New Brunswick Right to Life
P.O. Box 113, Station A, Fredericton, NB E3B 4Y2
Tel. (506) 459-8990 or toll-free 1-888-796-9600. Fax (506) 454-8093. Email nbrl@nb.sympatico.ca
Office: 562 Brunswick St., Fredericton, NB. Website: www.nbrighttolife.ca
Life for All. Love for All.
June 29, 2006
The Honorable Brad Green, QC
Minister of Health, Province of New Brunswick
PO Box 6000
Fredericton NB E3B 5H1
An Open Letter
Dear Mr. Green:
Please allow me to comment on (1) the open letter to you and the Dr. Georges Dumont Hospital board that appeared recently in some daily papers*; (2) your department’s recent efforts to procure abortion providers.
The outrageous and false accusations the letter levelled against me and my association reveal how the writers play fast and loose with the truth, providing you grounds to dismiss their entire message.
They refer to “threats” against the hospital, suggesting we espouse violence. Nothing is further from the truth. Our history of communicating with government, hospitals and with individuals performing abortions has been marked with unfailing courtesy and respect. This includes my communications with Henry Morgentaler. We know how to disagree civilly with our opponents. Would I could say the same of the two writers.
The disproof of their accusation, moreover, is in the pudding: the Dumont board of trustees can attest to the civil nature of our June 21 presentation and protest at the hospital.
The writers allege we “harass women and their families” outside the Morgentaler facility.
First, our association does not conduct sidewalk activity outside that location. A number of pro-life individuals are sometimes present. Second, for the writers, harassment means any effort by such individuals to peacefully and respectfully speak to someone and offer information or assistance. Meanwhile, when clinic volunteers yell and physically impede such communication - as they do - we know the writers do not call it harassment. Such honesty and rationality!
The writers accuse us of “no compassion” for women. How judgmental and spiteful. Our motto is, “Life for all. Love for all.” Such love especially is for women considering an abortion or those who have had one. A number of our supporters have had abortions. For several years we have conducted a gentle and sensitive outreach, offering non-judgmental counselling to abortion-minded women and healing for those suffering from a past abortion. Our sister agency, the Women’s Care Centre, has served several hundred such women. That’s not compassion?
We care deeply how abortion affects women. But “pro-choice” advocates show themselves indifferent whether abortion is good or bad for a woman. They think whatever is chosen is automatically healthy, no questions asked. Nothing in life is that simple. Meanwhile a mountain of research accumulates, on the devastating effects abortion has on women’s health.
The writers reduce our abortion opposition to “religious beliefs.” How patently untrue. Just look at a pack of cigarettes and read Health Canada’s warning that “Cigarettes hurt babies during pregnancy.” It’s no leap of logic to then say, “Abortion kills babies.” Our opposition is factually and medically based, not just because some of us are religious. The right to life is a civil right. People of any religion or none should oppose killing babies.
A facility like the one the writers work at, set up so that women can, untrammeled, kill their unborn children for any reason or none is more like a pagan temple than a medical clinic. The government is right to shun it.
Long ago Hippocrates decreed that a doctor should not be involved in taking life, whether before birth or at any stage. That ethos guided Western medicine for over two millennia. We strongly urge your government to make it once again a pillar of our province’s health system. Sadly it is not so now. We were disconcerted by your department’s recent efforts to procure two abortionists. The ministry of health should never engineer the death of New Brunswick children.
We also found it troubling that you would withhold the identity of hospitals performing abortions. The taking of human life, and with public funds, is the gravest of matters. Secrecy is unacceptable. The public has a right to know what is happening, how often, and where. The purported rationale of “security concerns” is a red herring. No one is in danger, most definitely not from us. Please reconsider your policy.
We hope you will agree that a pregnancy - a new human life - is not a disease but a gift and responsibility. We look forward to the day when New Brunswick’s policies will fully reflect the time-honored understanding so many generations before us lived out. We in this province very much need to send the message: Every child a welcome child.
With best wishes,
Yours most sincerely,
Peter Ryan
Executive Director
Enc. Women’s Health After Abortion: The Medical and Psychological Evidence
cc: Mr. Adélard Cormier, Chair, Board of Trustees, Dr. Georges-L. Dumont Hospital
* The Daily Gleaner June 23/06, The Telegraph-Journal June 26/06