Feb 03 2012
Hello ProWomanProLife readers! It has been a long while since we introduced a new blogger here. But it is my great honour to welcome Natalie Hudson Sonnen. You can read more about her journey, here. She is yet another smart, savvy, confident, well-spoken woman who is pro-life (of course). She is also, as I have gotten to know her here in Ottawa, very kind and fun. Welcome, Natalie!
Jan 01 2012
This post is long overdue… but since one of my New Year’s Resolutions is to not put off until tomorrow what you can do today, here we are. By the way, this resolution has already borne much fruit, let me tell you. This morning I got rid of a jar of Hoisin sauce that was made during the years of the ancient Tang dynasty. Mystical, and yet, too old for cooking. And some apple butter from 2009, which was oddly, still looking just fine. (What on earth is in that stuff?!) Starting afresh in 2012!
Anyways, I have long wanted to draw your attention to the lovely Véronique’s new blog. Vie de Cirque: My life in a ten-ring circus is sometimes in English, sometimes in French, always worth reading for that Je Ne Sais Quoi that makes Véronique who she is. I intend to link to her blog often enough–for a dose of realism mixed with humour and wisdom when it comes to family life.
You knew her here first. Yes. May she always remember the little people along the road.
To conclude, another of my resolutions is to spend less time staring vapidly at my computer screen, writing and re-writing blog posts that are here one day and gone tomorrow. And let’s get serious–NO checking the random Facebook profile of a friend of a friend who just got married and wow, that’s a pretty dress, but actually you don’t know her and never will, therefore she is not here, not anywhere, not by anyone’s definition a “friend.” I’m digressing now, a terrible habit, the eradication of which will be a resolution for 2013, in the interests of not adding too much to my plate for one year. Happy New Year!
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Véronique adds: Well, what an awesome coincidence since one of my New Year’s resolutions (the kind that I will keep of course) is to contribute a post a month to ProWomanProLife! I wish I could think of Andrea as one of “the little people down the road” but I’d be happy to have 25% of PWPL’s traffic on my blog! To tell you the awful truth about myself, I found it very difficult to write about abortion while pregnant. And I have been pregnant twice in the last 2-and-a-bit years. So wait for it! (And feel free to make me feel really bad if I don’t follow through, ok?)
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Andrea adds: I will not hesitate to make you feel very bad. Publicly. You’ll rue the day you ever made this resolution. Welcome back!
Dec 06 2011
I like this picture and slogan, because it’s true. And it’s pretty similar to our People for the Ethical Treatment of People line of t-shirts (Because you wouldn’t treat a dog like this). The environment, trees, animals–all get a higher level of concern/empathy than the unborn child.
Oct 02 2011
As some of you are aware, I debated Joyce Arthur at Queen’s University yesterday afternoon. Behold: my short report.
There were about 150 students there, though I am bad at estimating crowds. It was peaceful, with the exception of some guffaws of laughter at me from a very limited group of possibly 5 to 7 anti-Andreas. (I am working with the language here, since I got called anti-choice all night. Incidentally, this suits me just fine since I am anti-this-one-”choice”. Those kids were certainly Anti-Andrea. Probably anti-life, too, if I were to guess. Oh yes, I have a keen sense of discernment.)
Joyce was respectful and pleasant in her demeanor, and wore her trademark flower as well as a lovely black skirt. She wore a shirt too, I might add, but I didn’t notice it in particular.
The question: Can Canada have a maternal health policy that excludes funding for abortion?
As expected, I said Yes We Can! My arguments came down to 1) describing that the unborn are human like you and me therefore abortion means taking a life and 2) highlighting the way in which abortion is irrelevant for saving women’s lives. I showed (if I do say so myself) a great graph showing how Canada’s maternal mortality declined well prior to 1969.
