Courageous Mothers Thanked

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rosalinda
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Shocking pictures open old wounds by Wendy Laferriere LFP

"Every day there are more opinions regarding abortion. Please let me share my story with you.

Many years ago, my husband and I went through a very agonizing time when we wanted to start our family. The very short version is that after three painful and demoralizing miscarriages, we adopted our beautiful daughter. We were very determined to have a family and we were lucky enough to be able to provide a stable, loving home for a child.

Even though we fought to have a family and even though I was never able to carry a child for the full nine months, I still believe it is every woman’s right to decide whether or not to have a child. I find it difficult to understand how anyone who does not have actual knowledge of your or my situation can think they have a right to condemn the decisions we make.

Most days, when I go to see my grandchildren, I pass by Victoria Hospital on Commissioners Road. More times than I can remember, I am horrified to see the pictures on the signs carried by the anti-abortion picket line.

Are these really religious, compassionate people?

That picture could have been one of my children. It hurts my heart and brings back a flood of memories that I thought I had dealt with many years ago. Has any one of those protesters ever thought about the other side of abortion . . . the spontaneous, unfortunate kind that robs a family of a planned child?

Pray for the children and for the mothers who have to make the hardest decision of their lives. Shock is not always the correct method to convey your point."
 
Dace Berg letter to the Free Press.

Adoption carries stigma of shame

"Most abortions in this day and age are the fault of our society. In days gone by, the social stigma of a pregnancy out of wedlock was so great that a young lady had a choice of going away and having the baby to give up for adoption or an abortion.

If you were pregnant, often your family would kick you out (thank God for the Salvation Army), or if you went away, it was an open secret, because most people figured it out anyway and your reputation was sullied for life. An abortion, legal or not, safe or not, was the only option to keep this shameful fact from getting out.

Today, things have changed. One has the added option of keeping and raising the baby, but one has lost the option of adoption. Society now pressures the mother-to-be into keeping the baby, and if she does not, society and all the relatives think of her as some kind of monster for giving up her flesh and blood.

Once again the stigma of adoption is a whole lot worse than a safe and legal abortion.

All the shouting, marches and propaganda will not stop abortion. You have to change the mindset of society. Teach them that adoption is a viable option without a stigma, and then maybe, just maybe, there will not be as many abortions. For the time being, giving up a baby is too great a public shame."
 
Letter to the London Free Press by Carol Verhey

Convocation talk disappointing

"On Monday I attended the convocation of my niece at the University of Western Ontario.

As I surveyed the program, I recognized the name of the honorary degree recipient to be Doris Anderson. My initial enthusiasm to listen to Anderson’s address was short-lived as I was unprepared for the feelings of disappointment that would linger throughout the remainder of the day.

Anderson’s address, or as she referred to it, “pep talk,” to the graduates dealt with “How every graduate should try to make this world a better place.” However, the final two sentences of her address I felt were unquestionably in poor taste and inexcusable as I felt they conveyed a message of gratitude to UWO in selecting Henry Morgentaler as today’s honorary degree recipient. I feel Anderson manipulated the use of this forum in an attempt to elevate and promote UWO’s credibility in their recipient selection.

As Anderson’s address concluded, I had the sad realization that there remained five rows of unoccupied seating “reserved for graduates only.”

I could not help but wonder how many of these unused seats would have been occupied if a mother had not terminated her pregnancy."
 
There is yet another letter about the children wearing the black wristbands which I will post on the thread/poll “should Children be involved in abortion protest?”
 
Hi Rosalinda. The quotes you give from Sher are by who? Who said those things?
 
Rosalinda said:
Dr. Henry Morgentaler said the quotes on post 120, Ani.:yawn:
Click to expand...

Wow. I just wanted to be sure. Morgentaler’s statements are quite inflammatory, aren’t they? Why are you yawning? As for myself, I am thoroughly worn out from this. Anyway we made it through and learned quite a lot, didn’t we? Time to move on now, for me.
 
Herman Goodden came through again with a brilliant piece, History of ‘justice’ unsettling to read on the Opinion page of the LFP today.

“The last few weeks I’ve been making my way through a hefty-four volume anthology of Notable Historical Trials, selected and edited by Justin Lovill. Published around the turn of the millennium by the Folio Society, this compendium contains accounts of 40 different trials, most of them written up coincidental to or shortly after the proceedings under discussion. the trials cover a span of nearly 2,300 years, from the trial of Socrates in classical Athens to Oscar Wild’s disastrous day in the dock on the cusp of the 20th. century…”
 
continuation of History of ‘justice’ unsettling to read by Goodden.

