Activities

Club members gave about 25 man/woman-hours of “Choice” Chain and pamphleting, handing out over 2700 pamphlets. They chalked 20 chalkboards for about 20 weeks during the semesters. The club added more than 30 new people to the regular email list, and our president gave four presentations to classes. We held three apologetics workshops which were attended by all active members at one point or another.

Events

Events included two successful open houses with a total of about 30 curious students attending and many good conversations. Over 130 bought tickets for the Gala fundraiser. The club sent a representative to the NCLN (National Campus Life Network) symposium in Toronto. YPY’s annual $1000 bursary was provided to a young mother from Campbell River. The club showed the documentary “It’s a Girl,” which addresses the issue of gendercide.

Online

We also held a blog-writing workshop to equip our members to contribute to the blog. We published 12 (now 13) blog articles since September 2012. The blog received over 5000 views in this time, making for a total of over 28,000 views. 237 facebook users “like” our page and if every one of them posted an article, over 92,000 people could see it.

In conclusion, we’d like to thank everyone who’s contributed to this year’s success, especially the executive members. We would love to have you join YPY in our life-saving efforts. With your help, next year will be even better.

“Choice” Chain is a pro-life activism activity that involves engaging passersby in dialogue while holding photographs that show what abortion does to a baby. I participate in Choice Chain in hopes that fewer abortions will happen as a result. Sometimes people assume that condemning women who have had abortions is the goal, but it’s not at all. Showing the pictures is an effective way to spread the life-saving truth: abortion kills a human being. I’ve seen tons of positive interactions and changed minds; I’ve even met a child who was saved from abortion when his mother saw the signs. But during “Choice” Chain a few weeks ago, it was my turn to learn about abortion.

At first I assumed the man who approached me was being rude. He pointed to the picture of the aborted fetus: “I’ve cut up thousands of those.” But I sensed a sincerity that belied his words. “What do you mean?” I asked. He is a pathologist at Victoria General Hospital. He had indeed cut pieces from thousands of aborted babies for samples. I didn’t ask his name, and I don’t think he would’ve given it. He thought we might be interested to hear what he had to say because we’re not likely to get such information otherwise. He was right. I’ve known for a while that approximately 300 abortions happen every day in Canada but I’d never heard about it firsthand from someone who deals with the aftermath.

“Some are quite a bit older than that” he said, pointing to a sign showing an 8-week old aborted fetus. He had obtained tissue from thousands of dead babies every year, some of which were at least as old as the 2^nd-trimester neonatal preemies that, instead of being aborted, were treated with delicate care. He described gently and carefully obtaining blood from preemies that could just as easily have been aborted, sampled and thrown in the trash. He said “I used to be more on the pro-choice side, but seeing so many of these makes you think about it.” When you take samples from aborted fetuses you can see the body parts. It makes you think twice “when someone drops a jar and the abortion falls on the floor and blood goes everywhere and everybody can see what it is.” [this is a graphic video showing "what it is"]

The grim realities this man described don’t belong to the Kermit Gosnell abortion clinic murder trial, a story that is presently horrifying many on both sides of the issue. They belong to the local hospital. They describe things that happen regularly.

The pathologist thought we’d be interested to know just who gets abortions. Apparently young women roughly 17-20 are most common. Situations surrounding abortion are often complicated, but pro-lifers hold that every innocent death is tragic. So in that sense, the age of the woman doesn’t make a difference. But he went on: Women from about 20 to 35 get relatively few abortions. Instead, the second most common group is women of about 35 and up. That was surprising. He suggested they’d had enough kids and didn’t want larger families, or they didn’t want the higher risk of complications associated with pregnancies near the end of childbearing years.

He really didn’t like how “anybody can get an abortion for any reason” but he didn’t say he was pro-life. He was adamant to discuss it with “ideology aside.” He didn’t get behind religious or other “ideological” oppositions to abortion. Instead he told me that he just wants people to know the truth. I should’ve pointed out that many of us who call ourselves “pro-life” have the same straightforward, untwisted aim.

He said that everyone is sent down to Victoria to get abortions; none are performed up-island. He attributed this to pro-life activism in some communities on Vancouver Island. I’m not sure if that’s common knowledge or not but I hope this is encouraging to those activists. He also noted that whenever a medical study comes out that is not in favour of abortion, even in the interest of the health of the mother, it is shouted down. “Ideology aside” again, he was frustrated that, as a medical person, you can’t even discuss these possibilities.

