All pro-lifers hunger for a great breakthrough – if not this year, then surely next. Recently, three from Atlantic Canada shared their dreams for 2003.
Herm Wills, president of Campaign Life Coalition in Nova Scotia, thinks the energies of Canada’s “pro-life movement are too thinly spread. We desperately need victories. But we are fighting so many battles on so many fronts, that none of us have sufficient money, people, energy or time, to mount a truly vigorous campaign by ourselves, and carry it through to a decisive victory. We desperately need to pool our resources, prioritize our targets, and develop clear tactics and rules of engagement.”
He is convinced that with good strategies and tactics, and the resources of the whole pro-life movement directed toward one carefully selected target at a time, victories are possible.
Pauline MacDonald, president of Prince Edward Island Right to Life, ardently wishes that every woman seeking an abortion could be required to first view an ultrasound of her child. “When they see for themselves that their child is not just a blob of cells, many change their minds.”
Today, many Canadians are concerned about health and wellness, particularly “women’s health” and chemical contamination of drinking water. Mac-Donald believes the right to life movement should move quickly to tap into those concerns. The public doesn’t realize that abortion can have a serious long-term impact on women’s health. “I’d like to see us sponsor studies and make the results very public,” she said. “Stressing our concern about women’s health would also bring opportunities to point out ways the various contraceptives – including the morning-after pill – may endanger women.”
She noted that in P.E.I. and across Canada, chemical contamination of drinking water by farm and lawn pesticides and other chemicals, has sparked grave concern. “But thousands of women and girls pop contraceptive pills into their mouths day in and day out for years. What are they thinking? … Most users have no information on their overall health impact, or the effects of long-term interference with their reproductive processes. They just take them – no questions asked,” she said.
Actually, concern should extend beyond hormone pills that are immediately abortifacient, and it’s not just women that should be alarmed. It is now known that artificial estrogens and related substances cannot be kept out of the drinking water so they are being ingested by men and children as well as by women wishing to avoid pregnancy. The impact on a total population is unknown.
In Fredericton, Peter Ryan, executive director of New Brunswick Right to Life and president of CLC New Brunswick, said he longs to see many of the hundreds of thousands of Canadian women who suffer from past abortions, make their stories public.
“First, the walls that imprison mothers in their suffering will be broken down, allowing them to find the healing and reconciliation that is possible with God’s great mercy and tenderness. Secondly, God will use their story to dispel the lie that abortion is safe and harmless for women.”
The stories, he notes, could be as anonymous or as public as the women wished. TV ads based on a true story, or a website with hundreds of stories – even anonymous ones – could have incalculable impact.
Ryan has an even bigger dream. “In the longer term, I envision a class-action suit against abortionists. That’s just what it may take to stop the traffic in human bloodshed and the violation of women’s maternity.”
