Located directly beside the Cabbagetown Women’s Clinic, Aid to Women (ATW) has served on the frontline of the pro-life movement for more than 30 years. Founded in 1984, the pro-life crisis pregnancy centre is dedicated to accompanying young women through unplanned pregnancies up to birth, and into the first years of parenthood. They are committed to educating women on the alternatives to [...]
Dick Cochrane was a Spitfire pilot, lounge singer, and founder of Aid to Women. Campaign Life Coalition national president Jim Hughes recalls that his friend Richmond (Dick) Cochrane lived an extraordinary and varied life that began in India in 1925 and ended in Canada 92 years later with stops as a Spitfire pilot in the India and Pakistan air forces, [...]
Most pro-life people are familiar with sidewalk counselors, activists who spend time outside of abortion facilities, praying, and attempting to offer support to the women going inside. However, much of the attention they receive comes from very good or very bad news. What is the day-to-day experience of a sidewalk counselor like? Enza Rattenni, executive director and sidewalk counselor at Aid to [...]
Crisis pregnancy centres (CPCs) in North America continue to face new attacks from the abortion industry, including a recently released NARAL Pro-Choice California Foundation report titled “Unmasking Fake Clinics: The Truth About Crisis Pregnancy Centres in California” and a brand new documentary by the directors of the controversial documentary Jesus Camp, not to mention a Toronto Star hit piece on Toronto-area CPCs [...]
In the fight against abortion, there is a need to go beyond the legal dimensions and help those who are most vulnerable. Aid to Women, a pro-life crisis pregnancy centre in downtown Toronto, is an example of a successful organization that reaches out to individual women who are considering having abortions. Opened in the late 1980s, the organization has saved over 2,000 [...]
One hot, humid day last summer, Ann Wilson, then the director of downtown Toronto’s Aid to Women office, heard yelling on the street below. Such commotion is not unusual, given the location of the office next door to an abortuary, in a red-light district and surrounded by drug activity. Still, she wondered what was going on. A new sidewalk witness, Vanya Gobbi [...]
Sweet Smell of Roses Early in the morning on one of my first days at Aid to Women, I opened the back door from our second-floor kitchen. With the front windows also open, I was hoping to create a cross-breeze to reduce the hot, humid air. My immediate effect was to scatter a flock of starlings. I sipped my morning coffee and [...]