A pro-life group in Abbotsford mounts a pro-life display in a farmer’s field each year. Crosses are arranged in the field, each one representing a life lost to abortion.
Joyce Arthur of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada is demanding that the display be removed:
It is inappropriate for the City to use its resources and authority to approve what is basically a sectarian religious message that is divisive and upsetting for the community. The sign reflects a common anti-abortion slogan used by the Christian Right against abortion. In addition, the sign is juxtaposed with a display of Christian crosses, making clear the religious meaning of the entire display, which encompasses both the sign and the crosses.
There are so many issues with this statement and with her letter as a whole, but thankfully, André Schutten has offered an apt response.
But what really caught my attention in Ms. Arthur’s letter is the following:
The sign and display are offensive to many people, particularly for many women in your community who have had or may be considering an abortion. This issue was brought to our attention by an Abbotsford resident who has become so upset and traumatized by the display year after year that she changes her route to avoid it and is considering moving out of the city.
A woman was traumatized by the display. I’ll assume from the context that this is a post-abortive woman. A post-abortive woman was traumatized by a display that communicates that an abortion ends a human life. She is so traumatized by the display that she changes her route and is considering leaving the city.
I’m both pro-woman and pro-life. I do not want to see women hurt, wounded or traumatized. My heart breaks for this woman and for the child or children that were aborted.
Why is she hurting? Did she not know that abortion ends a life? Was she told that there are no real side-effects, physical or emotional, to having an abortion and she is shocked by what she’s feeling?
Is it a row of wooden crosses that is so deeply affecting her? Or is it the reality of abortion?
If you’re post-abortive and hurting, there are people who can help.
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Mary Ann says
What a great response from Andre Schutten.
Dan says
Poor Joyce Arthur. It’s sad to see someone that is so irrational.
Julie Culshaw says
Can anyone tell me what Joyce Arthur does for a living? besides heading up the Abortion Rights Coalition? where does she make her money? I hope not from government grants.
Melissa says
I read somewhere (I think it was Patricia Mahoney’s blog, but I can’t find it now) that Joyce Arthur’s pro choice action network is funded more or less exclusively by abortion businesses. In other words, she is a paid lobbyist for abortionists.
Margaret Sinclair says
Joyce Arthur is a hypocrite. She can’t have it both ways. If she wants to be respected for her opinion then she has to respect that others may think differently than her. Leave the crosses alone.
Doris G. says
If I needed and appendectomy and upon arriving at the hospital, I was greeted with graphic bloody pictures of appendices and people with signs stating: “appendectomy is murder”, I wouldn’t be upset, I’d see these fools for what they are. Years later, reminders of my appendectomy wouldn’t trigger deep emotional responses, only relief.
The fact that people are upset not only by graphic abortion images but by anything that relates to abortion demonstrating one inexorable fact: abortion is no mere choice, it is a morally charged act. It is so because it is the taking of a human life.
That is why the abortion industry goes to such lengths to obscure that fact, that is why so many women are upset when confronted with that fact, they’ve been deluded into thinking that is was no big deal, just a clump of tissue.
Unfortunately for these women, they will in one way or another be confronted with the truth, whether it be by picking up a copy of National Geographic’s “In the womb” issue in the dentist waiting room, or by seeing a pro-life display, even one as tame as just a bunch of crosses in a field.
Healing will come when the truth is confronted, and she deals properly with her loss. She will not only have to grieve her dead child, but also get over her anger at having been so deeply mislead by those who claimed to be helping her.
If you are hurting after an abortion, please seek help.
Melissa says
That’s a great comment, Doris, but I would just like to point out that there was NO graphic signage in this pro-life display. The display consisted of 1800-ish white crosses, (one for each abortion that takes place each and every week across Canada) and a sign that said “Abortion stops a beating heart.” That is a harsh statement, yes, but it is also, invariably, a TRUE statement.
If someone finds the statement “Abortion stops a beating heart” offensive, then, plain and simply, they find the truth offensive. And, if someone is havin a difficult time with that statement, she was simply uninformed of what abortion is before she had the procedure done. That is a real problem, and it is due to doctors who perform abortion not providing proper informed consent prior to the procedure being done. This woman’s ire is aimed at the prolifers, but it is misplaced. It SHOULD be aimed at whoever prepped her for her abortion.
Faye Sonier says
Great comment Doris – can you provide that link again? The one in your post is broken.
And yes, thank you for that clarification Melissa. I should have noted that more clearly above.
Doris G. says
Faye, here’s the new and improved link: helpersottawa.org/en/91_postabortion.html. Let’s hope I got it right this time.
Melissa, my point was that graphic or not, the display points to a truth: abortion takes the life of a human being. That truth is what upsets people.
That was the point of my example of regarding graphic signs of appendectomies: appendices aren’t human beings – I would not get upset at seeing them.
It is tucked in the middle of my comment, but I did mention that the display in question was nothing more than a bunch of crosses.
You’re SO RIGHT about the fact that the woman’s anger should be directed at those who deprived her of informed consent. She’ll be angry at herself for making that “choice”, she’ll be angry at those trying to steer her away from that “choice”, all the while those who have profited from her “choice” go on their merry way.
Doris G. says
Sorry, the second link still doesn’t work, but I’ve fixed the first one.
Alyssa Cumella says
This lady says that pro life women have abortions all the time. Yeah right!
Abortion wrecks lives.
She’s telling us that Pro Life Activists including one that emanated the frequency of a Baby-Saving Angel just happened to have an abortion and thought nothing of it afterwards????
Not true.
You can always tell if someone had an abortion especially in the pro life movement, they will act different immediately.
In Ms. Arthur’s fragile mind, abortion is a miniscule thing that can be brushed away.
NO IT CAN’T.
A years long pro life activist would never murder her child, she knows it’s wrong and can only bring years of guilt with her to the future.
Alyssa Cumella says
What do you folks think about this article?
She clearly undocumentatively makes up “instances” where pro life women murder their children.
http://mypage.direct.ca/w/writer/anti-tales.html
Notice she has no sources, except for “Physician” and “Clinic”.
Maybe it’s because they don’t exist.
Her page is called anti-TALES.
TALES means stories that are Not True.
In one fable she says a “girl from South Carolina” went no where but New York City to obtain “her” “abortion” to get away from “her church”.
STEREOTYPE.
I want to vomit green slime out!