From the LifeLines Summer edition. By Tom Bartlett, president Halton Pro-Life

Having provided counselling for many families and children who have experienced severe abuse and/or domestic violence, I have often been asked about how I can deal with such sad and difficult situations on a daily basis. I’ve always held to the fact that ignorance of a problem won’t make it go away. Instead I’d rather be part of the solution. Furthermore, I believe the objective should always be not just to survive, but to thrive.

This also sums up my view on the pro-life issue. Looking unflinchingly at the reasons that drive many women to consider and/or abort their child is disturbing. I know that desperation and isolation drive many women and while many stories may have commonalities, the consequences are unique to each woman. I’ve seen how the Planned Parenthood approach both helps to create the situation and promote destructive solutions as facile and inconsequential. Several years back, P.P. launched an unsuccessful fundraiser selling t-shirts carrying the message “I had an abortion.” This reveals both their warped mentality and lack of insight into the women they claim to help. In most cases, women come to a decision to abort like a trapped bear that chews off its leg to extricate itself. Women need to know how to avoid the trap altogether, not be sold on the joys of living life with one leg.

Planned Parenthood’s push to lower sexual and relationship standards has belied their claimed desire to reduce the spread of STDs and unwanted pregnancies. While insisting to have great concern for women’s plights, P.P. has done all they can to leave women vulnerable and susceptible to pressure to face abortions. Not only do they not direct women to maternity homes, but they have routinely pushed to end or block funding. Deliberately lying about in vitro development paired with not showing ultrasound images has been a long-standing tactic of this organization.

What is arguably the most compelling evidence that Planned Parenthood is lying in their feigned support for women’s choice is their unrelenting opposition to informed consent. This despite the Environics polls (on behalf of LifeCanada) consistently showing that 70 per cent of women and men support informed consent legislation.

A larger rhetorical question should be - why is there not virtually 100 per cent support. After all, who could possibly desire that a woman not be told of the major abortion-related health and psychological risks? A short list includes greatly elevated risks of breast and rectal cancer, depression, suicide, substance abuse, uterine perforations, endometriosis, subsequent premature pregnancies (causing higher rates of miscarriage, cerebral palsy, ectopic pregnancies, etc.) and greater incidence of sterility.

We can project that opponents include abortion providers (who are fully aware of the risks), and doubtless men wanting to remove any reservations from the partners they are willing to endanger in order to avoid being a parent. Sadly too, I don’t doubt some post-abortive women believe that hiding the devastating reality of abortion, in the hop of silencing the truth, will make it easier to deal with their own feelings of guilt and regret. As I’ve alluded to, feeling to face reality doesn’t make the problem disappear.

The stakes are high especially with P.P.s opposition to the companion issue of parental consent. This allows them to exploit vulnerable teens by denying them both information and support. It is time to stop the lies and this is the best course for personal and national healing and will counter the self-serving interests of the abortion industry.