Exodus 2009 - New Brunswick March For Life

Exodus 2009 - A future without abortion. That was the theme for the New Brunswick March for Life in Fredericton, which commemorated the sad 40th anniversary of abortion in Canada.

New Brunswick was the first province to start organizing its own March for Life, in conjunction with the National March for Life in Ottawa. And, just like the National March in Ottawa, our March too had a record turnout - over 400 people, up from 325 last year. (Not bad for a province of 750,000.) People came from all across the province to speak up for the defenseless unborn babies. This year we even had a handful of opponents showing up to protest our rally - who got the lion share of the media attention right away...

The March opened with a pro-life rally at the New Brunswick Legislature. The Legislature was in session and MLAs from both political parties came down to join us; among them - Minister of Health, Mike Murphy and the leader of the opposition, David Alward. They both spoke about the efforts which the provincial lawmakers make to strengthen children's rights in New Brunswick; including measures to streamline adoption process and the "Safe Heaven Act" which would protect newborn babies.

But there's a lot more to be done. Peter Ryan, the executive director of the New Brunswick Right to Life, talked about massive abuse of the New Brunswick healthcare system by the abortion industry. 370 hospital abortions were performed in the province last year. All of them were classified as medically necessary on paper. But assuming that all 370 of those abortion were truly performed for health reasons, means - there must be something seriously wrong with women's health in New Brunswick. Because there just can't be that many medically necessary abortions in the province with less population than the city of Ottawa.

Baby Taylor was also mentioned. It's been less than two weeks since over 200 New Brunswickers came to mourn the death of an unidentified baby boy that had been found frozen in a snow bank in early April. His tragic fate grabbed the media attention - and people were shocked. But what about all those other unwanted babies? Hundreds of them end up being rejected by their families - not abandoned in the snow, but dismembered and thrown in the trash can. Over 25,000 New Brunswick babies were lost to abortion since it became legal 40 years ago. 8,000 of them - in the Morgentaler's private abortiuary. But the remaining 17,000 - in the public hospitals of the province of New Brunswick. All those lost lives were commemorated with 250 roses - 1 rose representing 100 babies who weren't allowed to see daylight.

Following the rally, we marched down the streets of Fredericton to the Mother And Child Welcome Centre. The very same Welcome Centre which is located right next door to the Morgentaler's abortuary. I noticed a few people observing our prayer circle from the clinic's parking lot. Not sure if those were just by-standers or clinic workers or if some of those who came to counter protest actually followed us. Either way - they're going to see a lot more of us this fall, when Fredericton joins hundreds of other cities across North America in a 40 Days for Life Vigil. Yes, the 40 Days for Life is coming to New Brunswick. And I hope - it's here to stay.

Update: According to The Daily Gleaner, our rally at the Legislature was attended by as many as 17 MLA. That means, 1 in 3 MLAs of New Brunswick doesn't afraid to be openly pro-life. Which is a great news for New Brunswick and a great example for the rest of Canada. Our goal for the coming years should be - 100 MPs attending the National March for Life in Ottawa.