Micah 6:8

Russian Hospital is Caught Gagging Orphan Babies

I found this disturbing news story this morning. A woman was visiting a hospital when she stumbled upon a room full of orphaned babies that either had had their mouths taped shut or pacifiers taped into their mouths because the nurses didn't want to here their cries. This is so incredibly saddening. I would love to be able to go and save all of these babies. Why does nobody love them? Maybe these babies will get help now but what about all the other babies in different hospitals and orphanages that are being treated similarly. While nobody may be hearing their cries I pray that God will.

On a side note I think that this sort of thing really comes at no surprise given how undervalued human life really is in our world. Russia has the highest abortion rate in Europe only second to Romania. There are nearly 13 abortions for every 10 live births. Please don't tell me that if woman stopped having abortions that then there would be even more babies in this horrible situation. That is like saying that we should allow men to kill their wives or children when they become stressful so that they don't feel tempted to neglect or abuse them in the future. The point that I'm trying to make is that when you devalue one kind of human life all other kinds lose value as well.

Here is an article from awhile ago about the reality of abortion in Russia.

Injustice in Canada

There have been some recent blows to freedom of speech in Canada that I would to draw all of your attention to. Recently UBC's Okanagan campus's student union passed a motion to ban all pro-life groups from having club status. Carleton University in Ontario will be attempting to pass a similar ban at their campus next week. This a substantial blow to freedom of speech because groups that do not have club status are denied the ability to organize events on campus, use campus facilities for their purposes and to pamphlet the campus. Because Canadian campuses are actually private property this also shuts down any peaceful demonstrations because with prior approval people can be charged with trespassing if they refuse to leave when confronted. Interestingly enough, the ban at Carleton University was drafted after a friend of mine did a debate against a pro-choice representative. His debate spawned criticism that even discussing these topics might upset people that had had abortions previously. I guess this means that public discourse on any contentious subjects is now politically incorrect. Good thing the gestapo is out there protecting the sensibilities of the masses of impressionable university students.

Universities need to be places where open discussion is not shut down. Societies can not move foreword if dissenting views are squashed. I really think that violations of our freedom of speech such as this one are only a small step away from a ban on any controversial Christian activity. Once we ban pro-life groups from speaking out on campuses what stops student unions from then banning any group that is pro-evangelism? If student unions are free to do this then what stops government authorities from putting similar bans on free speech into the public sector?

Here are some links to brief news stories that cover some more of the details:
UBC Okanagan Campus
Carleton Unversity

Please consider writing some letters to the following people to voice your disapproval. I have linked to some sample letters that you are free to use directly or just for ideas.
Letter to Carleton President
Letter to UBC Okanagan
Letter to UBC President

Carlton University Student Union Contacts:
President - Shawn Menard: pres@cusaonline.com
Executive Coordinator - James Pratt exc@cusaonline.com
VP Finance - Shelley Melanson vpf@cusaonline.com
VP Internal Affairs - Lyndon George vpi@cusaonline.com
VP External Affairs - Blake Brooks vpx@cusaonline.com
VP Student Issues - Isaac Cockburn vpsi@cusaonline.com
VP Student Services - Katy McIntyre vpss@cusaonline.com ***Originator of
the motion to force all clubs to be 'pro-choice' ***
Clubs & Societies clubs@cusaonline.com

Carleton University Administration:
Vice-President, Acting Provost and Vice-President (Academic) Dr. Feridun
Hamdullpur, provost@carleton.ca
Vice-President, Finance & Administration Duncan Watt c/o
b_wells@carleton.ca

Carleton University Board of Governors:
Board of Governors governors@carleton.ca

UBC Okanagan Administration:

Prof. Stephen J. Toope
President, University of British Columbia
6328 Memorial Road
Vancouver, BC
Canada V6T 1Z2
Phone: 604.822.8300
Fax: 604.822.5055
E-mail: presidents.office@ubc.ca

Marie Molloy
Human Rights & Equity Advisor
University of British Columbia, Okanagan
3333 University Way, SSC 119F
Kelowna, BC, Canada, V1V 1V7
Tel: 250.807.9291
Email: marie.molloy@ubc.ca

Can I Live

This is a beautiful pro-life video that I've appreciated for awhile. Enjoy.

