“The greatest threat to the erosion of freedom is time,” says he. Agreed. Also good commentary on the nature and purpose of suffering.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hhdL5_P_7ZQ#!]

Great article from the one and only Faye Sonier.

A great tribute to a great man who fought against Communist oppression. (Please note that this article does not touch on abortion. However, if we are going to remember those in jail, we might as well turn our thoughts toward Linda Gibbons.)

I am eternally grateful to my father, and to my mother, for having instilled in me one of the highest values in life, which we find in Hebrews 13:3: Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.

Words to live by.

An article in today’s National Post:

The University of Waterloo is investigating after an anti-abortion Conservative MP was blocked from delivering a lecture Wednesday night by protesters led by a man dressed as a giant vagina. Ethan Jackson, 21, an art student at nearby Wilfrid Laurier University, said he calls his pink costume Vulveta, and that Stephen Woodworth’s talk about the universality of human rights came from an oppressive western discourse that ignores the rights of indigenous people.

Led by a man, dressed as a giant vagina, who clearly has sat through way too many social science classes.

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Faye adds: I have to be honest, one thought has crossed my mind a few times in the last several days – where in the world does one buy a giant vagina costume? Seriously. Or is it obvious and I’ve lived too sheltered a life?

This is incredibly disappointing:

An event with MP Stephen Woodworth at the University of Waterloo yesterday was derailed as protestors shouted down the speaker, preventing Mr. Woodworth from continuing his presentation to the students assembled. […]

Mr. Woodworth, MP for the Kitchener Centre riding, had brought forward Motion 312 at the House of Commons last year, which called for a re-examination of the 400 year-old definition of a human being in the Canadian Criminal Code. His presentation on Wednesday was to address that topic as well as to take questions from the audience. Mr. Woodworth was only able to get through one third of the presentation before the chanting and yelling prevented him from being heard.

Although campus security was present, they failed to take any kind of action to allow Mr. Woodworth to continue his presentation. When asked to intervene they declined to do so, stating that unless the protesters became violent, they could not step in.

“This is an elected member of our government speaking at an institution that is supposed to have a high value for free speech,” states Clarissa Luluquisin who was in attendance and is the Central Campus Coordinator of the National Campus Life Network, which supports pro-life groups across Canada. “Instead of respectfully listening and then asking questions, we see that the protestors preferred to cling to a few pieces of rhetoric rather than listening to anything Mr. Woodworth might say.”

You can watch a video of the protest here. Yup, they wore the vagina costumes.

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Andrea adds: Talk about unhinged students. Is that a man wearing a uterus? I can’t quite see. Am I allowed to ask, or is that too old-fashioned these days? Who is allowed to call women “c*nts” (sorry for the crassness, but that’s what I heard in the opening line of the video) and pretend it is pro-woman? Pro-choicers, that’s who!  Don’t give these students a free pass. This is reprehensible, immature, anti-democratic behaviour masquerading as protest. In genitalia costumes, no less. Really, people. I shake my head. And since there are police officers there, I’d like to ask why they are doing absolutely nothing.  Seems to me a bit of a “guiding gently” out the door would have been a really helpful thing.

Someone recommended Wild by Cheryl Strayed to me. It’s the true story of a woman who decides to spend 100 days hiking the Pacific Crest Trail.  (I don’t think this post is deserving of a spoiler alert because the following is treated as barely a footnote in her life story.)

Early in the account, she realizes she’s pregnant. She describes her reaction:

That I would get an abortion was a fact so apparent it seemed silly to discuss anything else. […]

I drove without listening to the radio, thinking about my pregnancy. It was the size of a grain of rice and yet I could feel it in the deepest, strongest part of me, taking me down, shaking me up, reverberating out. Somewhere in the southwestern farmlands of Minnesota, I burst into tears, crying so hard I could barely steer, and not only for the pregnancy I didn’t want. I was crying over all of it, over the sick mire I’d make of my life…

For a few paragraphs, she discusses other matters. I hoped that she would reconsider the knee-jerk reaction to her pregnancy and that someone would share with her that there are other options. That someone would tell her that this life inside of her, that is touching her so deeply, does not have be extinguished. That abortion is not the only and obvious response to an unplanned pregnancy.

However, this seemed unlikely because I knew the 100 day solo hike was coming up and it was doubtful that she was going to do it pregnant.

But it was with a mix of disbelief and nausea that I read the sentence where she explains her hike preparations:

I got an abortion and learned how to make dehydrated tuna flakes and turkey jerky and took a refresher course on basic first aid and practiced using my water purifier in my kitchen sink.

