pro-lifer. When a group of people actually think that no women are pro-life. How are their views on abortion ever going to change if they never find them challenged by their peers ... in fact, when they believe that everyone in their life thinks the same way they do?

Looking back on the conversation I overheard, I wish I had said something. Even if I had simply said "I am pro-life" and left it at that. Instead I stayed silent, and wondered how they could have never met a pro-lifer ... all the while not realizing that my actions provided an answer to my own question.

I don't believe that pro-lifers are rare. But I do think that active pro-lifers are rare indeed. And that has to change, or no one will ever believe in the pro-life cause. After all, if we aren't even willing to say that we're pro-life, how is anyone ever going to think that we're in the right?

Free Chen Guangcheng

From LifeSiteNews:

"Chen Guangcheng was arrested in 2006 for exposing evidence that 130,000 forced abortions and involuntary sterilizations were performed on women in Linyi County, Shandong Province in a single year. Time Magazine named him one of "2006's Top 100 People Who Shape Our World" and he was given the 2007 Magsaysay award, known as Asia's Nobel Peace Prize."

He is currently under house arrest, along with his wife and child, and is in poor health due to repeated beatings and malnutrition. To sign a petition for his release click here, and please spread the word!  

Number of Abortions Performed by PP Increasing

http://www.lifesitenews.com/blog/abortion-at-planned-parenthood-by-the-numbers

How do we encourage this number to go down??

I would say that ultrasound and informed consent laws are a good start. But we should also make people aware of the help available to them. After all, no matter how well you internalize the humanity of your child, if you're scared and simply can't imagine how you could make a baby work, its very easy to convince yourself that abortion is ok. I can't count the number of times I have read this testimony:

"I was pro-life until I got pregnant - now I'm pro-choice because I had to have an abortion."

That's why we need to make sure that help is accessible and practical for pregnant women. No one should ever feel that they have to abort.

Stay tuned for a series of posts on great resources for pregnant women. :)

Question of the Week:

Do graphic abortion pictures help or hinder the pro-life cause?

*yay* Over 100 views already!!

Thanks to everyone for reading my blog!!! :D Hopefully you find my posts at least somewhat insightful and interesting.

I just wanted to say that starting this blog has been an amazing experience for me. I've found so many other wonderful blogs out there, written by so many eloquent and amazing people who aren't afraid to defend the unborn. Its been such an inspiration, and a great journey. It is amazing to not feel so alone!!

... just wanted to get that off my chest lol From now on I promise I'll try to stay away from sappy postings!

Abolish Human Abortion: A Call To Action ~ Express your pro-life beliefs and DON'T BE ASHAMED!

I am double posting today because I just read through this page from the Abolitionist Society of Oklahoma blog, and thought it was amazing.

Here are some highlights (emphasis is mine):

One of the primary difficulties in raising awareness about the atrocity of abortion in our culture is the fact that most people are simply too concerned with their own personal peace and comfort to make discussion of abortion part of their daily life. Most people, even "prolife" people, are far too socially insecure, sensitive, and afraid of confrontation, to speak their mind or express their opinions about abortion except for when they are within the confines or comfort zones provided by their church, family, and friends.


Such bashfullness is a subtle compromise with the continued occurence of legalized child killing in this country and has been seriously deleterious to the "prolife" cause.


I can personally attest to the fact that more often then not, I choose to not become engaged in a conversation about abortion because I am too worried about the reactions my statement might cause. I am absolutely "insecure, sensitive, and afraid of confrontation", and so many people are when it comes to this debate.


The world out there is perfectly happy with the fact that you are prolife so long as you keep it to yourself. As they like to say, "You do not have to be pro-abortion so long as you do not seek to take away somebody else's right to an abortion." [...] the prochoice lobby knows full well that they have been winning this political battle for the past 38 years and every day that abortion remains legal is a day that some  3,500 women make their way to so-called clinics and end the lives of the children developing within their wombs. Millions of dollars are made and millions of lives are destroyed.


