New Brunswick is at a crossroads. The people of this province must decide whether or not we will embrace the practice of killing our unwanted young before birth. By "embrace" I mean not just tolerating the practice but actively supporting it through our institutions and government, including paying for it through our tax dollars.

The question of destroying innocent human life has been a primordial test for humanity since the dawn of history. Thus in Gn 9 we read how God warns Noah, his sons and descendants not to shed human blood, "for in the image of God has man been made."

Historians tell us the ancient Jews stood apart from surrounding cultures by their refusal to sacrifice innocent life by such practices as abortion or infanticide. So too Christians from earliest times were set apart by their reverence toward human life and caring for the unwanted others had abandoned.

While the Judeo-Christian tradition has had its ethical failures, the concept of the inalienable dignity of every human life is one of its enduring hallmarks. That tradition shaped the whole of Western culture through the last two millennia. It has long underpinned our New Brunswick way of life.

The deep-down reason why New Brunswick has resisted pressure to publicly fund abortion on demand at private clinics is because killing our unwanted unborn has never really caught on here. Respect for life is in our bones. There’s something about what people like Henry Morgentaler are into that instinctively repels us. We know it’s very, very wrong.

But those who have no scruples about taking unborn life are out to change us. Abortion advocates believe New Brunswickers are stuck in the past, that we must be forced into modern ways. Under the guise of euphemisms like "choice" and "women’s rights" their cause has acquired a beguiling political correctness that easily intimidates some of us. So while prenatal murder - for once, let’s call it by its real name - is promoted all around us, many of us hesitate to let anyone know we are (shh!) pro-life. No one likes to be thought of as, well, not-with-it or some sort of religious nut.

Meanwhile, two developments in recent months have thrust the abortion issue upon New Brunswickers on two fronts. As a result, no place in Canada is the issue so lively - or should I say, deadly - as in this province (see "Abortion’s Hot Season" article). I submit that how we as a people respond to the issue will effectively determine whether we "choose life or death" for us and our descendants (see biblical quote above). Around us a culture of death runs strong: in Canada as a whole, one unborn child is aborted for every three born; almost all are killed with public funds. Will we go the same way?

One development that has repeatedly captured our attention is the ongoing campaign to force our province to fund child-killing on demand at Henry Morgentaler’s private abortuary in Fredericton. Our provincial government has steadfastly resisted such pressure, and this is not expected to change over the newly elected administration of Shawn Graham. But the pro-Morgentaler envelope is being pushed on two fronts.

One is by the man himself: his lawsuit against the Province, arguing (primarily) that NB’s policy violates the Charter of Rights. Now the idea that a woman has some sort of constitutional right to kill her unborn child whenever she wishes is not only morally reprehensible but legally dubious. But who’s to say what some court might rule?

The other front is the action of the federal government. The previous government in Ottawa argued NB’s policy violates the Canada Health Act, which requires all "medically necessary" services to be publicly funded. Now the idea that not funding abortion on demand - where there’s no proof whatever of medical necessity - at private clinics outside the Medicare system somehow contravenes Medicare seems bizarre. But what is just as bizarre is that the present federal government - on record as saying it will avoid taking a stand on abortion - has adopted its predecessor’s position - one that more reflects pro-abortion ideology than either common or legal sense. So they are pressing an arbitration panel to force NB to pay for Morgentaler abortions (see article "Federal Health Minister Says ...").

The prospect that New Brunswick taxpayers might soon be forced to pay for the unrestricted killing of our province’s children before birth at what I call a temple of death (others call it an "abortion clinic") is worrisome enough. If we fund the murder of innocents, the blood taints all of us, we are all dragged into the culture of death.

But we have faced a second major development as well: the tremendous pressure to expand abortion "access" in NB hospitals. At the end of June the Chalmers Hospital in Fredericton, which performed 400 of the 404 hospital abortions in the province in 2005, stopped ending the lives of unborn children. If only the story ended there, what a great victory for this province’s children! No more de facto abortion on demand, fraudulently billed to Medicare under the guise of "medical necessity."

But no, abortion advocates and their sympathizers pressed their demands. And the then Minister of Health - who should be guardian of the ancient and noble Hippocratic tradition whereby medicine is never involved in the taking of life - obliged by arranging for abortion "services" at two other hospitals. Why is it so hard for our government to simply choose life?

The two aforementioned hospitals are both located in the Acadian region, with its rich Catholic heritage. Abortions are virtually unknown at these hospitals - one whose former name was "House of God"!- in the past. What a corruption of a beautiful pro-life cultural heritage is now set to unfold.

The question is, what will New Brunswickers do in the face of these developments? What we who know better do, we who know life is a sacred gift from God, we who know the preciousness of a child’s life, we who know that killing a child because he or she is unwanted mocks our Creator and is an abomination in His sight? Will we remain bystanders, shrugging our shoulders as if there is nothing we can do? Will we watch passively as our special part of God’s creation joins the culture of death so prevalent in our world?

Or will we resist? Will we dig deep and fight? Because if the lives of innocent children are not worth fighting for, what is worth fighting for?

There are many peaceful means open to citizens for influencing the course of events around them. Starting with prayer! Are we praying - and praying hard - for the respect of life, for our province to choose life? There are many other things citizens can do to influence politicians (federal and provincial), hospitals, the media in a pro-life direction. We can also assist pro-life groups and services who, usually on meagre budgets, educate young people on abortion and assist pregnant mothers. There are things we can do among our own families and friends to pass on our pro-life values.

This we must believe: through us, and people like us, New Brunswick can yet choose life! But if we do not fight for this choice, there is every danger the opposite choice will be made for us. Will the New Brunswickers of tomorrow kill their young just as others do? How we act - or do not - now will affect the answer to that question. Your choice, New Brunswick: life or death?

As Deuteronomy 30:19 reveals, one choice is a "blessing", the other "a curse". Which will we leave our descendants?