December 22, 2023
Dear Maureen, I’m Pete Baklinski and this is your Canadian Pro-Life News Bits where I let you know what’s happening on our country’s pro-life and pro-family front.
Please accept my apology for not sending the News Bits last week. I was sick in bed with a terrible cold, but I’m now on the mend and doing much better. This will be the last News Bits of the year. The next will come out on January 5th.
CLC put out a press release raising concern about the Vatican’s problematic declaration on giving a blessing to same-sex couples. We’re asking our country’s bishops to join bishops from around the world who, in response to this document and to avoid creating confusion among the faithful, have forbidden blessings for same-sex couples.
My colleague Josie Luetke has penned an important piece in the wake of her visit to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights where she points out the irony of the museum advocating “human rights for all”…except preborn humans.
You won’t want to miss CLC’s recently published submission to the UN’s Economic and Social Council in advance of next year’s annual Commission on the Status of Women. Our team worked hard crafting this statement. It has some hard-hitting lines such as: “The solution to poverty is not to kill the pre-born child growing in his or her mother’s womb, but rather working to eliminate the root causes of her poverty.” Yeah, truth bomb!
I was saddened but unsurprised to see Pierre Poilievre’s wife Anaida telling media that they are in favour of abortion, saying that she and her husband are “pro-choice.” When Poilievre first entered into politics, he earned a green-light rating from CLC for his pro-life position, a position that he abandoned when he deemed it politically expedient to do so. For all of Poilievre’s great qualities, he has absolutely betrayed the preborn targeted for abortion by his flip-flop. Poilievre is no different than Trudeau in this regard since they both support the killing of preborn children – the future of our nation. If Poilievre can flip-flop on this most fundamental of issues, what other important issues is he capable of flip-flopping on when it becomes politically expedient to do so?
My good friend Patrick Craine, who is currently a PhD candidate, has published a must-read piece in the peer-reviewed Canadian Journal of Bioethics on the problematic expansion of assisted suicide (MAiD) to the mentally ill. Patrick makes the case that there is a clear ethical and legal necessity to oppose extending MAID to those with mental illness based on the original parameters set up within the Canadian regime.
Top Canadian pro-life stories you need to know about
Campaign Life Coalition: Press release: CLC Alarmed about Novel Vatican Declaration on Blessings of Same-Sex Couples
“In response to the Vatican Declaration ‘Fiducia Supplicans – On the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings,’ Campaign Life Coalition (CLC) is deeply concerned that efforts to restore a traditional understanding of marriage and family will be further undermined.”
Campaign Life Coalition: Biblical Sexuality Sunday 2024
“Biblical Sexuality Sunday is January 14, 2024. We are asking every faithful pastor to bring a message or read a statement upholding God's design for human sexuality in the face of Bill C-4.”
Campaign Life Coalition: Menstrual products for boys?
“Many of you may never have heard the phrase "people who menstruate" before, but it is increasingly being used to deconstruct a basic biological truth that all rational people implicitly understand: only females menstruate.”
Campaign Life Coalition: The irony of Canada’s human rights museum when it comes to abortion
“The Canadian Museum for Human Rights brands itself as ‘the only Museum entirely devoted to human rights for all.’ For all… really?”
United Nations Economic and Social Council: Campaign Life Coalition calls for abortion-free maternity care
“We call upon Member States to enact effective, comprehensive social protection programs that meet the needs of mothers without eliminating maternity.”
LifeSiteNews: Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre’s wife doubles down on couple’s pro-abortion ‘values’
“While Pierre Poilievre continues to surge in the polls, his wife's recent statement reminds social conservatives that he fails to differ from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberals on the issue of abortion.”
LifeSiteNews: Pierre Poilievre again defends parental rights without condemning LGBT agenda
“Pierre Poilievre's moderate support of parental rights again comes without a condemnation of the LGBT agenda, and just days after his wife told Canadians that he supports killing unborn children through abortion.”
LifeSiteNews: Statistics Canada admits to not identifying euthanasia as cause of death in official reports
“Statistics Canada has admitted to excluding euthanasia from deaths totals, despite being the sixth highest cause of mortality in the nation.”
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition: Victoria BC woman dies by euthanasia after waiting 10 weeks for a cancer treatment assessment
“A Victoria BC woman decided to die by euthanasia (MAiD) because she was forced to wait 10 weeks, just to see an oncologist for her aggressive cancer.”
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition: Canada's government may pause the implementation of euthanasia for mental illness
"Stephanie Taylor reported for the Canadian Press on December 15 that Canada may once again pause the expansion of euthanasia to people with mental illness alone."
