This question came from students after the news of Ruby Mercer’s death. Ruby Mercer was a well-known opera singer, who sang at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. When she was semi-retired she devoted her life to opera, and to helping and encouraging young singers. She was well known on radio.

Ruby Mercer had been a foundling. The story is that she was left on a doorstep. She was adopted by a choirmaster and lived to bring joy to opera lovers, and help to young singers, who, in their turn, brought joy.

I think this is an excellent question. I do not know of such a book, but there should be one. We could use it to show what the world would have lost if abortion had been legal, and what we are probably losing now.

Many of those saved were composers of music, singers, writers, scientists, etc. Some were handicapped, some were children conceived in rape or whose parents were not married – but they lived to make a contribution to mankind.

As a retired teacher, I’d like to suggest that pro-life students take up the challenge to research and write the stories of abortion escapees. Then they could be compiled, edited, and maybe put into a book that can be sold for funds. It is not impossible.

In a discussion on the recent court decision overturning the child pornography law, and also the striking down of the abortion law in 1988, the question was raised: Why didn’t pro-life lawyers and pro-life groups see the dangers in the Charter?

The answer is that the danger was foreseen, warnings were given, and most people (often even pro-life people and churches) did not hear, or refused to listen. Why? There are many reasons:

    (a) People did not understand legal terminology, especially what “person” means in law, and its connection with the preborn child, who today is not legally a person. (Women were declared “non-persons” by the Canadian Supreme Court in the late 1920s, by the way.)

    (b) The pro-life movement’s limited money had no chance against the government’s funds for promoting its agenda.

    (c) Too many people trust (often unwisely) their own political party.

We had an example of what could happen in Canada, under the Charter, in the Roe vs. Wade decision in the United States in 1973. The U.S. Supreme Court – answerable to no one – struck down in a 7-2 decision the anti-abortion laws of all 50 states. These were laws passed by politicians elected by the people.

Pro-life lawyers realized that the Charter (as it was written) opened the door to similar court decisions in Canada. Campaign Life applied to present a brief – written by Gwen Landolt – before the Parliamentary Select Committee. The delegates included: Kathie Toth of Edmonton, president of Campaign Life; Gwen Landolt, our legal counsel; I am almost certain the third person was Dr. Dawn Jubbe, renowned for her pioneer work in the neo-natal unit of Women’s College Hospital in Toronto. Their presentation was televised across Canada by the CBC.

The brief stressed the dangers of handing legislative powers over to the judiciary. It argued strenuously for recognizing that the child, conceived but not yet born, has a right to life equal to that of other human beings.