June 30, 2008

By Stephanie Gray, Executive Director, Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform, June 30, 2008

As my inbox floods with news about Henry Morgentaler’s supposed receipt of the Order of Canada, my thought is this, “So what?” To give Henry Morgentaler the Order of Canada is simply to be consistent with what’s going on in this country.

Sure, people can point to an online poll by the Globe and Mail which revealed 92% of the over 300,000 respondents are against giving the award to Morgentaler. But the reality is this: a majority of Canadians support abortion when the procedure most often occurs (the first trimester). The reality is this: over 250 human beings will be killed today. The reality is this: that killing is state-sanctioned. The reality is this: that killing is paid for by our tax dollars. If this is the first time Canadians are feeling shame about celebrating Canada Day, then we have problems. People should have been reluctant to “celebrate” Canada day back in 1969 when abortion first became legal.

The problem to which our limited attention should be drawn is /not/ awarding Henry Morgentaler the Order of Canada. The problem to which our attention should be drawn is the genocide of a group of people who are being denied their right to life simply because of their age. The problem to which our attention should be drawn is their dismemberment, disembowelment, and decapitation. Morgentaler’s potential award is simply a symptom of a more deeply rooted crisis.

We can look at Morgentaler’s award and blame the selecting committee. We can blame the government and its politicians. We can blame others-because that’s easy. But what’s difficult is to blame ourselves.

How often have we-in our teaching, medical, counselling, legal and other professions, or in our families or amongst our colleagues-been silent when we should have been a voice? How often have we as a movement been more concerned about what people think of us than what they think of abortion? How often have we been reactive (e.g., the outrage over the Order of Canada) instead of proactive? How often have we failed to /show/ what happens in an abortion because we think we’ll lose support from the public?

Know this: abortion advocates have made “choice” look good, and as a result that makes pro-lifers look bad. We as pro-lifers ultimately make ourselves look good by exposing the deception of the pro-choice claims. Rather than directly changing what people think of us, we need to change what they think of abortion. The /effect/ of that shift will be a change in their perception of pro-life organizations. Think of it this way: did social movements in history (such as those lead by William Wilberforce, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr.) focus on changing how the public perceived their organizations or on how the public perceived the injustices? It was the latter. And when that transformation occurred, people /naturally/ gravitated towards these people and their movements.

Just last week, a young lady, I’ll call Teresa, told me that an acquaintance of hers has a daughter who is pregnant and was considering abortion. Teresa decided to step out of her comfort zone and write an e-mail to her acquaintance with links providing images of abortion. That acquaintance sent the information to her daughter. That daughter looked at the images and decided /not/ to abort. Oh, and Teresa? Just a few months ago she was pro-choice. But someone showed /her/ pictures and she changed her mind. Will we do the same?

The choice is ours: if and when Morgentaler gets his award this week we can /react/ to this specific instance, or we can /proactively/ expose the ugly reality of “choice” so that indifferent Canadians are moved out of their apathy. Order of Canada or not, babies are being killed. And yet, the pro-life response seems more visible about Morgentaler’s potential award than it is each time a baby is killed-which is every day. More than 250 times each day.

Abortion may be legal, but you and I have the power to make it unthinkable.

To read CCBR’s proposal for the pro-life movement’s success, go to this link: http://www.unmaskingchoice.ca/reforming.html
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Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform (CCBR) Box 123 5-8720 Macleod Trail
SE Calgary, AB, T2H 0M4
403-668-0485 (office)
403-539-2227 (fax)

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