A heart-wrenching story in today’s Citizen:
Re: My vigil at abortion clinic is to help women not end a life, March 26.
I wish someone had been standing across street from the abortion clinic on that gloomy day in 1980s, offering an alternative. Perhaps, my girlfriend and I would have changed our minds about the worst mistake of our lives.
I had a successful movie acting career and my girlfriend was a medical doctor. She was on the pill but it failed and she became pregnant. We decided together not to keep our baby because our careers were beginning.
I thought I was being a responsible and loyal boyfriend for helping pay for the abortion and going to the clinic with her. I sat in the waiting room, hoping to escape the responsibility of being a father. She came out of the operating room a changed person and tumbled into an intense depression. No amount of medical training could have prepared her for what she experienced on that operating table.
I was also devastated and tried to avoid the pain by overwork and addiction. Like many couples who have abortions, we broke up.
I lost the two things I tried to protect with the abortion — our relationship and my career. But most importantly we lost our precious child, who would now be 25 years old, and the pain is still with me. Abortion affects men, too.
David MacDonald, Ottawa
It must have taken a lot of guts to write this letter and send it for publication. I hope it will help change the minds of other people who may now be in a similar situation.
by 
David MacDonald volunteers with Silent No More and carries that message pretty wide with his music as well. I’ve heard him tell his story as close to home as the University of Toronto, and as far away as Sydney for World Youth Day 2008 last summer. He is very brave.