The pro-abortion culture that we live in is perfectly happy with the fact that you are pro-life so long as all you ever do is check a box from time to time and leave them to influence the culture with their so-called "prochoice." [...] They do not want you to transform the so-called right to abortion on demand from a womens' rights issue to a human rights violation. 


Pro-choicers just want you to keep your pro-life opinions to yourself and leave them alone. This is not good for anybody. 


Of course doing nothing to fight for human rights (ALL human rights) is the same as approving of the pro-choice cause, as it lets them continue to influence our culture with virtually no one to speak out against them. No one cares what you think, but when you act on your convictions, people start to care. That's because the only way to change things is to TAKE ACTION. As long as abortion is legal in Canada, and as long as I do nothing about it (no matter how easy it is for me to denounce it on my facebook page, or even here on this blog) I am absolutely approving of the practice because I'm not making it go away. Maybe that's why I always get along so well with my pro-choice friends - I don't genuinely pose a threat to their ideologies! As this article goes on to say:


When we're out there in the world [...] we "pro-lifers" just blend in with the apathetic culture of death that we are supposedly opposing. I imagine that many of us do not wear our pro-life opinions on our sleeves for the sake of social cohesion and comfort, but this is crazy. We should be far more concerned with abolishing abortion than we are with sustaining a culture of apathetic indifference.

[...] 


Keeping unpopular and controversial views to oneself does create a good deal of personal peace and social comfort, but it also greatly numbs and discourages fruitful discussions about social injustices like abortion. While some disagreements are not worth rocking the boat over, others most definitely are. And sometimes, all one needs to do to rock the boat is express their adherence of a controversial position publicly. [...] we simply must end the mutual assured silence about abortion in our day to day world and arrest the apathy of many pro-lifers who have chosen to quietly agree to disagree on this issue.


So to all you pro-lifers out there who don't take a stand except for when it is comfortable and safe - make your views known. Help change stereotypes, encourage dialog, and never be ashamed. We are different because we are not willing to accept pro-choicers' narrow and shifting views of "personhood". We are different because we never see pregnancy as a disease, and we never see children as undesirable. We are different because we see the beauty in life, in ALL life, because the lives of the unborn are beautiful too and full of the most amazing potential.  We are different because we recognize the injustice of abortion, of killing a human before they are able to see the world beyond their mother's womb. We are not "religious nuts", we are not trying to control women's bodies, and we are not anti-freedom. We need to get our voices out there to change these stereotypes and to support the pro-life cause in a meaningful way. 


The next step from finding your voice is finding a way to make a difference. 

Pro-Choice Violence

This is an interesting site: http://www.prochoiceviolence.com/. I haven't read through all of it yet, but it looks like they have everything sourced, and it might be good to remember some of the stats for the next time any of my pro-choice friends bring up how violent and abusive hard-core pro-lifers are. Read it over and tell me what you think!!

Seeing Hope (2)

An interesting post from Live Action (http://liveaction.org/blog/) on anti-abortion laws in the States, and the reactions of pro-abortion supporters. Lets hope Canadian Pro-life groups start pressuring our country in the same way! How awesome would it be to live through a cultural change regarding abortion?

Answer: Pretty damn awesome!

My Pro-life Journey

I've talked a bit about why I could never be pro-choice, but I figured I should devote an entire entry explaining my journey as a pro-lifer. Sometimes I find it hard to explain why I think the way I do, just because I find it SO obvious that being pro-life is right. Clearly not everyone feels that way, so here goes nothing ...

I grew up in a Catholic family, and went to a Catholic school, and I was always the sort of person who thought the very best of people. I had a very sheltered life, not only because of my family, but also because all of my friends were more than willing to protect my "innocence" (oddly enough!). I am the first born in a large family, so I've seen my mom go through several pregnancies. They were always extremely exciting times in my family, with the baby welcomed and loved long before we ever got to meet her/him face-to-face after birth. So pregnancy = baby had always been a reality to me. It never occurred to me to think of my younger brothers and sisters as anything less than human while they were still in the womb, and it never occurred to me that once a pregnancy started, someone would want to stop it. After all, babies are miracles! My family is very close and it is just expected and assumed that a mother and father love their children best of all, from the moment they start to exist.