I put my e-reader down, found my husband and told him that the terms “abortion” and “turkey jerky” should never, ever be used in the same sentence.

It just shocked me. First she describes this intimate connection she feels with the life within her and then she casually mentions ending the life, while describing dehydrated meat and water purifiers.

Is abortion really the best we have to offer women? In this case, despite feeling a powerful connection to the life deep within her, Strayed believed abortion was her only real option and then treated her abortion shockingly casually. (Or at least describes it that way.)

How can we more clearly (loudly?) communicate to women that there are other, better options for them and their children?

The latest press release from the National Campus Life Network:

CANADIAN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS RAISE AWARENESS ON SEX-SELECTION

TORONTO, ON (March 12 2013) – This semester, university students across Canada are raising awareness about sex-selection through the DefendGirls campaign, brought to campuses through National Campus Life Network (NCLN). Through resources, activities and events, including the screening of the award winning documentary ‘It’s a Girl’, thousands of students are being reached with the message that “’It’s a girl’ should not be a death sentence”.  This week, events in BC will also feature MP Mark Warawa speaking about Motion 408 following screenings of the documentary.

“The goal is to raise awareness on campus as well as to build support for the condemnation of this practice by the Canadian parliament,” states Rebecca Richmond, Executive Director of NCLN, which has coordinated the efforts of these students and produced the resources being distributed.

Although sex-selective abortion has garnered attention because of the severe sex ratio imbalances in China and India, recent evidence has shown that the practice is occurring in Canada as well.  A 2012 CBC investigation found that many ultrasound clinics will disclose preborn children’s sex early on, knowing that sex-selective abortion may be procured as a result.  Research has also demonstrated that there are sex ratio discrepancies in certain Canadian communities.

“This is an issue that resonates with the youth,” comments Anastasia Pearse, Western Campus Coordinator of NCLN.  “Gender equality is an important value to Canadians and sex-selection is completely opposed to that value. We are pleased to see students taking up this campaign with so much enthusiasm.”

Along with 17 screenings of the ‘It’s a Girl’ documentary, thousands of DefendGirls info cards and drop cards have been distributed and thousands more will be in the weeks to come.  Laptop stickers and t-shirts have been used to increase awareness on campus; the message has also reached thousands more via social media campaigns on Facebook

“Killing girls because of their gender really is the ultimate war on women,” continues Richmond.  “By bringing this campaign and the documentary to campus we hope to move students to defend girls at all stages of life. ‘It’s a girl’ should not be a death sentence.”

-30-

More information on these resources, produced by National Campus Life Network, can be found at: www.ncln.ca/resources/defendgirls

For a listing of ‘It’s a Girl’ screenings, please visit: www.ncln.ca/blog/defendgirlsoncampus

For further comment please contact:

Rebecca Richmond, Executive Director of the National Campus Life Network, [email protected], 416 388 0461.

Anastasia Pearse, Western Campus Coordinator of the National Campus Life Network,[email protected], 604 365 3484.

I just received an email from the Back to Life movement. It included a link to a video of a woman, Ashely, sharing her abortion story. It’s a powerful video – Ashley is honest, raw and real.

You can take a child from the womb, but you can’t take the memory of the child from the mother.

For more information on the Back to Life walk, click here.

Who is responsible should something go wrong, he wonders? “What’s the strategy for handling a stillborn baby, (or) a damaged baby?” Is it worth the risks when other options — surrogacy or adoption — exist? “Is it worth taking the risk just to permit the person to deliver the baby? How important is this?”

Beyond the “huge challenge” of the potential risks of immune suppressing drugs on the mother and any developing fetus — studies in women who have had kidney transplants have linked the drugs with a higher risk of miscarriage, prematurity and uterine growth restriction, though not with an increased rate of birth defects — is the issue of cost, Caplan said. “Given other health care priorities, where does this fit in?”

Experiments in rats, mice, sheep and goats have been promising, but “we have not done the correct experiments in animals, we’ve not done the correct experiments in non-human primates,” says Canadian reproductive biology expert Dr. Roger Pierson. “We’re taking a full-on run at this in humans without really understanding what it is we’re doing.” […]

If the procedure evolves into something that can be widely offered, there’s a risk some women might feel coerced into giving up their uterus, observers say. “One sister might feel, ‘I’ve got to donate my uterus to the other, she needs a child, what choice do I have,’ ” said Caplan.

Read the story here.

Serious topic, but the fake electronic voices always make me smile.

[youtube:http://youtu.be/zqrqWkxMhmw”>http://youtu.be/zqrqWkxMhmw]