Is Rick Warren Supporting Abortion?

I just read a very interesting critique of Rick Warren's recent invitation of U.S. Senator Barack Obama to speak in his church. Kevin McCullough criticizes the invitation on the grounds that Obama's track record shows that he is strongly in favour of many anti-Christian values such as partial birth abortion, gay marriage, condom distribution, etc.

I think that Rick Warren has now moved himself from the crowds of apathetic Christians that are doing nothing about abortion (evil in itself) into the arena of outright support of evil. Having a senator speak in your church is a very strong endorsement for that leader. Unless Warren is going to give a very harsh disclaimer to his congregation telling them not vote for Obama because he is pro-genocide (highly unlikely) he is essentially giving his outright approval of this politician.

Let's look at this another way. If Obama was pro-pedophilia what would you think of having him speak in your church on some unrelated subject? I think that most people would be thoroughly out raged and for good reason. They would be afraid that the smooth talk on the unrelated subject would encourage the less critically minded people to vote for someone that thinks that it is alright to molest children. Abortion harms far more children per year then pedophilia so why is Rick Warren willing to back someone that is pro-genocide?

I think that one of the deeper problems here is that a lot of Christians think that it is alright to vote for someone that is pro-abortion or opposed to any other justice issue. If you were Jewish would you have voted for Hitler? If your mother was a slave would you vote for the people that were enslaving her? I Jesus was running as in independent in your riding would you still vote conservative in order to keep out the liberal candidate? If your answer is no to any of these questions then why would you being willing to vote for someone that thought that allowing people to kill hundreds of thousands of children per year was good?

Now I would like to add one little disclaimer before I get all sorts of negative feedback. I'm in no way trying to say that US people should vote republican. I also don't know anything about Kevin McCullough. I just agreed with this article and I don't know what other opinions he holds. If his other opinions are abhorrent that shouldn't colour your opinion of this article. Just read it for what it's worth.

hat tip: Armybarmy Blog

Abortion ban closer in Nicaragua

There was an interesting article in the BBC news this morning. I particularly liked the statement, 'I'm allowed to commit murder because these hands are mine, this gun is mine.'" Very true. Lets pray that this bill passes and few more Nicaraguan babies can be spared from being murdered.

A Nicaraguan parliamentary committee has approved draft legislation to ban all abortions, including in cases where the mother's life is at risk.

The legislation will now be debated at a national assembly hearing before a final vote next week.

If the law is passed, doctors carrying out abortions could face up to 30 years in prison.

At present, abortion is only permitted in Nicaragua in instances where the life of the mother is in danger.

The call for a complete ban has mainly come from the Roman Catholic and evangelical churches.

Church support

The bill - which is widely expected to be approved - has come amid campaigning for the country's presidential election in November.

The leader of the judicial committee which returned the decision is against changing the law. He argues that the process has happened too quickly, and without proper consultation.

However, BBC Americas editor Will Grant says it appears that the much of the assembly, and indeed much of Nicaragua, which is estimated to be 85% Roman Catholic, disagrees with him.

Orlando Tardencilla, one of the members of the sub-committee which proposed the bill, said: "Unless abortion is made a crime, then people can simply come out and say: 'I have the right to an abortion, this is my body and I can decide.'

"That's like saying: 'I'm allowed to commit murder because these hands are mine, this gun is mine.'"

But rights group The Women's Autonomous Movement said it would file an injunction if the bill was approved.

"It's not possible that a woman's life be considered secondary," the Associated Press news agency quoted group co-ordinator Azahalea Solis as saying.

