Courageous Mothers Thanked

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This letter to the editor appeared May 12 in The Observer in response to an outrageous letter supporting the decision of the University of Western Ontario to honour Canada’s leading abortionist with an honourary Doctor of Laws degree June 16. It read as follows:

"Courageous mothers thanked
Sir: I was saddened to read that the University of Western Ontario was even considering honouring a man who has inspired the deaths of so many pre-born children and who is therefore responsible also for much of the trauma that post - abortive women deal with for years after their “pro-choice” decision.

By the way, isn’t our choice of words confusing? Really, it’s only after the choice to choose life has been made that a woman truly has the freedom to make some choices - like choosing a name for a real baby or like choosing adoptive parents from a growing number of infertile couples.

If we buy into the pro-choice (death) position, mistakenly thinking that we are helping women, then we are completely ignoring two other perspectives.

My heart sank as I read the April 28 letter from the political science student from Western who claimed that Henry Morgentaler was due an honourary degree. I doubt that my words would be convincing enough to change her views, though for the sake of our country’s future, I wish they could. Clearly this student has embraced our culture’s “rights above all else” mentality.

But I think about another student, with her own views and plans, who, 20 years ago, found herself inconveniently pregnant. Yet this young woman had not been influenced into believing that she was more valuable than the baby girl growing inside her womb.

I have not met this beautiful person, but I owe her a debt I could never pay. She is the one who chose life for my first adopted child. It would be very hard to imagine a world without my beautiful daughter, Jessica (or without any one of the children in our family).

I had the opportunity to celebrate Mother’s Day with the lovely lady who gave me life and with the patient person who gave life to my husband. I also remembered some other special women.

I would like to give honour to each courageous mother who, after giving birth, selflessly entrusted that precious gift into the arms of a grateful adoptive parent.

Thank you:
–for the weeks of morning sickness;
–for the months of living in an unfamiliar body;
–for the hours of painful labor;
–for that difficult moment of saying goodbye;
–and for the years of wondering.

Thank you for giving life to a very much wanted child. You are my hero.
I honour you."

Connie, Ontario, Canada
 
By the way when I asked Connie permission to post her letter she informed me that the editor had refused to publish her letter unless the following scriptural passage was edited out:

“For it was you who formed my inward parts;
You knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully
made.” Psalm 139:13-14

Last year a hate law was passed in Canada during the height of the samesex marriage debate. They said Christians had nothing to fear. Well it sounds like our rights of free speech are denied when we may no longer quote from the Bible. What do they consider it - hate literature?
 
This was the featured letter in the London Free Press, Friday, May 13. This is the opposite viewpoint.

"Morgentaler’s fight for women’s rights lauded

Regarding Herman Goodden’s column, Cracks appearing in UWO Morgentaler stand (May 6).

So Goodden is still on his soap box about the honorary doctorate of laws degree for Dr. Henry Morgentaler, “the Ivey Business School . . . feeling negative financial impact from the decision,” and UWO governor Don McDougall concerned that this honour will adversely affect fundraising for the university.

Where is their humanity - have they forgotten the past?

At this time of remembrance for the war dead, we should also honour the memory of our great-grandmothers. We cannot imagine the type of unbelievable poverty these women faced at the turn of the century and for decades to come, and the thousands of women who died in childbirth and botched abortions. These poor women, who had no means of birth control, faced unwanted pregnancies and had nowhere to turn – unlike their rich counterparts who had the advantage of private clinics.

For 35 years, Morgantaler has courageously led the way for women to be in charge of their bodies and to be granted the inalienable right to have an abortion.

He has my undying gratitude and admiration and, by honouring him, I honour all of these desperate women who died unnecessarily.

Riva Ellinson, London "

Today the editors decided not to publish a pro-life letter despite the obvious backlog. In fact, a very cruel, mean-spirited opinion piece just below brings forth all the stereotypes of the young single mother on social assistence. A not so subtle attempt to discourage women with unwanted pregnancies from keeping their babies and ending up a welfare bum.😦
 
This letter to the editor canoe.ca/NewsStand/LondonFreePress/Letters/

makes numerous false claims in support of the lengthy articles gleeful over the Morgentaler fiasco at the university of western in Ontario, Canada. Readers who have not yet read AK Riley may find her piece on the “Culture of Death rallying against Catholic opposition to abortionist award” thread post #10.

