Friends, Readers, lend me your ear:
It is the First Day of the New Year, and I, having largely overcome the dreaded common cold (three cheers), have decided I will write down some ProWomanProLife First Principles. Brass tacks. The neeeety greeeeety. (That’s “nitty gritty,” said with a Nacho Libre accent. If you haven’t seen the movie, go rent it. It can do you nothing but a world of good. Hmmm. Perhaps “good” is stretching it. But it can do no harm, and in our impoverished culture, you may at least get a few laughs, which can never be underestimated. Nachoooooooo!)
Where was I? Right. In January 2008, with the 20th anniversary of the Morgentaler decision looming large, I started ProWomanProLife because I knew other women would celebrate Morgentaler as a hero and a protector of women’s rights.
This I could not stomach, and so, ProWomanProLife came into being, with five other ladies: Brigitte Pellerin, Teresa Fraser, Sheryl Alger (MD, an obstetrician-gynaecologist, no less), Raji Shankar and Rebecca Walberg. Later we were joined by Patricia Egan, Tanya Zaleski, Veronique Bergeron, Jennifer Derwey and Deborah Mullan. Today PWPL has a presence A Mare usque ad Mare—from sea to sea. From sea to shining sea, oh yes.
Unlike so many pro-abortion feminists who stand up and make claims to represent all of womankind, everywhere, ProWomanProLife makes no pretences to know what every woman across this great land is thinking. We only represent those we represent, with the hope of changing some hearts and minds along the way.
We are women who do not see Morgentaler as a hero, who know abortion is not a right. (And that the Supreme Court of Canada never said it was!) We abhor abortion as being contrary to anything approximating compassion. We further know that many educated women feel this way, that oftentimes pro-choice folks obscure the debate by using euphemisms that make it easy for women to make a mistake and finally, that being pro-life is a rational and compassionate position to take.
ProWomanProLife is a forum for pro-life women to exchange ideas and to feel supported and to know they are not alone in an isolating culture, one that is, to a greater or lesser extent, pro-choice or apathetic to pro-life views. I need not tell you that there are many virulently pro-abortion online forums, and some of those (I count Planned Parenthood among them) are government funded. It is important to raise up reasonable pro-life voices in this atmosphere, and to be there for the stranger’s google search.
Being pro-life, one often faces the mainstream media’s misconception that pro-lifers couldn’t care less about women themselves. So this is also a forum that never overlooks the woman who walked herself into the abortion clinic. We believe that the fetus is a new and unique human being from conception, separate from, though dependent on, the woman and that the two can thrive together. We will continue to repeat this message, attempting to punch through the false idea that “choice” means freedom and a better life.
There are moments, when this blog wanders off the abortion track into other realms. This has been the point all along. For one, no one person can focus on abortion all the time. Secondly, there has always been a no-censorship rule for every blogger at PWPL; so if someone feels the need to blog about what man plays the best James Bond, or why Nacho Libre is a fine, comedic masterpiece, well then, so be it.
I cannot say what the future holds, this in spite of asking my Magic Eight Ball so many, many times. (And look, now a web site to mimick the Magic Eight Ball: “Will PWPL thrive?” “Ask again later.” Ah, such wisdom.)
So long as I (and the eight other bloggers) remain on the opinionated side of life, the blog too, shall continue and with it, the odd opinion piece and study. (Watch for the first ever PWPL study in 2011.) If need be, we’ll send out more press releases, as we did when Morgentaler became a member of the Order of Canada, so that women who are against abortion will continue to have a voice when others pretend to speak for them. (And should the need arise, we can also convey information through Facebook, so feel free to join our group. And please continue to send in items of interest, as this is always welcome for the daily blogging routine.)
To every reader I say thank you, and wish you the very best in 2011.
Happy New Year!
by 
Hear, hear!
Interesting that you brought up Morgentaler. I was really rather apathetic on the abortion question until he was given the Order of Canada. When I heard that he was going to be so recognized, at first I checked to see if it was April 1st, then I thought that it MUST be a joke, but when I realized that yes, indeed, he was going to be given the Order, I actually became literally, physically, ill.
I then realized that I wasn’t as apathetic on the abortion question as I thought I was.
They pushed too far when they gave Morgentaler the Order. I sometimes wonder if we won’t come to see Morgentaler’s reception of the Order of Canada as the best thing that ever happened to the pro life movement.
Eloquently written. I have come to expect no less from the women on this site and you have not disappointed me with your First Principles entry.
Happy New Year to you all. I am hopeful that 2011 will bring us ever closer to a “Canada without abortion. By choice.”