Baby-focused vs Woman-focused

When I was teaching the pro-life apologetics class last week I spoke briefly about the two main approaches to pro-life work. Most pro-life work would be what I would call woman focused work. This approach strongly supports crisis pregnancy centres and public education campaigns about the damage that abortion can do to woman (depression, increased risk of breast cancer, etc). A lot of people favour this approach because it is non-confrontational and gentle. The other approach is a more baby focused approach. The baby focused approach seeks to show people what abortion is doing to children. No matter how this is done people get upset. It is, by its nature, confrontational.

A lot of people that are pro-life think that the baby focused approach is inappropriate. I completely disagree. Jesus repeatedly points out sin in very blunt and harsh ways. He is not afraid of offending the sinner. Why are Christians so afraid to do what Jesus did so freely? I think that the reason is that tolerance has become a cardinal virtue of our society. Jesus was intolerant. That is why he was killed. Are you willing to be intolerant?

I think that baby centred approach is the only approach to pro-life activism that stands a chance of making abortion an unthinkable act in our society. If we always focus on how abortion is harmful to woman we are feeding their selfish values. When a woman is faced with a difficult unplanned pregnancy she is very likely to realize that a abortion is easier. Even if there are going to be negative consequences to her abortion, frankly, is the easiest option for most woman. If she has never been shown how horrible abortion is for the baby that is involved, or confronted with the fact that abortion is a sin, she is very unlikely to have a good reason not to have an abortion.

Consider for a moment a parallel situation. Suppose that around the time of slavery in the southern US a group of Christians had got together with the intention of providing alternatives to slavery. They offered small financial incentives to slave owners that would give up their slaves. They would offer to do some of the work themselves. They would point out the fact that the slaves shacks look ugly on the owners property. While these thing might all have been good unless they are willing to also point out the fact the slavery was harmful to the slaves and just plain sinful the owners would be very unlikely to change. A few slave owners may have been convinced by these arguments and incentives but the majority would not have changed because the financial benefits of having slaves was too great. The abolitionists needed to show that slavery was unjust before widespread change could take place. Similarly, pro-life activists need to expose the repugnancy of abortion before people will have a really good reason to give up legal abortion.

A good resource that throughly analyzes these two approaches is "Taking Abortion Seriously: A Philosophical Critique of the New Anti-Abortion Rhetorical Shift." by Francis Beckwith. I strongly encourage anyone involved in pro-life activism to read this article and ponder its implications. Francis Beckwith much more eloquently argues this issue then I am able to. It's well worth the time to read it.

Thoughts on a Recent Comment

I had a comment on my post "Why I am a Pro-Life Activist". I want to share it, and my response, with everyone. It defintely fueled some good thought for me.

I am very torn on the issue of perspective.

On the one-hand you have, as you say, the life an unborn child. On the other hand, you have the woman's freedom to carry or not carry the unborn child.

I think to argue that "life" should be given priority over "freedom" is over-simplistic. For example, thousands are dying in Africa for basic lack of water, food, etc. Should we send America's rich people to prison unless they all of their money to these causes at least until those people are no longer dying? Why is a woman who is impregnated through rape any more responsible for the life of another than, say, a millionaire who gives nothing to help the starving in Africa?

So, I'm on the fence on this one, putting me in an extreme minority of Americans. The one thing that I think pro-life and pro-choice should agree on however is that the number of abortions should be minimized. If pro-lifers want to meet that goal, they ought to spend less time picketing and more time letting young unwed mothers know that, if they have the baby, their needs and the needs of their baby will be adequately met. I'm amazed how the "religious right" cares an awful lot about the lives of babies up until birth, but after that, do not expect any handouts.

Thank you for your feedback on this issue. I'm definitely open to having rational conversations with people about this topic.