He thanked us for being out on the street and said that people need to see the pictures. I offered him a business card for “Silent No More,” thinking that their healing mission might help him. He said he didn’t need it – “I’m fine.” Despite his confidence, I think he wished, with some bitterness, that everyone knew what he did for a living. He seemed easygoing, confident and friendly. Looking back now I wonder why he opened our conversation so candidly: “I’ve cut up thousands of those.” What do you say to that? I first thought he was trying to get a rise out of me so I was calm. But maybe outrage would have been better – maybe outrage would have validated his experience. Because abortion is truly outrageous, and this man had seen the results firsthand.

Evan Grae Davis has shot documentaries about human rights abuses from Africa to the Amazon. He didn’t initially set out to make a film about gendercide; he and his crew were travelling throughout India looking to shoot a documentary on human trafficking. “Nothing prepared us for what we discovered,” he says. 

In India, China and many other parts of the world today, girls are killed, aborted and abandoned simply because they are girls. The United Nations estimates as many as 200 million girls are missing in the world today because of this so-called “gendercide”.

Girls who survive infancy are often subject to neglect, and many grow up to face extreme violence and even death at the hands of their own husbands or other family members.

Get informed about this compelling issue and join YPY for the UVic showing of “It’s a Girl” on Wednesday, March 27th in MacLaurin D288. Admission is free.

Facebook Event

http://www.itsagirlmovie.com/

The more I think about this conversation, the more I realize how many people have accepted and even embraced the idea that they are for some reason required to hold the pro-abortion position. Countless men have told me that because they are men they either cannot have an opinion on the issue, or have to support a woman’s choice. Similarly, many women have told me that they must support abortion if they are to fight of gender equality, and many others have offered comparable reasons as to why they are obliged to be pro-choice.

Though you could certainly argue that some of these people are simply making excuses for choosing to adopt the more culturally acceptable stance on abortion, it has become more apparent to me that some people legitimately think that they have no choice but to support abortion. To this I can offer only one response: You do not have to be pro-choice.

Being a man does not mean that you have to forfeit your support of pre-born children. Standing up for women’s rights does not mean that you have to support a woman’s choice to end the life of the child developing in her uterus. And being a doctor or nurse does not mean that you have to turn a blind eye to the most vulnerable in our society. No employer, government, or significant other can force you to support abortion. You do not have to be pro-choice.

- Cam Côté

I recently made the connection that this pragmatic way that the Romans viewed the value of people is very similar to the way in which our society often values people. A child in the womb is considered valuable only if he or she is wanted by his or her parents.

The Romans very often exposed their infants by leaving them outside the city walls if they did not want them, for whatever reason—deformity, poverty, illegitimacy…is this much different from a pro-abortion mentality that ends the life of unwanted children for pragmatic reasons?

I would argue that very few Romans exposed their infants out of hatred for them—it was done rather because they were not needed or wanted for pragmatic reasons.

I acknowledge that mothers do not desire abortion. They do not seek it out of hatred for their child but rather because the circumstances they are in have driven them to believe that abortion is their only option.  Mothers and fathers who are faced with an unplanned pregnancy can face real obstacles such as lack of means, complication of lifestyle, and discomfort—obstacles that our society needs to acknowledge and address.

The motives for infanticide on the part of the Romans and the common motives for abortion today are very similar. I would hope that we have progressed in our understanding of problem solving since then. I would hope that we will see that a society which discards its unwanted members for pragmatic reasons is ultimately a cruel one;  children are valuable because they are children and not because of pragmatic reasons.

Kamilah Thorpe

YPY Club Member

So often we base our value on what other people think of us, and we attempt to draw parallels between what we have done or what we can do and how much we are valued by others. We have been told on countless occasions that nothing comes for free, and that if we are to receive anything, even a kind word or a bouquet of flowers, we must earn it, maybe by “putting out.” Although some may subscribe to this system, those who are a part of Youth Protecting Youth at the University of Victoria do not, and we want you to know it:

Today, YPY club members will be giving out free flowers. We recognize that your value is not dependent on your achievements, and that your dignity does not rest on what you are capable of. You are a valuable, dignified human being, regardless of what we think, regardless of what others think, and to be brutally honest, regardless of what you think. You needn’t do anything to earn our affirmation. We want you to know that you are valuable no matter what.

Sometimes I answer these questions with some explanation about how every day in Canada approximately 266 pre-born children are killed by abortion, and how these pre-born children are genetically unique individuals. Often I’ll include an explanation as to why there is no ethically significant factor that makes a pre-born child any less valuable than a born child, and sometimes I’ll simply say that my taxes pay for abortions, and that because of this I should be doing something every day to save these children.