"Though I found some of these tales much more interesting than others (sad to say, the only Canadian trial in the collection, Louis Riel’s, is among the duller ones recounted here), all in all, these accounts have made for gripping reading. The accounts point out how very often the court’s verdicts have been utterly and shamefully at odds with justice and the truth. Socrates, Joan of Arc, St. Thomas More, Anne Boleyn – nearly half the cases in the first volume alone – were occasions of judicial chicanery and were often seen as such even at the time.

And is it so much different today? Trials that fail to achieve any semblance of justice are the ones we tend to remember.

Ask your average person on the street to name a recent trial that really captured their attention and you’re likely to hear of those two California miscarriages of justice involving O. J. Simpson and Michael Jackson. I mean, is there anybody, not on his payroll, who doesn’t believe that O.J. did it?

And while the Jackson case may be a little more nebulous regarding who did what to whom, only the most obstinately deluded of fans still doubt that the once magnificently talented Jacko has become one terribly sick puppy who’s inexorably cruising to a very bad end.

John Mortimer, of Rumpole of the Bailey fame, writes in a brief introduction to the books that it is political trials that invariably serve up the shabbiest approximations of justice. In these trials, he writes, “the legal proceedings are merely a weapon by which the state chooses to obliterate its opponents, and which are, too often, a cloak for judicial murder. In such trials the law ventures into questions of morality, philosophy or the free expression of opinions; matters with which it is ill equipped to deal and where its clumsy attempts to capture abstract thought often lead to the same comic result as the spectacle of a policeman trying to arrest a sunbeam.”

Blaise Pascal used to maintain that judges and lawyers went in for priestly robes and sage-like wigs as **pompous **and intimidating camouflage. By dressing up their deliberations in garments that betokened divinity and wisdom, it was hoped that a credulous public would be more inclined to accept their often absurd judgments.

The only other secular ceremony I’ve seen that matches a trial for pseudo-religious trappings and costumes is a university convocation. Once again the robes and funny hats are in evidence, and the ceremonies at which degrees are conferred are eerily reminiscent of the rite of priestly ordination.

Society looks to the judiciary and the academy to affirm and uphold the right and the true. When a court passes down a ruling that is manifestly unjust, or when a university confers an honorary doctorate on a man whom half the population regards as a butcher of innocent life, the resultant credibility strain lowers both institutions in the eyes of all but the credulously naive.

Many on the pro-choice side of the fence are hoping that yesterday’s ceremony at UWO honoring Dr. Henry Morgentaler is but the first step on the road to granting the man the Order of Canada. I, along with many others, dare to hope that Thursday, **June 16, 2005, **will ultimately go down as one of the very darkest days in the history of London. Either way, the deed is done, and history will be the judge." (highlights mine)
 
Society looks to the judiciary and the academy to affirm and uphold the right and the true. When a court passes down a ruling that is manifestly unjust, or when a university confers an honorary doctorate on a man whom half the population regards as a butcher of innocent life, the resultant credibility strain lowers both institutions in the eyes of all but the credulously naive.

Many on the pro-choice side of the fence are hoping that yesterday’s ceremony at UWO honoring Dr. Henry Morgentaler is but the first step on the road to granting the man the Order of Canada. I, along with many others, dare to hope that Thursday, June 16, 2005, will ultimately go down as one of the very darkest days in the history of London. Either way, the deed is done, and history will be the judge.

Let us try to keep our hopes up and, as you say Rosalinda, pray before all else. There have been, as William noted yesterday in his newsblog, many victories for us. It is important that we acknowledge this in each other and give thanks to God for opening our eyes and hearts, for calling us each to unique action, and for the divine encounter. For if nothing else, this has been a divine encounter. We must remember that many people have watched. Those who were on the cusp of losing hope have noted the presence of those of us who care.

The deed is done, but the story is not over yet.
 
LFP had a great photograph with the members of Truth and Love for Life carrying a coffin to the university yesterday. The photo is sharp enough to read:
1970-2002,
** MOURNING**
2,587,438
CANADIANS KILLED IN THE WOMB
The pall bearers were appropriately dressed in black and a baby shoe was visible on top of the coffin. A funeral procession through the heart of the city certainly made a powerful visual statement and given the time of day, the distance covered and the weight of the coffin it must have been a act of penance too.
 