I think that the problem with your argument is that there is a difference between neglect causing death and active killing. Our laws acknowledge this as well. With abortion there is someone actively taking the life of another human being. How would you feel about someone arguing that mothers had no responsibility to feed their babies? They could argue that it wasn't their body and therefore they could just be grossly neglectful of their children. Obviously most people would think that this would be insane. Interestingly enough, though, we would convict someone who is grossly neglectful of a dependent and inadvertently cause their death with a different crime then someone that actively does it. I think that abortion is a situation where someone is actively taking the life of another person. While I think that all abortion is wrong, I also think that there are different levels of guilt for those who have abortions based on how much they know of what they are doing and how pressured they are by life situations. In this regard, I don't think that abortion is directly parallel to someone who sneaks up on an unsuspecting child and shoots them in the head. Both kill a child but one assailant is likely more aware of what they are doing.

Personally, I also think that people should be willing to sacrifice their comfortable lifestyles for the sake of those that are starving in other countries. A big part of my blog is trying to encourage people, but especially Christians, to do just that. While I know that you're not a Christian I want to point out that this is what the Bible instructs people to do. Jesus says that we are to love our neighbour as we love ourselves. How are we loving others as we love ourselves if we live in luxury while other are starving? 1 John 3:17 asks, "if anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?". I think that the calling of Christ is to do as much good for others as we possibly can. Out of appreciation for what God has done for me and in recognition that I am no better then anyone else I seek to love others as he loves us.

The more that I think about it the more I realize that neglecting charity is essentially gross neglect causing death. If someone left a child on my doorstep and I left it out in the cold to die this would essentially be no different then refusing to help others across the world. I guess that this situation also comes down to ones level of awareness of their crime although I don't think that is why the crimes are handled differently by the law. I think that the reason that we have laws against the one and not the other is that our laws are set up to protect our society rather then people. This is why we have tax funded social programs, which are basically mandated charity, but we only give a token for international aid. This is why we have minimum wage for our people but our happy inflicting sweat shop labour on other people. In my opinion, this is also why we have legal abortion but illegal homicide of other people.

Why I am a Pro-life Activist

I thought that it wouldn't be a bad idea to do a post on this subject as I had a comment posted asking for a defense of the pro-life position. It makes sense that people would wonder why I would be willing to go out on the street and risk my personal safety and comfort for this position.

What it all boils down to is that the fetus is a human being that deserves the full protection of the law. I do not think that a fetus should have any different status then a newborn. Medical textbooks will even tell you that a fetus is a human being. We know from history that creating two classes of human beings with different levels of protection is a set-up for human rights violations. For example, woman, Jews, blacks and children were all once not considered people and consequently were denied justice. If you consider the situation this way then all reasons in defense of abortion become irrelevant. If your argument can only be applied to a unborn person but not to a newborn then your argument is a based on the premise that the unborn are not people. If this hasn't convinced that your argument is irrelevant then try checking out the Centre for Bioethical Reform's faq page. They do a very good job at logically address different common pro-choice arguments. I'll also answer any questions that you leave as comments or that you email to me.

The reason that I'm willing to do so much for this cause is again because I believe that the unborn are people that deserve a right to life. If we were to regularly kill infants whenever they were inconvenient I would become a part of a movement to protect them. If we regularly subjected people to slavery then I would speak out for them. Basically, I care about justice for all people regardless of their race, age, cognitive ability, gender or social status and I'm willing to put myself on the line to help them. I'm trying to take Jesus' command to love others as you love yourself seriously. If I were being oppressed I would certainly want others to speak up on my behalf. This is enough to motivate me to activism.

"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality."
- Desmond Tutu, activist

The Footage of the Attack!

A short while ago I shared that I had been attacked by a woman while I was protesting abortion. We just got the movie back from the police and we've had it digitized. If you would like to watch it follow this link. Be warned though that there is a reasonable amount of swearing and there is violence so you may not want to watch it if your kids are around.

I was Assaulted!

This last Friday, while I was peacefully protesting near a local abortion clinic, I was attacked. Here is the news story about the event. Please note that the article does seem a little dramatized. It was a pretty crazy thing to have happen but I don't feel that it was really as scary as it is presented. I'm hoping a praying that this event can be used for good through any press coverage that I can get.

