Pro-life supporters from
across Canada are encouraged to attend a march for life in Ottawa commemorating
the 29th anniversary of Parliament’s legalizing abortion.
Scheduled for May 14th, the
event will mark what the pro-life community describes as the most tragic
event in Canadian history. Parliament’s action of May 14, 1969 to amend
the Criminal Code and allow for abortion has to date resulted in the deaths
of more than two million Canadian children.
In addition to remembering
those lost to abortion since 1969, the march for life is organized to call
for a restoration of justice for the unborn.
The rally is set to begin
at 12 noon May 14 with prayer and protest on Parliament Hill. Speakers
expected to address the gathering at the time include representatives of
Campaign Life Coalition, other leading pro-life activists, spiritual leaders,
and prominent pro-life members of Parliament.
Following the opening prayer
and protest, participants are being urged to visit their individual MPs
to voice concerns about the need for legislation protecting the preborn
child. Participants planning to arrange meetings with their MP are invited
to contact Campaign Life Coalition at 1-800-730-5358, or 416-368-8479 for
help.
The action day will also
include attendance at the afternoon Question Period in the House of Commons,
the celebration of mass and Protestant services and a concluding meal.
No real restrictions
Pro-life officials have emphasized
the significance of the 1969 law change which opened the door to widespread
abortion in Canada. Although the law called for the establishment of therapeutic
abortion committees to determine if continuing a pregnancy endangered the
life or health of women, it became little more than a rubber-stamp process
for women seeking abortion.
The law was overturned by
the Canadian Supreme Court in January, 1988 leaving the country with no
meaningful restrictions on abortion.
In a 1979 pamphlet, former
Interim publisher Father Alphonse de Valk described the 1969 decision as
“the worst legislation in the history of this country.”
Father de Valk said
the appeal to practicality as a rationalization for the 1969 abortion law
opened the door to a diminished respect for life across the social spectrum.
“The key to the mounting
attacks on various phases of human life ... lies in the 1969 legislation
of abortion in Canada and its equivalents in other countries,” he said.
“This legislation put in doubt what had been firmly held, it muddied and
confused what had been clear; namely, that society has no right to declare
any part of the span of human life or the human family less valuable than
any other part.”
In concluding that
the 1969 abortion law was a black mark in legislative history, Father de
Valk pointed to the relative ease with which abortion came to be excused.
“(The 1969 amendment) symbolizes Canada’s participation in the new holocaust.
The amendment’s own cruel irony is most evident when we remember that its
sponsors intended this law to be restrictive. In reality, it opened the
door to abortion on demand.”
Campaign Life is making a
bus available for Toronto-area pro-lifers to take part in the May 29 rally.
For more information contact Campaign Life at one of the two telephone
numbers listed above.
