Sorry about the lack of blogging–although perhaps you didn’t even notice in light of Faye’s most excellent posts. I was away on vacation. Yes, it was warm. I thought about blogging, but “Hey, it’s almost too warm today” and “Blogging poolside” seemed like cruel things to write for a largely Canadian audience in late February.

Anyhoo, it’s back to the grind, as they say, and I must have missed this article by Barbara Kay about the different types of feminism so I’m linking to it now. Seems to me that we ought to be more aware of the different ways in which women can be empowered, instead of kowtowing to just one brand of feminism, with everyone else who thinks a little bit differently being relegated to the “misogynist” file. Which currently seems to be the trend.

Summers concludes that this champion of a feminism “that granted women the liberty to be themselves without ceasing to be women” might, if she had not been “brushed out of women’s history,” be a role model for many women today.

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.

Persuasion. The lost art of. I thought this was a nice little piece on how to respectfully and thoughtfully convey truths you believe are important to those who disagree. I am not terribly good at this, by the way, though improving with age. (I can actually remember disagreeing with my classmates as early as grade two. Not terribly gracious, as I recall, at the time. I had not yet learned the art of Socratic dialogue.)

It was a great conference down at University of Toronto today with Toronto Right to Life and the many inspirational faces of high school students in attendance. I heard Rebecca Richmond of the National Campus Life Network talk about why we have pro-life clubs on campus or in high schools; she inspired us all to take it to a new level with being public on the issue. She too shared that she was very, very shy and preferred not to get in anyone’s face on this in her earlier days–that always surprises me, since I was pretty much similar and yet, there we are, speaking out on this politically incorrect issue.

The Sisters of Life are always a pleasure to hear and learn from; one of the sisters spoke on “Understanding the fears in the heart of a pregnant woman.” A good, thorough, compassionate look at how to “be” with a woman who is experiencing an unwanted pregnancy. Never, ever hurts to hear about how we are all actually wanted, whether our arrival on this earth was a surprise or not.

At the end, they played this song. I was a little embarrassed that it brought a tear to my eye, as I fearfully looked around to make sure that no one had seen. Must. Not. Cry. At. Country. Music. However, later on one of the sisters assured me that it makes her cry every time she sees it/hears the song. Which made me feel slightly better. Here it is: you can decide for yourself what you think!

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP-Sxfntdb4]