Letters
Out of their own mouths
Thank God for those pro-abortion faux pas, and thank Jason Kenney for seizing the day! The truth seems to keep slipping out at the most inopportune times, no matter how the pro-abortion activists try to ignore it.
Take for instance last year's huge admission at a U.N. meeting that "reproductive health" was in fact a euphemism for "abortion promotion." Now, I'm sure the unfortunate man responsible for this admission got a heck of a lashing for that biggy!
Today, I read that this year's slip-up came from Marilyn Wilson, the executive director of the Canadian Abortion Rights Action League. In a recent meeting at the House of Commons, she stated that, "Women who seek abortions do so for socio-economic reasons." Jason Kenney was quick on the money and immediately issued a press release exposing the CARAL admission that abortion is not done for medical reasons. Could this possibly reveal that abortion is not medically necessary?
Now we have the pro-abortionists scrambling to cover-up and deny this agenda-damaging truth. I'm sure they'll do just fine when you consider all the experience they've had covering up the truth about abortion.
Yet, truth has a power and a grace of its own over deception, and it becomes increasingly hard to stop it. We're seeing this more and more as it slips out of the very mouths that try to stifle it. These little revelations of unintended light do more for the pro-life cause, and for the morale of the pro-lifer, than any other victory. This is because it verifies to us once again that fighting for truth is always being a part of the winning side.
Linda Jenkinson,
Burlington, Ont.
The other terrorism
Many will be (are) remembering the first anniversary of the terrorist attacks committed in New York, Washington and the state of Pennsylvania; where more than 3,000 innocent lives were taken on Sept. 11, 2001. Efforts are being made to stop these crimes.
Another reality remains - that approximately 110,000 unwanted, pre-born children are killed each year in Canada. Please also pray for and speak to our government, so that the killing of these children will stop.
Thank you kindly and wishing you the Lord's blessings.
Jerry Tillema
Chatham, Ont.
The scandal of pro-abortion Catholics
Joe Clark is not "just the latest pro-abortion politician" to be invited to address what is supposed to be a Catholic event. His invitation to speak at the Red Mass dinner in Toronto ("Clark to speak at Red Mass," The Interim, September) marks a new low even in comparison to the precedents you cite. Bill Clinton, David Suzuki and Stephen Lewis, whatever their other faults, cannot be criticized as Catholic hypocrites, because they are not Catholics. And earlier pro-choice Catholic politicians such as John Turner (not to mention Pierre Trudeau and, in a different way, Brian Mulroney) have at least been able to treat pro-lifers with respect and pay lip service to the fact that abortion is evil, even while claiming that their political responsibilities require them to compromise their religious principles. That's not good enough, for sure, but compared to Clark these guys are prospects for canonization.
Clark treated the pro-life position with smirking, gratuitous, wall-to-wall contempt during the 2000 election campaign. He portrayed pro-lifers as unworthy of a serious place in the political discourse of Canada. Jean Chretien took much the same attitude, but at least Chretien has the decency not to claim publicly that his nominal Catholicism actually means anything to him. Clark is still babbling about how great it is to be a Catholic. If I were organizing the Red Mass, I'd invite Henry Morgentaler before I invited Joe Clark.
Richard Dunstan
Nanaimo, B.C.
More on Show the Truth
Regarding the recent letter to the editor in the July issue of The Interim, "Show the Truth and the March for Life" from Martha Jones. My name is Alissa and I am 15 years old. I have been doing the Show the Truth tour for two years and I strongly disagree with Miss Jones' opinion of the responses the tour received while at the March for Life. Clearly, Show the Truth was the most effective presentation in the march this year, even though the actual number of participants in the march was 10 times greater than in the tour. You have no idea how many people may have seen these pictures who were thinking about having an abortion or even working within Morgentaler's abortuary, and changed their minds after seeing these pictures. The tour was a very strong voice for the pro-life movement and helped the cause enormously.
Miss Jones says that teachers, pastors and youth leaders are reluctant to invite pro-life education into the schools for fear of having the audience see graphic images. You can talk all you want and lecture the students on abortion, but the pictures you show say a thousand words and have a more powerful influence than any opinion you may teach.
The Show the Truth tour goes in front of different high schools across Ontario yearly and has incredible results. Many students, although they get talks on abortion and are taught it is wrong, don't seem to know exactly how bad it really is, without seeing the real thing. These pictures bring truth to what pro-life speakers are saying and help students to understand that abortion is not killing a blob of tissue, or a bunch of cells. It is in fact killing an innocent little baby.
If the Show the Truth tour waited to be invited to show their signs everywhere they went, the tour would not exist. Any pro-life speaker should know that these signs are pictures of real babies, and not the fake ones we are accused of using for shock value.
Pro-lifers should not be mad at the presence of the tour at the March for Life, or elsewhere. We are all on the same side and we should be proud that there are people protestingwho can see that abortion is clearly wrong and are trying to stop it.
Alissa Golob
Sarnia, Ont.
Editor's Note: The Interim received an unusually high number of letters to the editor and phone calls regarding the presence of the Show the Truth tour at the March for Life. It would be impossible to print or acknowledge them all, and thus we have decided to print the letter of this young pro-lifer from southwestern Ontario, which is representative of the letters written in favour of the tour's presence. It should be noted that the vast majority of letters and calls were in favour of Show the Truth being at the march. We thank everyone who contacted us about this issue. We acknowledge that for many pro-lifers on both sides of the issue, the use of graphic photos raises strong emotions. The Interim encourages, and will continue to be a conduit for, this respectful and sincere debate within the movement.
