OTTAWA, Ontario (LifeSiteNews) — Every year, the energy behind Canada’s March for Life is Canadian youth, who come from across the country to defend the unborn.
This year was no different. On Thursday, May 9, thousands of Canadians gathered in the nation’s capital in defense of unborn life and to voice their opposition to the deadly practice of abortion.
On Friday, the youth engaged in a different kind of pro-life activism through Campaign Life Coalition’s (CLC) Youth Summit.
At the summit, around 300 young Canadian youth met pro-life activists from around the world, including former Planned Parenthood director turned pro-life advocate Abby Johnson.
Youth also heard from Abby the evening before, at the Rose Dinner. During her opening speech, she explained that rebuilding a pro-life society isn’t necessarily about changing the laws, but about changing hearts and minds through prayer and activism.
In Canada, it’s easy to look at the United States’ victorious overturning of Roe vs. Wade and despair of ever establishing pro-life laws in our country. Indeed, Canada is one of the few countries not to have an abortion law at all, instead allowing abortion through all nine months of pregnancy for any reason.
However, as Abby explained, pro-life activism which aims to change minds and hearts is how Canada will become a pro-life country.
Indeed, it was prayer and kindness which led to Abby’s conversion. After witnessing the abortion of a 13-week-old fetus on an ultrasound, Abby turned to the nearby office of the Coalition for Life, telling its director Shawn Carney that she could no longer work in the abortion industry.
It wasn’t political slogans or new legislation which had changed Abby’s heart. It was seeing the reality of abortion and the witness of those who came each day to pray for its end outside the Planned Parenthood clinic where she worked.
In Canada, a similar miracle took place. CLC Atlantic Coordinator Ruth Robert revealed that Clinic 554, a private abortion mill in Fredericton, New Brunswick, closed its doors this February after a long battle with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s federal government.
Indeed, as Shawn Carney explained, the beauty of Canada’s pro-life movement is that we know that we are too small to make a difference on our own and every pro-life victory is a miracle from God.
Abby encouraged Canada’s youth to be bold in their pro-life ministry, reminding them that they are doing God’s work by defending the unborn.
“I don’t really care about being on the right side of history,” Abby declared. “I care about being on the right side of the future. And that future is Jesus.”