LFP “True to their word” Jonathan Sher reported:

"Later, at a media conference, UWO president Paul Davenport, who chaired the committee that selected Morgentaler, said the honour, which he supported, came from a committee of the Senate whose membership is overwhelmingly faculty.

Asked if he was pro-choice, Davenport, who chaired the Senate committee, fell silent.:o :confused: 😦

“I’m hesitating only because when I make a statement on an issue like that, it tends to be interpreted as the position of the university. And I just said the University of Western Ontario has no position on a woman’s right to choose or on abortion. We have to provide an environment where people can speak their minds . . . and not think that someone’s going to accuse them of contradicting what the president said.”
 
Paul Davenport has a serious case of double-speak. He would like to think his university is a proper environment for students and faculty to search for truth and “speak their minds” but it is very clear now students with a pro-life attitude who don’t tow the submissive line will be prejudiced against.

What will happen to a student who is countercultural and gives an essay on the links between breast cancer and abortion? Or a medical student who refuses to witness or participate during his medical training in an abortion procedure? A young sociologist whose research shows an increase in family violence, abuse, breakdown, depression and suicide in people who have bought the culture of death mentality? What will happen to an assistant professor who advances the statistics which point not to a population explosion but rather just the opposite happening with the population at below replacement levels in most of the western world? How much confidence will he have to receive tenure in such a university? Those are just a few obvious examples not to mention law, pharmacology, nursing…
 
The Free Press asked a sampling of students graduating yesterday how UWO’s conferral of an honorary degree on Dr. M. affected their graduation.

Andrea Manto, "It’s kind of gross becaue there’s a lot of big pictures with dead babies. but other than that, it hasn’t really affected me"
Colleen Van Camp, "The protesters out front really freaked me out. I was bawling by the time I got here."
 
A friend of mine was kicked out of med school for mentioning that her religion does not agree with abortion.
 
Ian Gillespie in "Fans, foes, the doctor himself–all came off well."

He seemed surprised by how well behaved the anti-abortionists were yesterday. At one point he describes a poster with the comment, “Awards: Dr. Morgentaler today, Karla Homolka next?” (Karla participated in the torture and death of 3 teenagers in Ontario,Canada along with her husband) So, Gillespie, thinking he had found himself a candidate worth speaking to, approached him for an explanation but was politely gestured to read the “We protest in silence” sign.

He finished his article with, “I expected something else. I’m happy I was wrong.”

Sounds like the journalists got trapped into believing their own smear campaign about prolifers.

A wonderful photograph depicts a young man wearing a shirt with bold “ABORTION IS HOMICIDE” on it sitting on the sidewalk behind a barricade talking with a woman holding a sign “I:heart: HENRY”. They both seemed to be listening to each other peacefully.

canoe.ca/NewsStand/Columnists/London/Ian_Gillespie/home.html

We did not have a repeat of the San Francisco march in Canada yesterday thanks to the prayers, the police security and the rabble-rousers who backed off of an open confrontation with the life supporters and rescheduled their “Celebration of Choice” rally.
 
40.png
Rosalinda:
rabble-rousers who backed off of an open confrontation with the life supporters and rescheduled their “Celebration of Choice” rally.
Click to expand...
There were some pro-abortion protesters outside Alumni Hall.
 
London Free Press by R.E. Minielly of Forest wrote this letter** “Coat hanger button found offensive”.**

"The front page photo June 16 with Jane Graham holding a button with the coat hanger turned by stomach. That was a little too graphic for my taste. We all have our opinions on abortion, but is it necessary to put a coat hanger in the face of all Free Press readers?

There must be a better way for pro-choice advocates to get their point across. It is a sensitive issue and should be treated as such. The barbaric coat hanger button has no place in the argument. Yes, it got my attention, but only for a half second till I turned the page."
 
Of course this letter by V. Joan Sutter of London, "Something to protest" is no surprise as an article appeared in the LFP yesterday about another alleged sexual abuse case by a local priest.

"I am curious to know how many Catholics will be lining up to protest the actions of priests involved in sexual assaults.

Fair is fair, Dr. Henry M. in his aid to women in distress was offering a legal alternative. I hope that the Catholic population, which was so vocal on the streets and at the university condemning M., will take a look at their own priests, who without legal status steal the innocence of young boys, and expect respect."
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top