Come alive: envisioning a culture of life

Posted by admin on Apr 13, 2010 in Issues & Ideas | 0 comments

Are you pro-life? You must be “not cool, not savvy, not professional, very religious, out of touch,” ProWomanProLife founder Andrea Mrozek comments on the common stereotype. In reality, she declares that “young, vibrant women” propel the pro-life movement.
ProWomanProLife defies common misconceptions about those who identify themselves as “pro-life”: it is comprised of educated, professional women, from a variety of religious and ethnic backgrounds.

Since 1988, there has been no abortion regulation to protect unborn Canadians up to and including the ninth month of pregnancy. The network was established in 2008, the 20th anniversary of the historic Morgentaler decision, when all abortion laws were struck down to protect the woman’s right to “security of person” under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Is abortion still relevant? Andrea Mrozek, a protestant Christian, shares her frustration with some young evangelicals, who, despite being involved in other worthy causes, avoid the abortion issue, seeing it as being “their parents’ issue.”

Although she once shared this view, Mrozek emphasizes that abortion affects other issues. Even a ‘current’ concern, such as AIDS in Africa, “hits the question of condoms in Africa, family planning in Africa, sexual behaviour and morality–suddenly and quickly one finds oneself needing to debate reproductive rights.”

Recently, The Globe and Mail’s Michael Valpy questioned why the abortion issue comes to life so quickly both in Canada (such as the latest G8 discussion on maternal health) and America (regarding abortion funding and health-reform). Abortion, Valpy reports, quoting Obama, “is a moral question,” and such questions “never go away.”

Nonetheless, Valpy relates a change in U.S. public opinion resulting from recent pro-life focus on scientific, technological developments (such as ultrasound technology), and young, female voices supporting both mother and child. Yet Valpy wonders whether inaction would be a typical Canadian solution.

Stephanie Gray, co-founder of the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform, remarks, “Many in our society seem to want [abortion] to be a dead issue…I think they do because all of us are affected by it.”

“I do have a lot of hope,” she adds. “I see… the end result of broken families, yet amidst that I see so many people rising up to say ‘I want to help these individuals’, and do.”

Gray continues to say she also witnesses “ministry being set up to bring healing to those who are wounded, of people acknowledging that a crisis exists, and mobilizing to address it.”

In Canada, education advocacy organizations such as Signal Hill (thesignalhill.com) strive to provide Canadians with informed choice, on the belief that people “rarely make a decision that would harm themselves or others.” Local pregnancy centres now offer sexual integrity resources in addition to other services such as post-abortion counselling. Furthermore, Silent No More is part of an organization formed by those who have been affected by abortions speaking out to encourage others like them to find healing from past decisions.

Like many, ProWomanProLife’s Andrea Mrozek adopts a vision of young Canadians integrating pro-life perspectives into professional decisions and personal actions. Let us embrace this vision at TWU, and welcome human life with the courage of Mary, protect it with the strength of Joseph, and celebrate it with the joyful leap of John the Baptist. Let us come alive with a message of hope and resolve for change.