Since you asked

In this article, I was reported as saying:

Andrea Mrozek, executive director of the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada, said she disagrees with making comparisons between abortion and historical tragedies.But she said Mr. Savoie’s concern, that today’s culture is indifferent to the consequences of abortion, is not surprising coming from a Catholic. “It’s not terribly shocking to have a strong Catholic appointed to the Holy See,” she said. “It boggles my mind people are still shocked by that.” Ms. Mrozek said the logical extension of what the NDP is suggesting is that people with pro-life views are unwelcome in public service.

This is about the appointment of Dennis Savoie as Canada’s envoy to the Holy See.

What I believe: I appreciate comparisons that drive home that abortion kills a person, but timing matters. The direct aftermath of a terrorist bombing is not the appropriate time to raise up abortion. If I consider the families mourning their loss in 9-11, some of them may be pro-life, but the two things—abortion and a terrorist bombing–have nothing to do with one another save for the fact that a person was killed. If I lost my family in a car crash tomorrow, I’d be thoroughly unimpressed if someone implied it wasn’t really significant, since so many more babies are killed by abortion in a day. Depending on how/where and when a comparison between abortion and historical tragedies are made, they might be callous, even if they drive a point about personhood home. Now Savoie may have been comparing reactions to certain types of deaths, not comparing the events themselves. I still think doing so too close to the tragedy engenders misunderstanding, not converts, to the pro-life cause.

That said, what one says to a pro-life gathering is different from what one says to the world at large, and his comments ought not have been pulled out of that context. Tone matters, too. And absolutely none of us would fare very well if we were called to account for every single thing we had ever said, publicly. I hate this “gotcha” style of politics that sees people employed to engage in practices most of us left behind in grade nine–poking fun and distorting or exaggerating.

Finally, yes, people, it’s true. Pro-lifers believe the baby in the womb is a person. We really do. It’s not surprising. It’s not new. Embryology textbooks used in medical schools back up the notion that new life begins when sperm meets egg. So it’s not a mystical notion, either. This conviction that people are people no matter how small is shared by  a sizable minority of Canadians. In this dialogue of the deaf, a good starting point might be to recognize this, since it sheds light on why pro-lifers believe abortion is a human rights crisis.

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