I just received a copy of LifeCanada’s latest press release. They commissioned another opinion poll on abortion. While I can’t link back to the press release or the data as the documents don’t appear to be online yet, here are some interesting portions of the release:

A majority of young Canadians say abortions should not be legal after 12 weeks gestation according to an Environics poll conducted last month. Almost 80% of 18-29 year-olds polled opposed legal third trimester abortions and 55% opposed second trimester abortions. Among women, two-thirds opposed third trimester abortions and 49% opposed second trimester abortions. At present there are no legal restrictions in Canada at any stage of pregnancy.

The questions were commissioned by LifeCanada, the national educational pro-life organization, as part of Environics’ National Omnibus Survey which polled 2,021 Canadians between Jan. 24 and Feb. 5, 2013.

Among all Canadians, 65% thought third trimester abortions should be illegal and 46% thought second trimester abortions should be illegal. 71% of all Canadians thought abortions should be legal in the first trimester.

Participants were also given information about fetal development and then asked at what stage the law should protect human life. Sixty percent said there should be legal protection before birth; 23% said from conception on; 13% thought after two months gestation; 14% after three months’; and 10% from six months’ on.   In total, 50% thought the law should protect human life at the end of the first trimester.

The people at LifeCanada are fantastic and I really appreciate a number of their projects, including their AdoptioninCanada website, their journal and, of course, their annual abortion surveys.  I’ll add the links when I receive them.

It is common knowledge that Japan is in more economic trouble than most as a result of its low birth rate, and it seems that Japanese politicians are taking the situation increasingly seriously. One Japanese politician has come up with a fairly commonsensible plan to increase the country’s ailing birth rate – ban abortions.

It is true that without the effect of so many abortions many countries’ birth rates would increase to at least replacement level. However it is surprising that the suggestion should surface first in Japan –a non-Christian, largely secular minded country…

Read the rest here.

From The Telegraph:

 The increase in older mothers seeking terminations comes as teenage pregnancies have fallen to the lowest level ever recorded, dropping by 10 per cent in a single year, according to the Office for National Statistics.

At the same time, the number of women over 40 getting pregnant has jumped by almost four per cent in a year, the biggest rise for any group.

According to the ONS, the proportion of pregnancies ending in an abortion has edged lower in recent years overall. […]

A Daily Telegraph investigation last year uncovered evidence of abortions on grounds of gender being offered in Britain.

Meanwhile the ONS figures showed that the pregnancy rate among girls under 18 has fallen to the lowest level since 1969 when comparable records began.

A thoughtful piece by CCBR’s Stephanie Gray:

“I was raped at 16 and had an abortion.”

That’s not what you normally hear from someone you met just a few minutes prior; but I’ve gotten used to it. It seems that almost every time I give a presentation or participate in a pro-life display like the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) or “Choice” Chain, some wounded woman confides in me a horror story of abuse.   And it leads me to believe that sexual abuse is far more rampant than we realize.

I love the quote she used to close her article:

As Archbishop Oscar Romero once said, “This is what we are about: We plant seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities.

“We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.  This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.  It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for God’s grace to enter and do the rest.”

From LifeSiteNews:

A pro-life MP is running a survey on his website to see where Canadians stand on fully taxpayer-funded abortion as a “basic woman’s right”. […]

The context for the poll, which recently appeared on the website of MP Jeff Watson (Essex), reads: “Recently, as parliament debated M-312 to establish a committee to re-examine Canada’s 400 year-old law defining a human being, the founder and Executive Director of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada called fully taxpayer-funded abortion, at any time, for any reason – including for sex-selection or as birth control – a basic woman’s right”.

Vote here.

A powerful video.

British Columbia poet and spoken word artist Shane Koyczan has written a powerful animated video of a poem about bullying, and it’s taking the internet by storm. More than a million people have viewed the video in the two days since it was first posted.

You may remember Koyczan for his performance at the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, where he read his poem “We Are More.” His latest creation is a seven minute YouTube video is called “To This Day” (above). It features words by Koyczan and animated images by a long list of contributors.

The video tells the story of Koyczan’s own experience being bullied in school, as well as the narratives of two other victims, a girl with a birthmark on her face and a boy who suffers from depression.

The IMFC recently released a paper on population aging:

Population aging, not overpopulation, is the key demographic issue in Canada today.

• Canada last achieved replacement fertility in 1971

• In 2010, Canada needed 109,000 more babies to hit the replacement rate. That’s 1,022,971 babies needed for replacement since 2002

Why does this matter?