All of these factors together shaped my reaction to abortion when I first heard of it. Believe it or not, I was in grade 10 - and before that day it never occurred to me that abortion would even be possible. I was in class, sitting beside one of my best friends, and she was arguing passionately with a boy sitting in front of us. I didn't like the boy very much, as he tended to stare at girls a lot, and he was very loud and obnoxious. My best friend (at that point in time at least), had completely embraced the "good Christian girl" mentality and taken it to the extreme - she was always talking about God and Sex and Other Big Topics, and I tended to ignore her whenever she went on her rampages. So I was just sitting beside her ignoring them both,  when it suddenly occurred to me that I didn't understand what they were talking about. So I turned to my friend and asked her what was going on. She looked at me excitedly and asked,
"You don't know what abortion is, do you?"
And when I shook my head she launched into this huge explanation of abortions and abortion techniques, particularly partial birth abortion. I looked at her in shock, and then looked at the boy and said,
"Well obviously that's wrong!"
And he shook his head. "But what if a girl doesn't want to be pregnant?"
"But she already is ..." I whispered, as my best friend once again launched into more passionate explanations.

I couldn't think of anything else for the rest of the day, I was just so horrified. I could never imagine a mother wanting to kill her own child, and I spent a long time trying to wrap my head around it. I had always believed (and still do) that killing a teenager is worse than killing an adult, and killing a child worse than killing a teenager, and killing a newborn is worse than killing a child (it never occurred to me to kill someone before that). My reasoning was that, the younger a person is when they die, the more life they are losing out on. Killing a child takes away so many experiences than killing an adult, like their first kiss, or their first time travelling by themselves (as a kid, those things were always Big Deals to me!). I couldn't even imagine killing a baby in the womb - they would literally have everything stolen from them - even their first breath!

After thinking hard for several days, I finally just had to conclude that Some People Are Bad, like murderers and rapists, and that Most People Are Good, and would never kill someone just because they didn't want to carry them around in their tummy for a short period of time. I thought of my little brothers and sisters, about how they'd all spent nine months safe inside my mother, and I wanted to cry - to think that there were some brothers and sisters out there who couldn't be safe inside the one place where they should be loved and cared for!

As a grew older I began to recognize that not all people viewed abortion in the same light that I did. One of my good friends had always been counter-cultural (or at least counter-Catholic culture) and considered herself a feminist (which I came to associate with stupidity - mostly thanks to her), so when I found out that she was pro-"choice" I was not too surprised and figured she'd eventually learn how to think critically and change her mind (if you're wondering, she hasn't yet). I was very surprised when my best friend, from the previous story, changed her mind about abortion and proclaimed that now that she could have kids, she didn't want to have to go through a pregnancy if she didn't want to - so obviously abortion was fine. And besides, how could you force someone to carry a child to term? The baby is basically a parasite! I was pretty upset when I first heard about her conversion, but my two biggest shocks came much later, when I was in University.  During first year, I found out that one of my aunts supports legal abortion because of the hard cases (specifically pregnancies due to rape), and that conversation ended abruptly when she said we should just stop talking or we'd end up in a huge fight. My other shock came when another one of my good friends, who as far as I could tell believed in everything a Catholic should, decided that being pro-choice was more loving than being pro-life. That came as a huge blow, because it made me realize that you can never really know what a person thinks unless you ask them point-blank, and it made me wonder how many other seemingly good people believed in abortion-on-demand, or even how many girls I interacted with had had abortions themselves. By the way, this friend has since changed his mind - I like to think partially because of me!