Not a single letter letter has been published which opposed her scandalous viewpoint while all the letters which have appeared in print praise her.

letters@lfpress.com is your opportunity to tell the pro-life side. Letters must be 200 words or less. No attachments. Include full name, address and daytime phone number.

Failing that you may call Barbara Dunbar toll free:1-800-265-4105, ext. 4682
 
**Here is today’s, May 16, letter in the Free Press. **

"LEVEL - HEADED VIEWS ON ABORTION ISSUE by Mary McKim, MD, London
Congratualtions to A.K. Riley and Joan Barfoot for reasoned and sensible responses to the Henry Morgentaler quandary at the University of Western Ontario. Here are some points that should be clearly stated.
>No one is pro-abortion. It is the unhappy consequence of failed prevention. We are in support of safe legal abortion.
>In every poll taken in the past 30 years, over 60% of Canadians agree it is "a woman’s right to choose."
>A new law would not eliminate abortions. There have always been abortion. They will simply revert back to “backstreet,” illegal, dangerous procedures.
>Strong opposition from powerful right-wing groups has prevented the acceptance of, and access to, RU-486, which provides early termination. This safe and effective drug would end the need for abortion clinics, handling unintended conceptions before the emotional arguments over “killing of children” could have any validity.
>The opponents of abortion do not promote birth control or family planning.
>Authorities still want to impose a roadblock on accessibility to the morning-after pill.
How can one fail to see the punitive aspects of these attitudes?"

** Come on let us exercise our power as the good doctor says and tell her there is no such thing as a safe abortion legal or illegal. For every abortion there are at least two victims: one dies and another is injured. Please, use the above link and write a letter to the editor to increase the odds on the pro-life side. **
 
May 17, London Free Press

Friends at CA, we are not getting fair coverage in the Letters to the Editor.

Here is today’s letter from yet another health care professional, June Winchester, RN, St. Thomas

"Abortion Opponents Can’t See Other View
In his column, Morgentaler degree faces growing opposition(April 29), Herman Goodden peppers his piece with pronouncements of London’t Catholic Bishop Ronald Fabbro, UWO’s Catholic - affiliated King’s College principal Gerry Killan, Rev. Edward Malloy, president of the University of Notre Dame, and Joseph Rapai, London District Catholic school board director of education.
According to Goodden, all manner of dire financial things will happen if Western grants an honorary degree to Dr. Henry Morgentaler.
The day UWO must seek approval of Goodden and the aforementionned Catholic hierarchy will be the saddest day in Western’s long and glorious history.
Potential donors who withhold financial support will only be hurting the students who receive bursaries and scholarships, while denying funds used to upgrade facilities and support faculty positions and academic programs. What possible good can come from spitefully denying funding to these recipients?
The Herman Gooddens of this world have a problem in that they will not recognize there are other people who have sincere, valid opinions on abortion that are contrary to theirs. Morgentaler may be a sinner to Gooddwin’s kind, but he is something of a saint to many others."
 
Respone to “Level-headed views on abortion issue” sent to London Free Press May 16.

Dr. Mary McKim is anything but level-headed in her letter of support to AK Riley.
“No one is pro-abortion” she claimed. The choice is either life or death. No one can sit on the fence, least of all a doctor. Yes, Dr. McKim most certainly is pro-choice, pro-abortion and pro-death.
Click to expand...
The majority of Canadians do not support unrestricted access to abortion through all nine months of pregnancy. Most would support a cut-off point in the second trimestre. Only the most extreme could justify the brutality of partial birth abortions.
Click to expand...
Abortions are not safe whether legal or illegal. In every abortion there is always at least one fatality (the baby) and one injured (the mother.)
Click to expand...
RU-486 acts by preventing the embryo from embedding itself in the lining of the uterus. The child is repelled from its own mother’s womb and dies because it cannot reach its food source. RU-486 is painful and dangerous. Women have already died.
Click to expand...
Life begins at conception. That is a scientific fact. Call it what you will - blastocyst, embryo, fetus - that life is still a human person, albeit at an early stage of existence, and because life exists that is reason enough to protect it.
Click to expand...
Natural family planning is more effective than the birth control pill in preventing unwanted pregnancies. Couples can use NFP to space children if they have sound reasons. In fact, NFP is so finely tuned it is even effective for infertile couples trying to conceive.
Click to expand...
As for Riley there is no such thing as “a potential person versus an actual person.” The unborn child is already a human person with potential.
 
