International Day of the Unborn

I am proud to come from a place where life, all life, is sacred. Traditionally, when you went hunting, if you caught something, it's because the animal let itself be caught so you could continue to live. You didn't waste any parts of the animal and you made sure to thank its spirit for the gift of life. This mentality still exists, despite most people being christian today.

Children are still a gift to these people. When I was pregnant with my fifth child, and a little discouraged, because I hadn't really planned on having a fifth child, it was people from Moose Factory who asked me "but why aren't you happy?" One of them pointed out to me that by having five children myself, I was in fact honouring my mother, who had had five children herself.

Very few people have abortions where I come from. In fact, although I know a lot of people who have gotten pregnant at times the rest of Canadian society would consider impractical and even impossible, I don't personally know of anyone from there who had an abortion. These people support each other. Children are welcomed, no matter what. You're still in high school? There are any number of aunts, grandmas or mothers to babysit and if that doesn't work out, there's a daycare at the highschool. Not married? Noone really cares about that. Single? Like I said, there's such a network of support that it doesn't really matter.

I think, except for a few blathering idiots I've accidentally come across who scorn children and seem to have forgotten that EVERYONE (including themselves) goes through the zigot, embryo, foetus, bawling baby, terrible two, and rebellious teenager stages, we can all agree that abortion is a sad thing (maybe even a terrible thing) and that there are too many of them. We might not agree on whether or not abortion is a mother's right or whether or not the unborn child has a right to life, but I think we can all agree that abortion is NOT a happy occasion, and that most women would not want to have to make that decision.

So what are we doing then, to ensure that women who DON'T want to have to choose between their own quality of life and the life of their child don't have to? Do we just offer abortion, call it the last resort solution and then leave women to choose without giving them any other viable solution? Do we offer unconditional support to pregnant women, or do we oggle them and talk behind their backs because they're single, or poor, commited adultery or already have "too many children"? If a woman wants to continue her education, does she have easy acces to cheap daycare? If she's a career woman, are there laws in place to ensure that her career doesn't have to get in the way of her being a mother and vice-versa? Will she be penalized in the work place because she needs time and more flexibility to be with her children? Do we tell them that children are a gift or that children are a burden? Do we tell them that they can't possibly handle a child if they don't have the perfect circumstances, or do we tell them that they are heroes who are capable of anything if they put their minds to it? Do we tell them they already have too many children, or do we rejoice with them for this new gift? And my personal pet peeve, do we offer family deals for a family of four or do we offer family deals for an UNLIMITED number of children? Take it from me, large families need a break.

While most countries have some kind of abortion law, limiting the time in which a woman can have an abortion, ever since the abortion law was struck down in Canada, there no longer is any law nor limit on abortion. It is legal in Canada for a nine-month pregnant woman to have an abortion. That is ridiculous, since, with technology today, a 22 week old baby can survive outside of the mother's womb. Now there's an issue I think most of us can also agree needs to be addressed.

Now for a few links:

Refuse to choose -- Feminists for Life
Canada without Abortion, by Choice -- Pro-woman, Pro-life
A nontheistic and nonreligious opposition to the life-denying horror of abortion -- Atheist and Agnostic Pro-Life League