Luka Granic:
This year, the Silent No More Awareness Campaign marks 20 years in Canada, and in an exclusive interview with The Interim, Angelina Steenstra, the national coordinator for Canada as well as the regional coordinator for the Province of Ontario for Silent No More, reflected on the influence of the organization over the past two decades.
Steenstra said, “The point of the awareness campaign is to reach out to those here who are hurting after abortion, to let them know they’re not alone and that there are healing programs available.” She said “we have one activity and that is to raise awareness of the aftermath of abortion to make it unthinkable.”
Steenstra said, “the campaign brought people who had gone through healing together and then it became a louder voice, multiple testimonies, speaking first to the people that were in the pro-life movement and then that ripple effect moving outward to the larger community.”
Silent No More has provided speakers for schools, church groups, and pro-life events. Every year, women and men who have direct involvement in abortion share their testimonies at the National March for Life.
She said, “The world around us says ’you had an abortion, get on with it, it’s no big deal. It’s just a clump of cells, just, move on. You made a choice, be happy with it.’ We’ve been invited to share our testimonies to bring a message of hope and healing to those who are hurting after abortion. And to even acknowledge that there is such a thing as hurt after abortion.”
Steenstra said it is impossible to know how many people have been touched by the testimonials of the Silent No More Awareness campaign. “Oftentimes, we just don’t know how many people who have heard our stories over the years, we will never know who’s touched. Most of what happens for good is hidden to us, but every once in a while we’re gifted with the opportunity to see the good that has come from the experience that has such darkness to it.”
Sometimes, they do see the fruits of their testimony. In 2011, Debbie Fisher of Silent No More and Toronto Right to Life was scheduled to speak at the St. Therese of Lisieux Social Justice Council in Richmond Hill, the school’s first pro-life conference. A girl, “Rita” was not at school, heading to a scheduled abortion, and students arranged for Fisher to talk to her. Fisher shared her testimony, which helped convince Rita to keep her child. The Social Justice club held a baby shower for Rita and her child later that year.
Nathalia Comrie, a summer intern for Campaign Life Coalition, is a member of Silent No More. She shared her story at pro-life events, including in front of thousands at the national March for Life in Ottawa. She gave her testimonial on Parliament Hill to share why she is silent no more. Comrie said, “As soon as I told my boyfriend I was pregnant, he became verbally and emotionally abusive … I became depressed, and even contemplated suicide because I felt like I could not have my baby, but also that I could not live without my baby.” She continued to open up: “I wanted to raise my baby or make an adoption plan, but instead my family coerced me to have an abortion. I felt abandoned, pressured and betrayed by them.” She spoke about the false assurances that abortion mills give to women: “At the abortion clinic I was told that after the abortion everything would go back to the way it was before. As if the pregnancy and the abortion, and all the trauma surrounding it, had never happened. All that was a lie.” She continued: “I wanted to end my life every day because I did not want to be in a world without my son. I suffered from major depression disorder, anxiety and post-traumatic stress, and my emotionally abusive boyfriend became sexually abusive … substance abuse and self-harm filled my days for three long dark years.”
Comrie said, “Thank God I found my way to post-abortion counselling which helped me unpack my traumatic experience and take my first steps towards healing … When I was finally able to understand what Jesus did on the cross for me, I was able to finally forgive myself. Prior to that I was consumed with guilt because I had the final say on my son’s life, and I gave in to the pressure of aborting him, rather than fighting for his life.” She concluded her testimony, “I want to share my story in hopes of reaching a woman in that scared and lonely place where I found myself at 17. I want my story to help change the mind of abortion-vulnerable mothers. And I want to reach out to men and women still suffering in shame and silence, and invite them into a healing journey with God. But the reason I most wanted to be here today, why I speak out about my abortion whenever I can, is because I will never forget my son Caden. He is the reason why I am silent no more.”
The national March for Life in Ottawa is one of the many ways Silent No More reaches out. Steenstra said, “It could be one-on-one, on the subway, it can be standing with the Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform on the streets with our ‘I regret’ signs, it can be an annual fundraising dinner for an organization, it can be the Catholic Women’s League, it can be a pregnancy care centre doing a fundraiser.” She said, “There are many venues where we have been invited to raise awareness, support pro-life initiatives, and also help advance post-abortion healing programs.” She said of Comrie’s story, that it is “one of hundreds of stories that has helped people a lot.”
Steenstra said her husband, Walter, has supported her pro-life: “I could never have done any of this work if my husband hadn’t taken it on spiritually, and always been there to spiritually and physically support me.”
The 2024 National March for Life was dedicated to Angelina and Walter Steenstra, in part to recognize Silent No More’s two decades of pro-life work in Canada.