Although these answers resonate with some people, I have started to respond differently. Now, when people ask why I do “Choice” Chain, I say that I do it because they are valuable, regardless of what I think of them, what they think of themselves or what they are capable of doing. I do it because you are valuable, even if your human rights , which depend on your right to life, are undermined. If I am to stand for anybody’s human rights, then I must stand for everybody’s human rights.

- Cam Côté

This event has been held at UVic before but in a decision last February, the UVic Students’ Society (UVSS) used this as one reason to strip YPY of the public booking privileges that other clubs have. Because of this YPY contacted UVic directly in November, asking the university to recognize the UVSS’ censorship and to facilitate our booking for another “Choice” Chain. 

Because the request was not submitted ten business days prior to the requested event date, the space booking was rejected. Jim Dunsdon, the Vice President of Student Affairs, told us that he wanted to work with us but that we needed to abide by the university’s policy of ten business days. 

Heeding this advice YPY submitted another space booking request approximately two and a half weeks ago, requesting to book space on the UVic quad from 12:30-2:30pm, February 1st. We met with the university, worked out the details and received a letter approving the space booking. At 4:30pm on Jan 31^st, UVic cancelled the event, claiming ignorance of the UVSS’ February decision mentioned above that revoked YPY public booking privileges and ordered that no “’Choice’ Chain or similar events” be held. Deferring to the Students’ Society, the university said it needs to review the appropriateness of the UVSS’ restrictions on YPY’s activities. 

Over the course of the protracted campaign of censorship launched against pro-life students at UVic by the Students’ Society, the university has kept its distance, repeatedly claiming that the UVSS is a separate entity and that the university does not have jurisdiction to intervene. Yesterday’s cancellation contradicts this position and disregards one of UVic’s stated fundamental values: “freedom of speech and freedom of inquiry.[1]”

 This cancellation is an infringement on our freedom of speech and expression guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms;[2] to which the University of Victoria is bound, insofar as it restricts those freedoms, as an institution funded by the Government of Canada.

Pe-born children have been paying the price for this supposed fundamental human right. According to Statistics Canada and the Canadian Institute for Health Information, at least 2,263,482 pre-born babies have paid for our “right to choose” with their lives since the Morgentaler decision. Many more deaths are unaccounted for, due to lack of reporting. Because of their age and level of development, they don’t have a voice of their own, and their silent screams have gone unheeded; the horrific images of their broken bodies are their last cry for us to stop paying the bills with their lives. But even with all of their blood, there have been expenses yet unpaid, and others have been forced to cover the costs that remain.

Next on the list of people who have paid for the consequences of this court decision are the women and men who have been affected by abortion. Though organizations such as Silent No More Awareness Campaign have been established to support those who now regret their abortions, countless women and men have been forced to silently endure the pain of realizing what abortion meant for their pre-born child.

Lastly, we as taxpayers have by and large been the ones to front the money for abortions in our respective provinces. With the exception of Prince Edward Island, where abortions are not performed, Canada’s provincial governments pay for abortions with taxpayers’ money, and it is conservatively estimated that $80 million is spent each year to pay for the one hundred thousand or so abortions that are performed nation-wide annually.

Bearing these things in mind, let us critically consider whether or not the purchase has been worth its price, because the cost will keep rising unless we change things, and we know who will have to keep paying the tab.

 Over 25 students ended up coming to the open house, and many of them got a chance to talk with one of the many club members while they ate, before signing up for our email list and heading on their way with a couple of our pamphlets. This event was an incredible success, and I’d like to thank everyone who helped out!

So now what? Well, building on this turnout, we’ll be having our first full club meeting of the semester on Wednesday, January 23^rd from 5:30-6:30pm, and you can look for a email about location as soon as we have a room booked! We’ll be doing a short presentation on what the pro-life message is and what our mission is as a club on the UVic campus. Though we won’t be doing a full dinner, we’ll provide a bunch of snacks and there will be lots of time for discussion. We’ll end by talking about some of the exciting plans that we have for this coming semester and how you can get involved with our life-saving work.

 If you have any questions, or if you weren’t able to make it to the open house but would like to join our email list, just shoot us a quick message at youthprotectingyouth@gmail.com and you’ll be added so fast it’ll make your head spin. Thanks again to those who helped out, and we look forward to seeing you out on Wednesday!