Our brave journalist, Herman Goodden, a convert to the Catholic faith, is still be roasted in the London Free Press today, Wed, May18. This is a full week since the last prolife letter appeared on the editor’s page May 11 by Peter Buckley, director of Project Rachel. Even then his letter was matched by “Good for Western for taking firm stand” a strong letter calling the prolife work to rescind the honour to Morgentaler ‘hysteria and extortion’.
 
Here is the aforementionned letter attacking Goodden May 18, LFP.

Silent Majority Supports Choice

In his column, ex-prof lays Morgentaler blame on Davenport (May 13), Herman Goodden quotes ex-professor Don Thain as saying the UWO (university of western ontario) has already lost $4 million to $5 million due to its decision to honour Dr. Henry Morgentaler with an honourary degree.

Thain goes on to claim that this will jump to $40 million or $50 million when the “silent majority multiplier” is taken into account.

What both Thain and Goodden fail to realize is that the “silent majority” of Canadians support a woman’s right to choose to abort an unwanted pregnancy. Perhaps Goodden should shift his focus to more pressing issues, like genocide in Darfur, the AIDS pandemic in Africa, ever increasing religious radicalism, world terror, world hunger, environmental degradation and government corruption. Of course, these issues are not nearly as important as bickering over an honorary title, but let’s discuss a couple, just for fun.
by Dan Meidinger, London
 
This appeared in the Free Press May 14. They refuse to debate the issue of abortion and are using cheap diversionary tactics. The author is Rev. Leaf Seligman a minister of the Unitarian Fellowship of London, ON.

It’s easier to focus on Morgentaler and abortion, than to ask ourselves: What have we done to ease the poverty, disease and violence that wrack our world?

What’s missing in the debate over UWO’s decision to confer an honorary degreee on Dr. Morgentaler is a recognition of the ways we use the topic of abortion to avoid dealing with the daily choices we make, or fail to make, regarding the sanctity of life.

We may favour our species and choose to ignore the billions of insects, millions of animals, and the innumerable plants and eco-systems destroyed each day so we can live as we do.

We can try to compartmentalize the sanctity of life when talking about deforestation, or spraying hundreds of thousands of acres with insecticides.

We can act as if the sanctity of life only relates to human beings, though that instantly removes us from the conversation since human life cannot exist without the complex eco-systems comprised of flora, fauna and microbial life.
 
Notice the Reverend is doing precisely what she accuses the prolifers of doing by not dealing with the consequences of the “daily choices we make” and taking responsibility for them. People who fail to use their sexual gift as God intended look to abortion as a quick fix when they have an unwanted pregnancy.

Even more disconcerting is Seligman’s placing human life on par with not only animals but with plants and insects. No where does this reverend recognize that man is created in the image of God, was given stewardship over the animals and has an immortal soul.

Furthermore, modern man does violence to everything surrounding him precisely because he has no respect for anything or anyone which does not cater to his needs. What does one expect from a man who would slaughter his own child still sheltered in the womb? Does the reverend think for a moment contemporary man who has seized for himself the power over life and death it going to tread softly so as not to step on insects? This is surely a case of the cart before the horse. This is reminiscent of the highly civilized Germans who loved their high culture music while they tortured and incinerated their victims who they also labelled subhuman. To rhapsodize about the beauty of nature while parroting the ideology of the culture of death is hypocritical posturing.
 
continuation from BIG PICTURE LOST IN DEBATE by Rev. Leaf Seligman

"Thus it is impossible to defend a concept of life as sacred, or even precious and worth preserving – without acknowledging that life itself exists not in relationship but as a relationship.
There is no life other than the co-existence of being. And there is no life that is not somehow enabled by death.
Yet so many of us prefer to narrow the focus: We look at our species, and then we go a step further. We focus on a single point where life and death intersect. We fixate on abortion, the actions of one person, instead of having to implicate ourselves.
One out of six children in Canada lives in poverty. According to the campaign 2000-2004 Report on Child Poverty in Canada, the child poverty rate among female-led, single-parent households is more than 50%. How many letters to the editor have we read about that?
 
“We focus on a single point where life and death intersect. We fixate on abortion, the actions of one person,” Seligman

What is she saying? People have always cared about the death of a fellow human being. If we didn’t care we would be indistinguishable from the animals. But isn’t that her point? We shouldn’t care any more about the death of someone than we care for plants, insects and animals. To do so is to discriminate against other life forms. If everything is equal maybe nothing has value, especially not human life.
Is this why the flowers in Terri Schindler Shiavo’s room were meticulously watered and cared for while she lay dying from dehydration? Her life was valued even less than plant life.
 
