Olivia Gans, Executive Director of the Washington-based American Victims of Abortion, met with Members of Parliament on March 8, International Women’s Day. The luncheon event was organized by Alliance for Life as a contribution to International Women’s Day celebrations on Parliament Hill.
As Executive Director of National Right to Life’s American Victims of Abortion lobby group, Olivia Gans has traveled extensively in North America and Britain. She recently addressed both the Labour and Conservative Party conferences in Britain, and has acted as an advisor to U.S. Surgeon General Everett Koop.
On Parliament Hill, Olivia outlined the trauma of Post Abortion Syndrome for the 20 Members of Parliament in attendance. The story of her own abortion and the pain that followed brought tears to the eyes of many MPs as well as to members of the media covering the event.
Later that evening, Olivia addressed a standing room only crowd at a public meeting organized by Action Life (Ottawa), also in celebration of International Women’s Day. Speaking as a pro-life feminist, her message was clear: abortion is detrimental to the health of women, as well as being fatal to the unborn child. Women need positive help to solve problem pregnancies, she said, not quick abortions that leave debilitating emotional scars.
She used as an example a classic abortion case: a woman with little education and no job skills, who is poor and whose husband is abusive. “Abortion is seen as the solution to her problems. But following the abortion she is still poor, has little education, no job skills and her husband still beats her – and in addition she is suffering from the trauma of having killed her baby. What problems has the abortion solved?”
