I’m in favour of lucid and even-tempered dialogue. Particularly on abortion. When a friend attempted this in his Facebook feed and was met by his own friends with swearing, I realized (once again) how it is the most wounded people who lash out when the topic is raised. And I have a lot of empathy for that.

But too lucid, too even-tempered is a problem. And that’s what you encounter in this piece about those who do abortions in the third trimester for any reason at all.

But “After Tiller” declines to judge, even when it comes to the demonstrators outside the clinics, who clearly have no idea of the compassion, moral inquiry and deep caring that is going on inside the place they’re picketing.

It’s time to do a little judging, when the procedure we’re talking about takes people, babies, and kills them when they are in a stage where they can a) feel pain and b) survive outside the womb. Either because they have disabilities or simply just because, the former being just as bad as the latter, in the big picture of life here on planet earth. (I want no part in the perfecting of the human race whether done by totalitarian governments or by individual women, men and families. I’m talking about the macro level here.)

There is a point at which even-tempered becomes cold and sinister and we see it here, I think.

One week out, the deVeber Institute’s event featuring Dr. Priscilla Coleman. I’m keenly interested in what she has to say. This is not a pro-life event. It’s not a pro-choice event. It’s a pro-good-information-for-women event.

Dr. Priscilla Coleman on Abortion vs. Childbirth: The Latest Evidence on Psychological Risks

Thursday, November 7, 2013, 7pm

University of Toronto Campus, Fr. Madden Hall, Carr Hall, 100 St. Joseph Street, Toronto M5S 1J4

Registration required; space is limited.

Hello Edmonton! Woah: It’s minus seven (I just checked) and the weekend is coming. What are you going to do? What about this conference. Scott Klusendorf is speaking and that is worth the price of admission alone.

Saturday, November 2, 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM 

Pre-registration by October 29, 2013: $25.00 (lunch and snack included)
Late or Walk-in registration: $25.00 at the door (may bring a bag lunch or purchase lunch in the cafeteria)
Pastors are FREE (pre-registration required by October 29 for lunch and snack to be included)
Students are FREE (with student card; pre-registration required by October 29 for lunch and snack)

This is a really important event. I have the book in hand. It looks really good, thorough.

This is important research, important information.

Annual Free Lecture

Dr. Priscilla Coleman on Abortion vs. Childbirth: The Latest Evidence on Psychological Risks

Thursday, November 7, 2013

7pm

University of Toronto Campus, Fr. Madden Hall, Carr Hall, 100 St. Joseph Street, Toronto M5S 1J4

Registration required; space is limited.

So. You may think that Andrea Mrozek, she’s so bold. She is comfortable talking about her issues no matter where or how. Not so, I say, but yesterday I experienced a (baby steps) victory.

After the day’s proceedings at the national LifeCanada conference, I went for a run, as I do. And I aimed to get to the water. It was further than I thought. I ran and I ran. And way later than I thought I did hit the ocean. So much later, however, that I had to take a cab back.

The cabbie I flagged down was a woman. Down to earth. Kind. She asked me what I was doing here. I said: “I’m at a Life Canada conference.” That was Bold Moment Number 1. For I rarely tell people about pro-life this or that. But now, I had just opened the door. The cabbie asked me how it was going. What to do? Be vague? Say not too much? I opted to be concrete. “Well,” says I, “I learned a lot.” I told her about Dr. Walley’s presentation of MaterCare. How we take the modern healthcare we get for granted, given maternal mortality overseas.

The cabbie says to me that she would never consider abortion, but she would never judge someone else for their choice.

All day long at the Life Canada conference I’d been listening to kind, compassionate, non-judgemental people speak about their desire, pure and simple, to help mothers. So it is worth noting that in the world at large, that message doesn’t get out as much as it should. It still comes down to an issue of “judging.”

I told the cabbie I totally agreed. That I would never judge women either. I applauded her compassion.

I added, however (this is Bold Moment Number 2) that I didn’t think abortion was ever a great solution.

She said she would never deny women that choice.

I said “if women get full information, because abortion does some women a lot of damage.”

Then my cab ride was over and I thanked her for rescuing me.

Finally, a gave her a 40% tip. (Really people, don’t preach at your cab driver and then be stingy.)

So those are my bold moments, things I rarely do. Baby steps.

PS PEI really really does have very red soil.

A neat little piece by Brian Dijkema at Cardus about politics. I tend to see things a bit too black and white, but here he asks us to consider what choices we have:

When we come to political solutions, it is important to note that it could be done otherwise. Even if we agree on the end of a particular political issue—public education or the accountability of trade unions, for instance—there are almost always multiple ways to address and achieve that end. The most basic negotiating exercises still allow for a wide variety of solutions.

Like it. He doesn’t ask us to discard politics, but rather to see what else can be done, alongside, as well. I have never liked the binary nature of politics though. Bad rhetoric doesn’t sit well with me. And you get a lot of that in politics these days.

I’m at the LifeCanada conference on PEI. All the talks have been interesting, but this struck me the most today.

If you think of amniocentesis, you will likely think of in utero genetic diagnosis of things like Down’s Syndrome, for example. To me it’s something negative, since such a high percentage of babies that aren’t “perfect,” are aborted after amniocentesis.

But today I learned that the doctor who pioneered this technique was Dr. William Liley, and he did so in order to help unborn babies live:

Liley began his research on Rh incompatibility in the early 1960s by becoming proficient in the technique of amniocentesis. He believed that testing the amniotic fluid was actually testing the fetus and its environment. Liley was sure that amniocentesis was the most accurate way to assess the course of the hemolytic disease in Rh-impaired fetuses. Repeated tests of the amniotic fluid, along with other with other measurements, indicated whether the condition was stationary or whether anemia was worsening, and if so, if doctors had to induce labor.

Sadly, he ended his own life when he saw how his technique was being used both for “search and destroy” missions and to inject saline in a saline abortion.

The public did not always respond well to the activist Liley, and the strain of his dual roles may have partly caused him to end his life on 15 June 1983, at age 54. At his funeral, officiated by both the Roman Catholic and the Anglican churches’ highest leaders in New Zealand, at Auckland’s Holy Trinity Cathedral, Liley was recognized for his great contribution to saving the lives of the unborn sick with new techniques, while living his life to protect all potential new lives.

This info came courtesy of Dr. Walley of MaterCare.

Since this is an Ottawa couple, I heard about the birth of their baby, a total and utter surprise with the mother never knowing she was pregnant, prior to the national media picking it up. I had the usual thoughts… “how on earth…” I do wonder whether we these sorts of surprises are facilitated by the birth control pill–a woman doing Creighton day in day out, for example, is going to be much more aware of her body by default (again, just one more reason why if you believe information is power then the Pill ain’t powerful)

But after those musings, all I have to say is congratulations.

The 33-year-old audio engineer dubbed the episode a “miraculous birth” on his Facebook page and told CTV by phone “it was the most amazing thing that can happen to you.”

 

At least, that’s the only place I’m hearing about this story. I’m awfully busy these days and struggling to keep up, so correct me if I’m wrong.

However, I think it is of more than passing interest to society at large when girls carry their dead babies around in their bags while going to Victoria’s Secret.

At 25 weeks. Pretty cool.

After practicing a few times with a model of jello and a grape — the grape standing in for the heart, the jello standing in for the surrounding body — the doctors performed the procedure on Sept. 25. Mom had local anesthesia and was sedated. The baby was given anesthesia and a muscle relaxant so it wouldn’t switch positions at an inopportune time.