Hey pro-choice people: Pictures of small, vulnerable babies lying on their parents’ chests are not images that support your cause. I am seeing photos like this one and thinking, woah. That’s not a choice. That’s a baby.

Politicians won’t take up abortion, so making a change is up to you and me. Brian Lilley and I discuss this on Byline last night.

In response to the question what should the average pro-lifer do who is surrounded by pro-choice family and friends, I recommend getting good information from sources like the Canadian Centre for Bio-ethical Reform, listening to those family and friends and asking lots of questions about the nature of what the choice means. I wish I had mentioned this but we really should be able to speak about the issue without using euphemisms. That means cutting through “choice” rhetoric, since we all know plainly that some things simply are not a choice.

A number of media outlets picked up stories on yesterday’s March for Life.

Some report attendance of only 10,000 whereas LifeSiteNews reports that a record-breaking 25,000 people participated in this year’s March. Twenty-one Members of Parliament attended as well as two Senators.

Laura Payton and Kady O’Malley live tweeted the entire event for CBC and wrote a few pieces as well.

The National Post ran some stories, including the following:

• John Invinson wrote about the March, MP Mark Warawa’s statement on gendercide, and the importance of taking small practical steps:

The pro-lifers in the House have learned the lesson of the Harper playbook that helped take the Conservative party from the wilderness to power: Make progress in small, practical steps.

• Michael Den Tent wrote about how PM Stephen Harper is “de facto leader of Canada’s pro-choice movement.”

There was also coverage by Canada.com, iPolitics, London Free Press, NG News, Globe and Mail, Vancouver Sun, The Star Phoenix, Ottawa Citizen, The Gazette, Time Colonist, Leader-Post,  and The Guardian. (I don’t have links for the last few as I came across them through a subscription-based database.)

Is this more coverage than years past?

_______________________

Andrea adds: Yes, that’s my impression. I also heard radio coverage on CBC and 580 CFRA.

Some snapshots. Enjoy.

The Back to Life walkers were a group of 25 women making the trek from Montreal to Ottawa on foot to protest abortion. Their t-shirts proved to be too much for Parliamentary security. In the words of one of the walkers,

As we left the press gallery, security at the desk told us that we may not enter the building wearing our shirts or jackets, and they escorted us out the door. They weren’t happy with us!

Here’s the photo of them. Anyone know anything about parliamentary security standards? This strikes me as unreasonable, but I can’t claim to know much about how things typically go.

I have this song stuck in my head. I thought you might like to have it stuck in your head too. So far as I can predict, I think a Mumford and Sons concert is in my future. (Fave line: “You forgave, and I won’t forget.”)

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGKfrgqWcv0]

…because the abortion debate never ended, closed or died. I hate reading that phrase in news articles and blogs. I’ve heard both pro-lifers and pro-choicers use that expression. Let’s drop it. It’s not honest and it’s most often used to discredit the pro-life perspective.

I write about that today over at ActivateCFPL, the EFC’s blog,

The abortion debate has never closed, died or ended. To argue otherwise is to argue that those who want to rationally discuss the issue are to be marginalized as fringe elements of society; that the pro-life activists who came to Ottawa last year to march for life are 19,000 anomalies; and, that their perspective is inconsistent with some greater enshrined Canadian value of “choice.”

To contend that the abortion debate is over is to declare that there is consensus in Canada on an issue where no such consensus exists.  In reality, it’s an intellectually lazy attempt at discrediting those who legitimately question the appropriateness of our nation being the only western country in the world that lacks abortion legislation.

Today is March for Life day here in Ottawa and across the country. This article about that is pretty fair, interviewing some of the Back to Life walkers who made the trek from Montreal to Ottawa.

What bugs me is Dr. Paul Saurette’s comments about the idea the evidence that abortion is harmful to women being “questionable.” Incidentally, he and I are planning to go for a coffee sometime later this month, so it’s not as if pro-lifers and pro-choicers can’t talk it out. I’ve met Paul before, and he is perfectly pleasant. So there ya go. Dialogue and learning all around.

There isn’t a great deal of evidence about the effect of abortion on women, Saurette said. “The abortion harms women arguments, I think when you look at the medical evidence behind it, it’s extremely questionable,” he said.

Some links are nebulous when it comes to women’s health after abortion. But some certainly are not, and North America (both Canada and the USA) is responsible for the most shoddy, politicized research on the topic, last I checked. However, in Europe (Finland) and New Zealand, we’ve seen some excellent studies (USA too, to a degree) showing connections between abortion and poor mental health. It’s been a while, but I wrote about this here and here.

At least part of the problem is that where political science profs are happy to dismiss evidence they consider to be “pro-life,” they appear to not do so with evidence that appears to be “pro-choice.” So we get a skewed view of the research from people like that, who have a bias but may or may not acknowledge it.

The other thing about the effects of abortion on women is that a) there can be a substantive time lag in experiencing any b) oftentimes effects are there, but not clinical and these are the kind I personally see the most of and c) so many women are told they should just buck up because there is nothing to grieve. See the book Giving Sorrow Words for examples of that.

I will agree, however, that there are a great many women who have abortions, don’t grieve, feel fine and move on. That simply means that our collective conscience is now at a stage where we are unmoved by the suffering of the other and that we are turning our backs on all the very, very conclusive, undisputed evidence that life begins at conception. Some people call that success. I don’t.

So much of the evidence in the abortion debate hinges on what people choose to see.

This morning I read a few stories about the three Cleveland women who have been freed from years of captivity and I’m sure unimaginable untold horrors. It’s hard to read. I can’t imagine what they went through.

In following that story, I came across two interviews with Elizabeth Smart, the young woman who was kidnapped, raped and beaten for nine months before police found her.

In the interviews she speaks about the inherent worth and value of all people, and encourages victims to recognize that they are not what has happened to them. She also talks about prevention strategies. She explains why she and people who have been kidnapped or trafficked sometimes haven’t escaped when others thought they could have. She’s a powerful and gracious speaker. I’d encourage you to watch both interviews.

She offers a message of hope to victims and some wise counsel to those who want to support anti-human trafficking efforts.

And here’s a 12 minute talk that Smart gave at a forum on human trafficking.

Well, PWPL attracts all kinds of readers, including the anonymous folks who write over at the Dammit Janet! blog. Since they’ve posted false information, this public service announcement is to say that PWPL is not owned by or affiliated with Focus on the Family Canada or otherwise. It is a blog started by Andrea Mrozek, who happens to work for an affiliate of Focus on the Family Canada as her day job. That is all. Thank you.

______________________

Andrea adds: PWPL would be happy to be bought out by another organization, who would pay me and indeed all the bloggers here a lavish fee. Sometimes just saying the words can make things happen, so I just thought I’d add that. Clearly, right now I’m doing this for fame, not fortune. 😉

______________________

Faye adds: I would happily accept lavish fees. Please pay me lavish fees to blog.

______________________

Andrea asks: Please define “lavish.”