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Emboldened Pro-Lifers Rally in
Ottawa Part Three of Four By Dave Andrusko Okay, I grant you that I am almost a thousand miles away, and an American to boot, but that stop me from sharing some of the excitement our pro-life brethren in Canada are experiencing at this very moment.
The headline from "The Star" newspaper reads, "Huge anti-abortion rally hails Canada's new foreign-aid stand." The reference is to the refusal by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to pour Canadian foreign aid money into the coffers of abortionists as part of Canada's G8 maternal health commitment. "Around 15,000 pro-life campaigners, clearly buoyed by what they see as last month's victory on the foreign-aid front, cheered loudly when numerous speakers talked about the next steps in what one called bringing a 'culture of life,' to Canada," the Star reported. We've written about this very encouraging development a couple of times, most recently May 4 (www.nrlc.org/News_and_Views/May10/nv050410.html). There is no evidence that Harper is eager to take further steps. But his response to criticism (you MUST promote abortion if you really want to improve maternal health) was very important, substantively and symbolically. "We understand that other governments, that other taxpayers may do something different," he said in a speech in Parliament (alluding to the Obama Administration), adding "We want to make sure that our funds are used to save the lives of women and children, and are used on the many, many things that are available to us that frankly do not divide the Canadian population."
Pouring through the newspaper stories, some of which are decidedly unsympathetic, you read of "heartened" and "emboldened" pro-lifers who "flooded in unprecedented numbers to Parliament Hill [in Ottawa] on Thursday, daring to hope that Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government will take further steps against abortion at home as well as abroad," according to the Star. The rally kicked off the annual March of Life, "and organizers of this year's effort boasted that the strength of the crowds and the cause is rapidly growing in Canada," wrote Susan Delacourt. "Some long-time participants said that this year's turnout was by far the best ever for an anti-abortion rally on Parliament Hill." If that weren't encouraging enough 21 MPs from the pro-life caucus were at the event--"most Conservative, but a few Liberals too." Protecting the unborn should never divide along right/left, or conservative/liberal lines. And to top it off, in recent months a Tory Member of Parliament "has introduced a private members' bill to make it an offence to coerce a woman to have an abortion," according to John Ivison, "while a proposed euthanasia bill, which would have made physician assisted suicide legal, was defeated comprehensively in the House of Commons. " Long way to go, but who knows? Harper would not be the first politician who comes to understand that the pro-abortion "consensus" that supposedly exists has huge cracks. All it takes is the initiative to push pressure on that imaginary consensus--to show that the citizenry is not in harmony with the urgings of the pro-abortion zealots. Be sure to send your comments to daveandrusko@gmail.com. |