Growing up forced me to realize that people that didn't even seem all that bad thought that abortion was fine. It was a hard thing to reconcile, since I'd previously explained abortion away as something that Bad People did. It was also very difficult for me to understand how abortion could be legal in Canada - I had always been so proud to be Canadian, and now I wanted to move to another country! I finally had to conclude that people just don't realize what they are doing or supporting, because if they did, they would be pro-life. I looked at it as a "they know not what they do" sort of thing.

Once in university, I finally started dating. My first boyfriend was not exactly a perfect match for me, but we lasted quite awhile. About halfway through the relationship we realized that we stood on opposite ends of the abortion debate, and we spent a lot of time arguing about it. I preferred not to bring the issue up, because I figured he wouldn't think that way forever (how could anyone support abortion once they have their own children, right?) but he would constantly send me links about difficult issues within the abortion sphere (like mothers who might die if they go through with the pregnancy), or videos on youtube about "crazy religious people" protesting at abortion clinics, and being made fun of. These things would inevitably start debates, and I would almost always win - not because I'm particularly well-versed in pro-life debates, but because my ex was horrible at supporting his own opinions on any topic. Nothing would ever change his mind though, and I promised myself that next time I agreed to date someone, they would be pro-life. Whether I have kept that resolution is a story for another day.

One more thing has shaped my support for the pro-life cause. After high school, one of my friends travelled to another country, to a place where abortion is illegal. She is currently dating a boy that she met during her travels, whose mother didn't want him, and who would have been "terminated" if she could have found a place to do it. Whenever my friend is here she brings up how she believes abortion should be illegal everywhere, and tells that story as support. If abortion had been legal in that country, then her boyfriend would have been killed in the womb, and she would never have met him and fallen in love. When people tell me that the baby in the womb isn't a real "person" yet, I always think of that, and remind myself that abortion takes away an entire life from a very real person - from people like my friend's boyfriend, who was so close to not ever having taken a breath.

That brings me to today, when I decided to write a blog about my experiences as a pro-lifer. I know a few other people who are pro-life (and all of them are girls as well!), but most of them I haven't seen since high school, and one of them lives far away. As a result, I have always felt very alone in my beliefs. So here I am, blogging about my experiences, in the hopes that someone out there can relate to what I write. My purpose here isn't to prove that abortion is wrong, but to provide the world with a look into how someone who is pro-life thinks. I am essentially a typical person - a bit religious, but not religious enough to make it an issue with everyone that I meet. I have one belief that the media paints as crazy and counter-cultural. And I want people to understand that you don't have to be a crazy evangelical nut-case Christian to believe that everyone deserves a chance at life. You just have to be a normal person who loves everyone, including the unborn.

Question of the Week:

Would you date someone who was pro-choice?

Wishful Thinking: Pro-choice to Pro-life Conversion

I found this blog entry from an amazing blogger at www.conversiondiary.com. Reading it reminded me of a lot of pro-choice friends of mine, and sort of made me hope that one day they might go through her same thought process.

I mean, I absolutely believe that someday everyone will be pro-life, just like how no one now thinks it's ok to abandon newborns to die (to use the blogger's example). But whether that will happen in my lifetime or not is completely up in the air. Even so, it would be wonderful to see the people that I love come to realize why I'm pro-life - and then decide that they should be pro-life too!

Ahh ... wishful thinking.

Really, it's a waste of time to wish for things you know aren't in your control. But either way ... the blog entry is an amazing read and I encourage anyone who is reading this to make their way over to conversiondiary.com. And browse through some of her other entries as well!

Addition: Here is another conversion story that I found. I'm including it because it is a bit of a different take on pro-life conversion, and I think that it's so wonderful that she converted a bit later in life. I always hear about how the opinions you form as a teenager and young adult tend to stay with you for the rest of your life - but that obviously isn't always true! And it fills me with hope for the people around me (whether foolishly or not, it's still nice to think that some pro-choicers I know could eventually change their minds) :) Btw, this conversion story is from Abigail's Alcove - read some of her stuff too!