ProWomanProLife

Tomorrow, the St. John’s based NGO, MaterCare International, will open a maternity hospital in Isiolo, Kenya. This miraculous achievement is no small feat for a number of reasons.

The first being it is completely funded by contributions from private organizations and everyday citizens, the majority of which are Canadian. The second, is that this maternity hospital does not offer abortion or medical contraceptives (it does however promote natural family planning). The third, is that the people of Isiolo were employed to build and staff the facility. They marched and petitioned to maintain the roads to the hospital, they have had a hand in its inception since the first stone was laid and the first midwife was trained. The president of Kenya, Mwai Kibaki, will attend the opening.

“It is our sincere hope that the presence of President Kibaki at the opening of the Isiolo hospital will illustrate to the international community that projects like these are what the people of Kenya want. The hospital was built by Canadian citizens giving private donations, without the help of government funding, because Canada’s federal government isn’t acting on behalf of the Canadian people as both countries would like them to,” said MaterCare founder, Dr. Robert Walley.

Seriously! When ProWomanProLife was started, it wasn’t supposed to be all serious, all the time. Just Say No.

So here’s a Slate article I do agree with. I’d add you should just say no to any wedding gown that doesn’t allow you free movement to dance. Or walk, as is sometimes the case.

I personally also believe you should say no to the dress pictured above, which, based on less than extensive “research” was the only non-strapless wedding dress photo I could find on short notice. But that’s totally personal.

Because “There is no avoiding the issue, except through suppression.”

I had the pleasure of participating in the March for Life here in Victoria last Thursday. I’ve heard that the numbers were close to 2000, the largest turnout yet. I also noticed that there were fewer counter-protestors than previous years (and they were less effective as well).

The most interesting result I saw from the March, however, wasn’t out and about. It was afterwards when I got home, logged into Facebook, and looked in one of my “mommy” groups. One of the women in the group had posted a bit of a rant about how angry it made her, and many other women had jumped on board. There was just one woman defending the pro-life cause all by herself. What strikes me is that here in Canada, we’re told that the debate over abortion is over, however, the debate in this forum has been going on for literally four days now. Even the most dramatic posts rarely last more than a day, so this is what I might describe as (am I really using this word?) . . . epic.

As time as moves on, more women have come out and thrown in their two cents, but other pro-lifers have also come out of the woodwork, which has been encouraging (and surprisingly civil). The best part is that people are actually talking about it, and people who wouldn’t usually listen to the pro-life side are, in a sense, being forced to listen. I don’t know if any hearts are being changed, but I hope that at least a few seeds have been planted. (It has also been helpful for dispelling a lot of misinformation about the March.) The debate is not over (still).

So, back to the subject of the March for Life, here are some of my photos from the event:

More photos can be found at the Victoria March for Life website or facebook page (both pages contain the same photos).

Echoing Barbara Kay’s sentiments in Full Comment a few days ago, I wanted to chime in with my strong disapproval of the Tell-all Sex Exhibition opening on May 17th at the Museum of Science and Technology in Ottawa.  An e-mail is going around describing the various exhibits which is far too graphic and offensive to even mention on this blog, aimed at adults.  The Tell-all Sex Exhibition, which will be at the Museum until January, is aimed at children as young as 12.

Do we really need to have our children exposed to more sexually explicit material?  I was building forts and playing ‘capture the flag’ in the back yard when I was 12, not thinking about my ‘sexual orientation,’ creating new names for genitalia or having an abortion if I got pregnant from doing all the sexually explicit things that the exhibition promotes! Not surprisingly, the exhibition’s main objective is to push for acceptance of homosexuality and abortion.  Let children be children and stop the propagandizing!  Really.

As Barbara Kay puts it, “Please, Mr. Sophisticated Curator, don’t tell us this is “educational.” Where I come from, that’s soft porn.”