London Free Press this morning, Thurs, May 19, not a single letter to the editor on either side of this issue. However, there was a large article about the peaceful protest in London, ON yesterday organized by the prolifers. The story focuses on the Sunday incident with the pop can and the decision of the UWO police security to videotape the protesters. canoe.ca/NewsStand/LondonFreePress/News/2005/05/19/1046396-sun.html
 
continuation of Leaf Seligman "BIG PICTURE LOST IN DEBATE"

" More than a billion people worldwide live in extreme poverty. More than a billion live without access to potable water. How many people wrote a letter or plan to protest an honorary degree on the grounds that life is sacred spend 10 minutes contemplating that one out of every six humans has no safe water to drink, and that 2.2 million people a year die because of it?
It’s a lot easier to focus on Henry Morgentaler and clinics that provide abortions, than it is to ask ourselves and our neighbours: What have any of us done to save the lives of the 30,000 children under the age of five who will die today and tomorrow and the next day from preventable diseases?
It’s a lot simpler to walk with a placard on campus than to address the needs of 150 million malnourished children in developing countries.
It’s so much more gratifying to raise our fists in indignation as morally inclined members of a religious community than it is to spend a day contemplating the 40 million children in developing countries who have lost a parent to HIV/AIDS, and who will die prematurely themselves…"
 
The question is how will contemplating these tragedies even for the 10 minutes Seligman requests change anything? Why does she assume prolifers are not concerned about these issues too? Why does she ignore all the work and generosity of Christians many of whom probably have adopted a child in a foreign land or work in soup kitchens, donate their time, energy and money for the relief and comfort of the poor. Who is she to be so judgmental? Morevoer, the question should be how will killing our children in America save a single child in the third world?
** If hearts are so hardened by the mindless pursuit of worldly acquisition and pleasure that they are willing to sacrifice their own children to the god of materialism what makes Seligman think anyone with such a mindset is going to care about someone else’s children in the third world? **
** The goal of Planned Parenthood is to reduce the world’s poor by eliminating them. Read the writing of their foundress, Margaret Sanger. They could care less if they all starve or die of thirst and disease. A doctor from Kenya made just that point at a conference last fall in Toronto. She told of her frustration with the United Nations who spends untold millions on contraceptives, abortions and condoms while denying the recipient countries the option of requesting the money be spent for basic medical care instead. **
 
The Lifesitenews has an interesting article from the Calgary Herald entitled: The UN Quietly Wages War on Religion lifesite.net/ldn/2001/aug/010820a.htmlThe United Nations Fund for Population Activities, the UNFPA, is brought under close scrutiny revealing both their motivations and the consequences suffered by the world’s poorer nations as a result of so called foreign aid which should more properly be called foreign interference. Canada’s role is not such a pretty picture.
Richard Wilkins, law professor and director of World Family Policy Centre at Brigham Young University provides ominous predictions about the future in 50 years. A countercultural perspective which completely challenges many of the presuppositions of Rev. Leaf Seligman in “Big Picture Lost in Debate.”
By the way, the London Free Press has not printed one single letter this week rebutting Seligman even though letter after letter has chastized Herman Goodden who is in the prolife camp.
 
This appeared Friday, May 20, London Free Press

"At Last, good sense on Morgentaler

Wow! At last. An intelligent, considered response to the narrow-minded fulminations against the honorary degree for Dr. Henry Morgentaler.
Bravo to Leaf Seligman for her column, “Big picture lost in debate” (May14). Until now, Joan Barfoot’s letter, “Good for Western for taking firm stand” (May 11) was the clearest, most reasonable statement, though it was brief.
Free Press regular columnist Herman Goodden should be ashamed of himself for continuing to present his narrow view that stirs up more unthinking outbursts of bile."

by Gilda Blackmore of London
 
This article by Herman Goodden in today’s London Free Press, May 19, "Profs trade salvoes on Morgentaler uproar."

http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Columnists/London/Herman_Goodden/home.html

A few words of encouragement to the only voice of reason which appears in this newspaper once a week on Fridays.
herman.goodden@sympatico.ca

Considering all the abuse he has been taking in the letters to the editor including today’s his calm, reasoned approach choosing to stick with the facts is remarkable self-discipline. He is truly an example of grace under fire.
 
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