Canada March for Life Marks 40 Years of Abortions, Pro-Life Group Seeks Debate

From http://www.lifenews.com/int1176.html

Canada March for Life Marks 40 Years of Abortions, Pro-Life Group Seeks Debate

by Steven Ertelt

LifeNews.com Editor

May 6, 2009
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Ottawa, Canada (LifeNews.com) -- Tens of thousands of Canadians will participate in the national March for Life next week that will mark 40 years of abortions in Canada. As pro-life advocates head to the nation's capital, the head of one pro-life group wonders why the Canadian parliament refuses to debate the issue.
In May 1969, the Canadian government approved the passage of a bill that took off the books many of the protective laws the nation had in place.

Then, in January 1988, the nation's abortion law was struck down from the Criminal Code by the Supreme Court of Canada resulting in full legal abortion on demand through all nine months of pregnancy.
As a result, there have been more than 3.5 million abortions in Canada, resulting the death of babies before birth and injuring countless women.
Michele Boulva, director of the Catholic Organization for Life and Family, is calling for a public debate on abortion.
"Unlimited abortion has not gathered the support of a majority of Canadians, but it hangs on because of public indifference and silence, as well as a widespread lack of information about the full extent of Canada's juridical void on abortion, due in no small part to a silence on this topic by most media," she said.
"The possibility for change is very real, and it will come about if we accept our social responsibility and speak up for the unborn," she said.
"But rather than dealing with the truth, our society continues to ignore it. We have collectively descended into an unresolved ethical schizophrenia where doctors employ their powers to save tiny premature babies in intensive care units while ending the lives of even more developed babies in the womb," Boulva added.
"We chant that abortion is a woman’s right, but we ignore the witness of countless women who testify that abortion has ruined their lives," she said.
Meanwhile, similar March for Life events are taking place in provincial capitals and John Hof, president of the B.C. Campaign Life Coalition, is hoping for 5,000 people to turn out at Victoria's city hall.
"The enthusiasm is really building. But this kind of event takes six to eight years to build," he told the BC Catholic newspaper.

The event is taking place on the heels of a poll showing Canadians may become more aware of caducity of human life if they understood that abortion is allowed nationwide for any reason throughout pregnancy. A new poll by the Angus Reid polling firm has found that a vast majority of Canadians do not know, under the country's current legal situation, that abortion is permitted at any time from conception up to the moment of birth.
The poll found 92 percent of the respondents did not know that is the case.
Canada experienced fewer abortions in 2005 according to its most recent national figures. Overall, Statistics Canada indicates abortions lowered to 96,815 during that year, a decline of 3.2 percent from the 100,039 in 2004.
In 2002, there were 105,154 abortions in Canada compared with a figure of 106,270 in 2001. The number of abortions in Canada peaked in 1997 at 112,000.

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