• It matters for the public sector because children (eventually) pay taxes to help support our social safety net

• It matters for the private sector because children (eventually) contribute to the economy and add to the employment pool when Baby Boomers retire
• Importantly, Canadians want to have more children than they are having. According to the World Values Survey, the mean ideal number of children for Canadian families was 2.7, compared to having 1.63 in reality

And how does abortion fit in?

Statistics show that if every aborted baby had been born in 2006, 2009 and 2010, a replacement fertility rate would have been reached or surpassed. In 2007 and 2008, the same would bring the birthrate within a hair’s breadth of replacement rate.

The lives of unborn children should be protected not for economic reasons, but because these children are human beings worthy of dignity and respect. However, it is worthwhile to learn how abortion may impact many aspects of our collective lives.

Its impact doesn’t end with the mother and her doctor at the clinic door.

Mary Elizabeth Willliams, who wrote the now infamous Salon article “So what if abortion ends a life?“, is now commenting on the recent Texas abortion case. A teen girl had to go to court to prevent her parents from forcing her to have an abortion.

In an article entitled “Reproductive freedom also means choosing not to have an abortion,” she states

In a more enlightened world, this could have been just a story about a girl exercising her basic rights. It wouldn’t have become a cause that an antiabortion group would seize upon, giving it the opportunity to crow, as Center for the Defense of Life’s Greg Terra did to the L.A. Times, “This is a tremendous victory and another life has been saved. We are very proud of our teenage client for being strong enough to stand against her parents to save her unborn child’s life.” It wouldn’t be a victory for an organization dedicated to “aggressively defending the sanctity of human life.” It wouldn’t be about the fetus at all.

Benfer says, “There is no difference between this case and any of the cases in which girls have fought to receive an abortion without parental consent.”

She then goes on to quote a NARAL spokesperson:

The antiabortion side would like you to believe that we’re all ruthless baby-killers here on the side of our constitutionally protected rights. But this week, NARAL Pro Choice Texas’ Heather Busby called the decision “a victory for women’s reproductive health,” adding, “Women should have the ability to determine what happens to their bodies and what happens with a pregnancy.” And if we believe in reproductive freedom, if we truly support a woman’s right to choose, then that means supporting all her choices. Not for the sake of the baby. For the sake of the mother.

I’m certainly glad that NARAL supports women who choose to give birth to their children. I’d be more thrilled if this wasn’t the same organization that fights measures which could help women make more informed decisions about their bodies and the children they carry. Like, say, informed consent laws.

These “anti-choice” laws often require, according to NARAL, that women be informed that the father of the child is liable for child support, that women be provided with a list of abortion-alternative and adoption agencies and that they be offered the opportunity to view photographs of the child in the womb at various stages of development.

So supporting women if they choose to abort or give birth to their children is pro-choice. Providing women with information about their choices is anti-choice. Oh, the incoherence.

(Did you catch the “not for the sake of the baby”? I’m surprised she used that language.  Yes, it is a human being in the womb.)

Jill Stanek offers some thoughts on the January 26 Walk for Life video clip:

When Russell called the mother out as having committed “human sacrifice” (to the god of wealth), she rationalized her boast by saying she was at the time 18 and in an abusive relationship. She added, “I got a college degree from Berkeley and a master’s degree.”

This is unvarnished liberal feminism, which has turned the original meaning of feminism on its head.

Liberal feminism teaches that a woman is incapable of parenting and bettering herself at the same time, or waiting to better herself if circumstances aren’t right. Patience, sacrifice, and self-denial are not virtues. Motherhood is not a prize but a punishment.

Watch the video here.

I wrote a response to Sun Media’s Mark Bonokoski’s piece on the three MPs who called for a RCMP investigation into the 491 born alive infant deaths. Here’s a snippet of what I wrote:

Lastly, he argued that since he doesn’t have a uterus, he cannot form an opinion on abortion and that this position isn’t a cop-out, but a fact. He’s wrong. It’s a total cop-out.

I’m not a woman who has suffered abuse, but I have an opinion on domestic abuse. I’m not a man, but I have an opinion on funding for prostate cancer research. I’m not a slave, but I have an opinion on human trafficking.  I’m not a soldier or live in a war zone, but I have an opinion on Canadian military engagement. I’m not an Aboriginal person, but I have an opinion on the Idle No More movement.

Perhaps he believes that he must have first-hand knowledge of every human experience before he can form an opinion, but this seems like an odd, if not impossible, position for a national media editor to take.  And I can assure him that the rest of the society doesn’t function that way.  We form opinions and vote accordingly, even though we haven’t walked a mile in every Canadian’s shoes.