The Ironies of Life

While I was shopping yesterday, I saw a bumper sticker on the back of a new SUV that said, "It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish. - Mother Teresa". We don't have a large pro-life population around here so it stood out to me. I wanted to know whose vehical it was and encourage them to keep on fighting. When I mentioned it to Joel, he pointed out the irony in the fact that the money used to buy their vehical could have gone to save the lives of children. As a consequence of the way that they are choosing to live, people are not being helped that otherwise could have been. Potentially, children are dying that could have otherwise been saved.

I think that this illustrates my feelings that the pro-life community should be more holistic in it's approach. Really I think that all Christians, not just the pro-life community, has the responsibility to do as much as it can for those in need. I'm anti-abortion but also anti-war and anti-poverty. How can we really claim to care about life when we're not willing to acknowledge that our own actions, or lack of action, affects the well being of others? Of course we all screw up and hurt others but more specifically I'm thinking about how our use of resources can significantly impact the lives of others. Five dollars can feed a family for a day or buy you a Starbucks coffee or a meal at McDonalds. I struggle with using my time to bring glory to God. I'm much too lazy. There are a lot of good things that I could be doing to help others that I never seem to be able to commit to doing. None of us are perfect but let us not give up seeking to be so.

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Matt 5:48

Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins. James 4:17

Abortion and Euthanasia

I was at an abortion protest at a local university handing out pamphlets and talking with people this morning. As much as I hate that the protests are necessary I love doing them. I feel like I'm doing something that's actually making a difference. I love discussing this issue with people because I know that the only way that we will see abortion end is by changing the hearts and minds of the masses. I hope that the protests that we do can cause a ripple effect and will one day make abortion unthinkable.

The university protests are focused around a number of large signs that contain graphic images of aborted babies that are compared to different past genocides in history. The volunteers hand out pamphlets to those passing by and try to start discussions. I usually ask people that are lingering around what they think about it all. I is a great seed for conversation. The focus of discussion varies from person to person. A lot people don't really like the use of graphic images while others want to hear our response to various pro-choice rhetoric. I just love when I can have rational discussions with people.

One thing that I noticed today was that I had a number of the conversations come around to euthanasia. It was a bit of a new spin on the old argument. I've heard many people say before that we need abortion or else the children will suffer terrible lives. What I haven't heard as much before is people who are willing to acknowledge that a fetus is a human and yet believe that it should still legal to abort it.

One of the signs that we use compares a premature baby at 24 weeks gestation hooked up to life support with an aborted baby also at 24 weeks gestation. I asked one girl that told me that she thought that a woman should have a right to choose what she thought of that particular sign. She said that it didn't bother her. I asked her if I were to kill the live premature baby if that would bother her. She told me that it wouldn't bother her if the child wasn't going to have a good life. I wasn't really expecting that answer. I had a couple other similar discussions where people basically argued that abortion was OK because euthanasia is OK.

The problem with her rational is that you and I don't have the right to decide what a reasonable quality of life is for another person is. If we did then my government might decide that the people in Ethiopia are suffering from so much famine and are taking resource from others who could use them more effectively and so we might as well just go nuke them. Clearly that would be insane but I don't believe that abortion is different. I think that the issue is that most people who would advocate "abortion euthanasia" either don't think that the fetus is as human as them or that the good of abortion would out weigh the fact that someone is dying (ends justify the means argument). I believe that both of these beliefs are flawed. I believe that a fetus is human and therefore no good that could come from killing it is justifiable.

The Real Reasons Behind the Declining Birth Rate

There is an interesting article on World Press Review about how a number of countries are struggling to deal with an aging population and a decreasing birth rate. Their struggle lies in the fact that they can see that as the population ages there will be fewer people in the work force to contribute to the pensions that support the aging. A large part of the problem is that many woman are starting to opt not to marry early and are opting to have fewer children when they do marry. It has only been recently with the advent of birth control and wide spread availability and acceptance of abortion that the desire to not have children has been feasible. Until recently if a woman wanted to marry or have sex she knew that motherhood was almost inevitable.