“If the Progressive Conservatives under Higgs win on a platform that prominently champions parental rights and pushes back against modern gender theory, it could benefit parental rights in other provinces. If, however, they lose an election that is seen as a referendum on modern gender theory, then we may go back into an era where provincial governments of all stripes are unwilling to touch this issue.”
“Canadian women are expressing outrage after a trans-identified male who campaigned to defund a rape crisis shelter was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal from the Governor General of Canada. Morgane Oger, a trans activist from Vancouver, was honored at a ceremony in Ottawa last week.”
Canadian Journal of Bioethics: Questioning the Ethics of Assisted Dying for the Mentally Ill
“[A]ccess to MAID on grounds of mental illness will have a devastating impact on care and support of the mentally ill, including psychiatric care, suicide prevention, and social/structural supports.”
CLC podcasts
Focused on Life Podcast: Episode 10: Remembering Pro-Life Giants with Special Guest Jim Hughes
“On this last episode of 2023, we have the privilege of chatting with the one and only, ‘pope of the Canadian pro-life movement’, Jim Hughes. Sit back and enjoy. Jim’s stories of times past never disappoint. – Matt.” Find and listen to all episodes here.
Womb with a View: Episode 5: What Goes On At The United Nations?
“This week, we discuss various UN conferences and commissions that we've attended in the past year and what goes on within the four walls of the UN headquarters.”
Inspiring stories to give you hope
Western Standard: BY THE GRACE OF GOD: Baby swept away by Tennessee tornado found alive in a tree
“A family has been reunited in Clarksville Tennessee after a tornado swept away a four-month-old infant, who was later found alive ‘by the grace of God’ in a tree.”
LifeNews: “Miracle” Mom Wakes Up From Coma After 5 Years When She Laughs at a Joke
“People can be very quick to dismiss patients in comas. They call them ‘vegetables’ or say they’re incompatible with life. Even worse, some people advocate for euthanasia – claiming the patient is too far gone or would have a poor quality of life. Thankfully, Jennifer Flewellen’s family didn’t give up on her.”
LifeNews: Pro-Life Pharmacist Refuses to Fill Prescription for Abortion-Causing Drug
“Minnesota pharmacist George Badeaux was sued because of his conscientious objection to dispensing a drug that can cause an abortion, an action that violates his religious beliefs.”
Live Action: Father credits God with helping him to save premature son born in his car
“The quick thinking of his father Keith and the knowledge of these life-saving techniques saved Braxton’s life, even at two months premature. ‘I prayed to God,’ Kettels said. ‘Thank you for taking my hands and going to work.’”
Awesome pro-life social media posts this week
Stand True
Abby Johnson
Students for Life
Must-see video of the week
Window To The Womb is a groundbreaking, interactive web experience that gives a stunning look at the beauty of life in the womb through every single day of pregnancy. Reviewed and certified by medical experts, this medically accurate, life-like animation depicts each stage of fetal development - from fertilization to birth.
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Maureen, one night while my wife and I were sleeping, our youngest daughter decided to climb into bed with us, probably to escape a bad dream that she sometimes has. She snuggled deep into the blankets and quickly drifted off to sleep. In the morning, my wife and I awoke and, still lying in bed, began quietly talking about how life was going in our family. We talked about our new baby who will be born in April, making us a family of eleven.
We thought our four-year-old daughter was still fast asleep. Her eyes were closed and she was breathing deeply. But, as we were talking, her hand suddenly darted up from under the blankets and she started rubbing my wife’s pregnant belly. And, she kept this up for some time.
When I asked my daughter what she was doing, she whispered, her eyes still closed, “I’m saying ‘good morning’ to the baby.”
My heart just melted. “Out of the mouth of babes,” I thought. Here was a four-year-old who understood just what was inside my wife’s belly. There wasn’t a parasite, a product of conception, or an intruder, but a human person who merited a loving ‘good morning’ being conveyed to them.
It was so endearing to see this. My wife was also basking in this simple but profound gesture of love from our littlest one.
“Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Children can easily accept the miracle of life in the womb. It takes an adult bogged down by sin and living in darkness to disregard and dehumanize this precious life.
Christmas is a time of renewal where the God-man who has come “to make all things new” can change hardened hearts, restore lost innocence, and increase in all of us a child-like faith. If Christ in the womb has the power to sanctify the preborn John the Baptist, making him leap for joy, then He has the power, as a little child yet to be born, to do anything, including preserving and protecting all human life from the evils of abortion and euthanasia. With His help and in His time, this will one day come to pass.
Let us gaze upon the Christ-child in the crèche this Christmas Eve, thanking God for the gifts of faith, hope, and love, and most importantly, for the gift of Himself.
Be bold and daring for life!