Toronto March for LifeAs we enter 2018, most people are making New Year’s Resolutions. For some, it’ll be eating healthier, or going to the gym, or reading more. For others, it will be financial goals or places to travel. At the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform, we’d like to ask that you add one more resolution to your list: Stand up for pre-born children in whatever way you can.
Most people get sick of hearing about abortion, and I get that. Abortion is awful, depressing, and soul-crushing. Talking about abortion is often difficult and uncomfortable. That is one of the reasons there is such a conspiracy of silence hanging over the brutal reality that almost 100,000 little boys and girls were killed in 2017—and that if we continue to ignore this truth, 100,000 little boys and girls will die in 2018, too. They’ll be killed quietly and disposed of efficiently, so you won’t even have to know they existed.
But nonetheless, it will be happening. Those children were here, with us, so briefly. As you head out your front door each morning, the doors of abortion clinics across Canada will also be swinging out, with mothers entering to dispose of their precious cargo, often desperately wishing that they had other options or people to turn to. And it is our job, as pro-lifers, to tell a culture that has accepted the Big Lie—that some members of the human family can be killed—the truth about what happened to those little humans. It is our job, as pro-lifers, to make sure those women know what abortion, is and make sure they know there are other options.
This past year, abortion was made a little bit more real for me. I’ve seen hundreds of photos of abortion victims, dozens of videos of abortion procedures, and pulled tiny corpses out of dumpsters behind abortion clinics, so I know what abortion is. But this past year, as my wife and I traced the growth of our little daughter Charlotte in the womb, I would occasionally have a jarring thought that brought the stark reality of our culture’s schizophrenia into view. As we drove to the clinic for one ultrasound, I had to hit the brakes as a vehicle merged in front of us. Instinctively, Charmaine’s hand went for her middle. And the question flashed across my mind: Do women driving to the abortion clinic still instinctively clutch their womb if someone cuts them off?
In 2017, we saw what happens when pro-lifers reach out to the culture: Thousands of changed minds and saved lives. We got to hear women tell us that they were cancelling their abortions because of what we showed them and what we told them. We heard from teenagers that they were now firmly pro-life, because the truth about abortion had changed everything for them. We heard from people who were so, so grateful that someone cared enough to tell them the truth, and that there were little boys and little girls who are alive today because of that.
And we also met many women and girls who had already gone through with an abortion. Often, they were horrified at the realization that abortion was not, as they had been told, a simple healthcare procedure. Those were the women and girls we did not get to in time. We also heard from people inside the churches of girls who had abortions, fearing the reaction of those around them if they instead confessed that they were expecting a baby. Christians cannot rest easy in the fact that they attend a “pro-life” church. The children of church-goers are also ending up in dumpsters behind clinics, and this will continue as long as the silence does.
In 2018, we want to reach as many Canadians as we possibly can with the truth about abortion. We have seen the truth set people free, and we have seen our work save lives. We have also seen what happens when people are denied the truth and the corpses of the killed are cloaked in silence. And we humbly ask that you consider joining your voice with ours, and speaking life into this dark culture. We promise you that it will be worth it.