It doesn't surprise me that the western world is starting to have trouble with this shift in priorities. Of course when woman are faced with whether or not to raise a large family many will choose not to. Motherhood is difficult and independence, money, and success are appealing. I think that God designed woman to be mothers and to stay home and raise them rather then shipping them off to daycare. I recognized that some woman are forced to send their kids to daycare and in that case I don't think that it is wrong but I think that it's less then ideal.

If the countries mentioned in the article were really interested in solving their problems they would quit killing their children before they were born. One statistic that that I saw for the US in 1996 was that one in five pregnancies ends in abortion. In 2001 in Canada approximately one in four pregnancies ended in abortion. As you can see without abortion the birth rate would be significantly higher. As much as making abortion illegal isn't the easiest solution to the problem it is certainly the best solution.

On a final note, please realize that the only reason that I think that abortion should be illegal is because it kills a human being. I'm not anti-abortion because it cause societal problems; I'm not anti-abortion because it increases a woman's chance of breast cancer; I'm not anti-abortion because it screws woman up; I'm anti-abortion because I'm anti-murder.

The Genocide Awareness Project

Yesterday my husband and I were a part of the University of British Columbia's pro-life club's biannual large scale abortion protest. I left the kids with a babysitter, put on my long underwear and joined about 15 other people for four hours of peaceful protesting. What we do in the protest is set up 5 large signs that graphically compare abortion to past genocides in history. Our material all comes from the Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform. You can see their US sister site here. The point that we are trying to make is that abortion takes a human life and our society is currently participating in the largest genocide in known history. We set up the display and then the volunteers distribute pamphlets that more clearly lay out our argument and answer and questions that people might have. I had a lot of good discussions and I probably handed out over 100 pamphlets.

As much as I enjoy protesting abortion (although I'd love to never have to do it again) I also found the experience very frustrating. During our protest we had to deal with a group of counter protesters. They wrote slanderous things about us on the area around the display and did all that they could to block our display with banners. Their goal is to have us banned from the campus completely or to marginalize us to the point that we have no voice. They attempt to silence us by encouraging the university to put restrictions on our club. It is very frustrating to deal with this because I know that the restrictions are unjust. If our club was more powerful and more organized we could have the restrictions overturned. The unfortunate fact is that not very many people are willing to help us. 15 young students don't have a very big voice. It's particularly frustrating because I know that this is the biggest, most important protest in Vancouver and it only occurs twice a year. I itch to have my voice heard, for people to know that babies are dying. I'd love to see the club stand up for it's rights rather then allowing itself to be bullied and repressed.

So where are the rest of you? I'm also a part of a weekly smaller protest. That group only has a pool of about 20 volunteers. Why in a city of 2 million people can we only find a group of 20 people who are willing to take this message to the streets? We're not wing nuts; we're simply try to educate the public about what abortion really is. If you call yourself pro-life I challenge you to evaluate whether you are doing enough to change the situation at hand.

Justice and the Unborn

One thing that annoys me to no end is fact that Christian humanitarian agencies often ignore the plight of the unborn. I care passionately about the poor, exploited and marginalized of the world but I cannot separate the unborn from that class of people. World Vision has a justice arm of their organization that holds the URL "seekjustice.org". Their slogan is "seeking justice for the world's poor and marginalized people". I've searched their site up and down and there is not a word about the unborn. This is supposedly a Christian organization. You can email to complain about this at seekjustice@worldvision.org. This is not the only organization that I've seen like this. I haven't found one organization that is both defending the unborn and helping the poor and oppressed that have survived to birth. I think that the way that the church is largely ignoring this holocaust is causing the unborn to continue to die and will result in God's judgment. Consider the following verse:

I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot! So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I am going to vomit you out of my mouth! Rev 3:15,16 NET

So to turn this more personal, I'm going to ask you what you are doing to help the unborn. If you just hold a pro-life position and do nothing to help the unborn then you are no better then a German during the Jewish holocaust that watched his neighbours being led away to concentration camps and did nothing but remain personally opposed to it.