I found Joyce’s arguments (not surprisingly, let’s remember whose web site we are on) less than compelling. To address the humanity of the unborn she said simply it doesn’t matter, because the woman still decides. She is very set on legalization of abortion western-style for the developing world, so much so that she failed to wholly address the fact that maternal mortality declines with good medical care, sans abortion. She made the point that abortion is a mainstay of every woman’s life: normal and routine, nothing to see here. So where my main point was to ask the question that if we can decrease maternal mortality without abortion, and the data clearly shows we can, why wouldn’t we do it? However, she doesn’t view abortion as negative, so she sees no point in trying to avoid it.
That was jarring for me, as I suspect it was also jarring for those girls in the audience who have had abortions. There’s no amount of saying something is super easy that will make it so, when it’s not.
My other points: abortion in the developing world has been used to get rid of girls, legal abortion does not equal safe abortion, limited funding from government means we ought to use measures that garner the biggest bang for your buck (things like providing antibiotics and oxytocin).
I believe the only video recording is on my iPhone, so I’ll try to get that up. It’s not the greatest quality, sorry. I also have an audio recording of dubious quality, but I’ll transfer it to my laptop and see if I can improve it there.
Many thanks to the University of Ottawa pro-lifers who came out to support me! I think the bulk of the audience, however, was neither strongly pro-life nor strongly pro-choice and therefore this was a great event to introduce your average student to both sides of the story.
Sep 19 2011
Jul 19 2011
A friend of a friend is looking for some help caring for a two-year-old. If you or someone you know is interested, email us here and I’ll forward it on to the right person:
Large family in rural Ottawa looking for a full-time nanny or mother’s helper to look after 2 year-old. Live-in or live-out. Area is not serviced by public transit. Has pets.
Jul 04 2011
I’ll be on Ezra Levant’s show tonight discussing Dominique Strauss-Kahn and the general decline of sexual mores in our society and Brian Lilley’s show to discuss gendercide.
Don’t know whether that makes me a sunshine girl, but I can assure you I remain appropriately attired in a business suit! You can watch online, here, if you feel so inclined.
Mar 21 2011
As with most news, there are two sides and I’ll try my very best to be positive about this one.
The bad news: Brigitte will no longer be blogging at ProWomanProLife.
The good news: She’s still anti-abortion. (Phewf!) It’s just she’s taken a job with Sun Media and as such can’t keep blogging here. So if one considers the platform and influence she’ll now have, I think we can all agree this is a big success.
That said, no one, NO ONE, was more instrumental in helping me get ProWomanProLife off the ground. I’m almost inclined to remove the “helping me” part. She did it cheerfully, professionally and promptly, because she wanted to. And she’s never gotten anything but a few frappacinos for all her work (which I understand will be different at Sun Media). Over the last years there have been moments when I communicated more with Brigitte than my own family. We’ve run posts by each other and we’ve written some most excellent op-eds. The end result from this blogging adventure is that we are fast friends. So yes, I’m sad this era is over (the blogging, not the friendship) but I am very glad for her as she starts a new and exciting thing.
Good luck, Brigitte!
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Brigitte adds: Thank you, Andrea! It’s been a privilege to work with such fine ladies.
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Véronique adds: This is definitely a severe case of bad news, good news. I am thrilled for Brigitte and yet very sad for PWPL readers. But mostly thrilled for Brigitte as she launches into the next phase of a very successful career!
Feb 18 2011
…lend me your ear. I’ll be giving a talk at Theology on Tap on Tuesday, February 22 at Dow’s Lake Pavilion (Malone’s), Ottawa. It starts at 7:30 and is open to everyone. The topic: The Status of Men. More specifically:
Canada has a Status of Women department. Andrea Mrozek, Manager of Research at the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada and founder of the blog ProWomanProlife.org asks if we need to create a Status of Men instead. Come hear Ms. Mrozek review how men are lagging in our current culture and the possible links this has to the decline in marriage and family.
I like Theology on Tap because you can enjoy a beer while listening, which will certainly make my talk much better. In fact, I’ll order the first round. If you keep drinking, you are bound to believe it’s truly fascinating.
Feb 11 2011
