Thank you to Laura Klassen, founder of CHOICE42, for writing this powerful guest post. CHOICE42 is pro-woman, pro-baby, and pro-life. They provide support to women who are facing unplanned pregnancy or dealing with post-abortion problems, and work to increase awareness and recognition of the humanity of pre-born children. This is her story of a time when all the support offered couldn’t make a difference. We need a law.
______________________________________________________________
Working in the part of the pro-life movement that supports women facing a crisis pregnancy, I often receive comments like, “This is what the pro-life movement needs – people actually helping women instead of trying to make policies or laws about abortion.”
Here’s why I think that’s wrong.
Though I (obviously) agree that helping women is vital, we do still need a law. You can offer a woman all the help and support in the world and she can still turn around and abort her baby at any stage, because abortion is always an option. We need actual legal protection for our tiniest members because that’s what every human being deserves. A child’s right to life shouldn’t depend on the circumstances of his or her mother, or the amount of support and help she receives. A child’s right to life should be protected by the law because babies in the womb are human beings.
To be honest, I’m writing angry. I’m writing having just found out that a woman I’ve been in contact with for many weeks decided to go and abort her baby at 16 weeks. I’m angry because the abortion procedure of a second trimester fetus is gory and brutal and unfathomable and I’m just heartbroken that this little baby met such a gruesome death. I’m angry because this woman was offered all kinds of support to be able to parent her baby: housing needs, clothing, baby equipment, counselling…the list goes on. We had also discussed adoption as an option. But despite all the help and support she was given, she still turned around and had her baby killed.
This is why we need a law.
The ‘helping pregnant women’ segment of the pro-life movement isn’t going to close-up shop when Canada finally introduces an abortion law; we will be more necessary than ever. We will continue to help mothers and fathers and children during pregnancy, and for years after the baby is born. The only difference will be that killing babies won’t be an option anymore.
And so, as someone working on the front lines with women in crisis, I stand in full support of the work the political pro-life organizations are doing, because every life should be protected by law.
To ‘Baby E’, I’m sorry our legal system failed you.