Addendum: I just had to include this quote from the formidable Michael Coren in his brilliantly written article, “Ottawa’s award-winning way of killing off childhood“:

The exhibition itself is a mixture of the clinical and the prurient. Juxtaposed with scientific depictions of eggs and sperm and explanations of procreation are tales of why abortion is so important and, hard to believe really, videos of boys and girls masturbating. Whatever we think of self-abuse, and I regard it as one of those mortal sin things, kids have been able to get the hang of it for quite a long time now. They don’t need instructional videos. But I’m sure that a few adults would like to take a look — it’s what is known as child pornography, and the police spend enormous amounts of time and money trying to stop it and incarcerate the perpetrators.

What the exhibition is actually about, of course, is normalization. There are no barriers, no right and wrong, no absolutes, and no “normal” in the brave new post-Kinsey world of sex studies and sexual freedom.

I think this is one of those occasions where we really should be contacting people like the Heritage Minister, the Public Affairs Director of the Museum and obviously the Curator.  I registered my disapproval last night.

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Andrea adds: My take on the museum exhibit in the Ottawa Citizen. We went on a field trip yesterday to check it out.

I thought this comment on the now infamous Time breastfeeding cover was interesting. Unique. And I appreciate unique.

I had thought this was a spectacular failure of a mother, not necessarily because she chooses to breastfeed that long but because she would subject herself to the objectification this photo brings. Not just herself, but, more importantly, the child, who will always be known as “the kid in the Time cover.” But it could just as well be seen as the spectacular failure of the father, too. Bad parenting, all around.

…will not be written about this woman, “Linda”, who, married for less than a year, got pregnant and decided to have an abortion in favour of quiet mornings spent in bed, jogging or gardening.

When I first received this article, I was angry. I sent it to Jennifer Derwey to avoid it because it is from her neck of the woods. Then I spent the weekend thinking about it.

For every woman experiencing fear, trauma, and a really difficult time in her life when she gets unexpectedly pregnant, there are one or two who are simply so lacking in courage and selflessness that they can’t face up to nine months of pregnancy and then give a baby away. Those could be the nine most difficult months of their lives, I acknowledge. But they would have done something for the greater good. Something amazing for a family who can’t have kids. Women desperate to adopt abound.

But instead, Linda’s story goes a little like this: Protagonist A is living life. Protagonist A hits on difficulty. Protagonist A chooses easy road, skirts the actual issue entirely and continues to live in exactly the same way as she did before. Cue soaring music? I don’t think so.

This makes for a lame story because it is lame.

We admire people when they do brave things. And here’s the thing. You can’t have it both ways. Many abortion-rights activists want to claim making the abortion choice is ever so brave. But that’s not what Linda is saying. She’s saying it’s routine. That many women choose abortion for many different reasons. She asks me not to bat an eye. Fine. But don’t tell me next thing that your decision to abort was courageous in its own right.

I’m sorry there are women out there like Linda who are so lacking in courage and creativity that they prefer quiet mornings of gardening to a question mark, to gift giving, to the opportunities that open up when we are selfless.

PS I have never, EVER thought that women having abortions are “sluts who aren’t using birth control,” as she puts it.

PPS Birth control is mentioned twice in this column. And the reason for that is to say, “Look at me! I was super responsible, so this pregnancy is not my fault. Therefore, I should not have to take responsibility for it.” Whereas my worldview is less judgmental than hers. If you are having sex–there is a chance you are going to get pregnant no matter how “responsible” you are.

PPPS Véronique mentioned to me in conversation post-CBC interview that there is a continuum on the life issue. There are those of us who see the embryo/fetus/developing child as being of inestimable worth. There are those who see no worth at all, like Linda; hence her ability to go and have an abortion in favour of quiet mornings. But the rest of everyone is in between in this country today. That’s why we have to discuss the issue of what life is, and when it begins…why it matters.

I wrote this column in the Post today. Feel free to get in on the comments if you feel so inclined. The gist of it:

The truth is that it is better health care, not abortion, that substantially improves maternal mortality rates — access to skilled birth attendants and access to maternal health-care services. Higher education levels for women also serve to decrease maternal mortality. In light of these findings, abortion rights activists should stop making sweeping predictions that restricting abortion will result in skyrocketing maternal deaths and stop insisting that abortion is the key to improving women’s health. The data simply don’t back up such claims.

I saw this story last week through pro-life media. But I’m really glad to see it hit the mainstream press. Inspirational.

I’m late to post my photos, but here are a couple.