Is Bush Really Pro-Life?

I'm totally tired of the monopoly that US politics has had in the blog world recently but I thought that I would add my two bits anyways. Sorry if I cause any fellow non-Americans to commit suicide because they have to endure another Bush vs Kerry blog entry. I just couldn't resist.

I'd like to challenge the belief that Bush is actually pro-life. I know that he signed the bill to ban partial birth abortion but he has made no other efforts to protect the unborn. Do you think that perhaps the bill signing was a campaign strategy? Bush also believes that abortion should be legal in cases of rape and incest. That's not pro-life that's confused.

The other thing to consider is that if Bush was truly pro-life, would he be supportive of the war on Iraq? Abortion is wrong because it is the murder of innocent people. War is wrong because it is the murder of innocent people (unless you can conjure up a situation where the innocent weren't being killed alongside the guilty). If you think that the war is justified because of the evil of Iraq then I could argue that it would be right for Iraq to invade the US based on the evil of the genocide of it's unborn children.

I'm not advocating that you vote for Kerry either. I think that if their is no pro-life candidate then a person should spoil their ballot. I can' see any good reason to do the "lesser of two evils" sort of vote. I will not in any way support of candidate that believes that the murder of the innocent is justified.

Hormonal Birth Control Pills Can Cause Early Abortions

My husband and I have been passionate advocates for the unborn for a while. Recently Joel has looked into the issues surrounding oral contraceptives(oc's). We have come to believe that hormonal birth control does in fact cause early abortions. Joel has put together a web page that includes links to some evidence for this claim as well as some commentary on the issue.

As you think about this issue please try to separate what the consequences to you of believing this from whether this is right or wrong. Try to follow the following argument. Assuming life starts at conception and oc's do stop implantation of a fetus at least some of the time then does it not follow that hbc is stopping a life? If it only occurs 1 out of 100 ovulations that means that the odds are that for every 100 ovulations while using oc's a human life is lost. This is not something that I am willing to do. If you or your spouse is currently using oc's I recognize that this is probably hitting a few nerves. This is a very personal decision but is not an issue worth taking lightly. Thanks for hearing me out.

China Still Up to it's Old Tricks

Three young boys in China's southwest Gangxi province on September 14, 2003. (Photo: Peter Parks/AFP-Getty Images)

I was reading some stuff on the net and it looks like China is still one step ahead us in their complete disrespect for human life. I found this article via blogicus on how the Chinese government recently forced an abortion on a pregnant woman. They did this because they wanted to give her the death penalty but their laws prohibit giving the death penalty to pregnant woman. Another article that I came across on world press says that the Chinese government is offering cash incentives for families that have girls. The reason for this is that because of their one child policy (a policy that restricts the number of children people can have) baby girls are more likely to be abandoned, aborted or sold so that the family can have a second try for a boy. Boys are favoured because they can provide financial stability for the family and are thought to carry on the family name better. This devaluation of girls has caused the boy-girl ratio to become disproportionate. While this story doesn't directly show the evil of the Chinese government it does indirectly do this. The cash incentive is only necessary because the years and years of a repressive law is starting to show it's effects. Also, the simply way of curbing the problem would be to remove the policy and let nature takes its course.

I wondered if these articles were worth posting as there is nothing we can do to help this situation (besides praying) but I opted to do so anyways because I thought that it doesn't hurt to point out the affects that a society wide unappreciation for the unborn can have. We need to see that Canada and other western countries never reaches this point. I think that the only reason we haven't is that our governments are not as repressive. I think their society devalues the unborn no more than our does. Let this cause us to shudder.

