A Ten Year-Old’s Message to the Prime Minister
“If society helps people who are being bullied then they should help unborn babies too. Because abortion is almost the exact same thing as bullying except it is to babies and it is a matter of life and death.” – 10 year old Chelsea’s words to Prime Minister Harper
(Mark Penninga, www.ARPACanada.ca, April 26 2012): It all started with a sermon. Chelsea, age ten, sat in the pews of the Aldergrove Canadian Reformed Church with her family as she has done for much of her life. But the message delivered that day left a mark on her heart that has moved her to bring the cause of the unborn to the highest authority in Canada.
“I was aware of abortion, but had never thought about doing anything about it prior” she noted in an interview with ARPA Canada.
Chelsea’s parents have both been actively pro-life for years, helping out with the local pro-life society, attending LifeChain with the family, and doing bottle drives for the pregnancy care centre, among other things. But it wasn’t until that sermon that the message hit home. Their pastor talked about human nature, human life, abortion, and how God determines that all lives are valuable. Chelsea went home with many questions for her parents. Her parents didn’t shun the issue.
On her dad’s prompting, that night Chelsea wrote an email straight from her heart to her Member of Parliament, her first time ever. “I’m doing what I feel I can, and one day hopefully more. But you can help even more. I am hoping that people can hear the cries of unborn babys wanting to see the light of day but never getting the chance. They should make a rule about not being able to abort babies.” In the email she also asked if she and her dad could meet with the MP to talk about this.
Not long after that Sunday, the MP’s office phoned and agreed to a meeting. Chelsea admits she was nervous going into it “because I had never met with somebody so important.” But she also quickly noted that she was “really glad she did it and hopes to do more.” Not only was her MP sympathetic to her concerns, he also encouraged her to follow up by collecting signatures on a petition calling for Parliament to restrict abortion to the greatest extent possible. And he didn’t just turn it back to her. He promised that if she would write a letter to Mr. Harper, he would hand-deliver it to him. He also promised to stand up in Parliament to read the petition that she gathered.
Chelsea went straight from that meeting to her school. She talked to her class and the school principal about her experience. With the schools’ encouragement, she did a short speech for four classes and collected signatures at each of them. She already has four pages of the petition filled and plans to drop it off at her MP’s office soon.
When asked how her friends responded, Chelsea noted that there was only support. “They care quite a lot. They are quite interested. Everyone was asking me a lot of questions.” Chelsea has plans to keep at it and collect more signatures, including from the area high school.
With the MP’s pledge about the letter to Stephen Harper not forgotten, Chelsea also got to work on that.
“If society helps people who are being bullied then they should help unborn babies too. “Because abortion is almost the exact same thing as bullying except it is to babies and it is a matter of life and death.” She added “as a Christian it is my duty to take care of Gods creation including unborn children. I am only ten but my age does not stop me from trying to do what is right and just in God eyes.”
In her concluding thoughts to the Prime Minister she wrote “I hope you will put this to consideration and then just think how many lives you could save if you just put in a law that said NO ABORTION!!! And if you disagree then think about how many precious lives you are putting at stake.”
When asked about what she hopes others will do to help her with this cause she exclaimed “Help ARPA, help pro-life societies, and any groups who are trying to stop abortion too.” She also hopes that others will join her, from every province, collecting signatures on the petition.
Her mom Audrey noted that the innitiative came completely from Chelsea who “totally took it on herself. She did it on her own.”
And when Chelsea was asked about whether she could see herself doing this long-term she matter-of-factly said “I hope so, but it’s in the Lord’s hands.”