Practical Ways to Reduce the Abortion Rate

I have a few ideas on this topic. First off, as much as I think that it is unlikely to see and end to legal abortion anytime soon I think that it is still worth doing what we can to see that change. Slavery ended in England through the dedicated work of William Wilberforce. It took 30 years of dedicated political work to see this change. In order to see the laws change in Canada the US or anywhere else the majority of people need to come to the realization that the unborn are precious. Even if I could convince a number of politicians to actively do something as they way things currently are they wouldn't get voted into power.

In order to change the hearts and minds of the people they need to learn the truth. My husband Joel and are regularly part of street demonstrations that display pictures of aborted children. This sound grim and cold but it is surprising how many people will stop and have calm discussions with us. I recently had someone say "I had no idea that that was what a fetus looked like. That should not be legal". I think that is necessary to get the word out about the humanity of the unborn. People are deceived and the truth is what will set them free. We need to take every appropriate opportunity to defend the unborn. If we can change one heart here and another heart there then slowly society as a whole can change. Also, if we change one persons heart then maybe they will think twice if they have an unplanned pregnancy or maybe they will encourage someone else to think twice.

Anther thing that we can do to decrease the current rate of abortion is to support support services for pregnant women. Crisis pregnancy centres and Birth Rights offer women counseling through the decision of what to do with their child and practical support if they decide to carry their child to term and raise it. I've gone through their training and have volunteered for them (not in a counseling role). They emphasize educating the women that come in on what abortion really involves and on their support services. The centres in my area offer free baby clothing or food to anyone that calls them up and asks for it. Supporting pregnancy homes is another support service for women that carry to term. These homes offer a place for women to stay when their home environments are hostile. Unfortunately many of these are closing as more women choose to abort. I suppose though that if Christians were more willing to be hospitable these homes wouldn't be necessary. I guess that that could be another way that Christians could support pregnant women through their pregnancies.

For those in Canada we should lobby our government to quit funding abortion as a medically necessary procedure. Our tax dollars go towards making it very easy for women to kill their children. We can also lobby for more laws to protect women from rape, incest, and other abuse.

I don' think that this list of things that can be done is extensive. Does anybody else have any idea?

Call a spade a spade

I've been causing a ruckus recently over on the gutless pacifist blog. You can view the discussion if you follow the comments link from the post titled "Denying Sinners Communion". It was posted July 24.

Isn't it interesting how so many of the arguments in favour of abortion make excuses for the women. Abortion is murder plain and simple. People need to learn to call it what it is no matter what reason someone might give in it's defense.

The Rights of Children

I had a discussion about the rights of children with a friend. She thought that children (especially young children) didn't have any fundamental rights besides the right to basic things like love, food, warmth, care, etc. I think that they have some right to autonomy as well. By that I mean that to some extent, depending on their age, they have the right to control their lives. As individuals created by God they are not my property to do with as I choose. I think that I have been given the responsibility to raise them to be followers of God and that they are not primarily here for my enjoyment/fulfillment although they do certainly bring me these things. The practical implications of this was that I thought that I couldn't enforce my control on my kids if I was the only one to benefit. When I discussed this with Joel he thought that there could be times when having our kids do something for us would be teaching them to consider others. I guess I'm not too sure where to draw the line though.

All this talk of children's rights made me think about the different views our society has about born and unborn children. Isn't it interesting how our society's views about the rights of children are so confused. Our society gives no rights to the unborn. Once you're born though things get really messy. There is so much confusion over where children stand. Most of society seems to give children way more freedom then I think is reasonable. Children these days seem to run their homes. Parents are reluctant to discipline their children because they think that it violates their rights. It just seems to go over the top. Other people like my friend seem to swing to the other extreme. I think that this is a smaller group though. I guess that it's not really surprising that in a society that as a whole ignores the fundamental rights of the unborn we would also be confused about the what the rights of older children are.