Focus on Life reveals pair of projects to reach out to teenagers and pregnant women in crisis
The B.C. Catholic
A media group in the business of pregnancy support and education is launching a pair of new initiatives.
“At Focus on Life, we do two things: we help women in crisis pregnancy situations on one side of the spectrum, and on the other, we help to shape the hearts and minds of young people today, in the hopes they will never find themselves in a situation like that,” said executive director Carrie Davidson.
“Our schools are going to change. Our communities are going to change.”
Davidson unveiled details about two new projects at the 18th annual Focus on Life Gala in Vancouver May 16. The event, held at the Italian Cultural Centre, raised $86,400 to support the projects.
The first, called Your Pregnancy and Informed Consent, is a video aimed at giving compassionate, unbiased information to pregnant women in crisis. It features doctors including Williard Johnston as it presents three options: parenting, adoption, and abortion.
Davidson said it has been reviewed by 45 specialized doctors and will be available soon at 85 pregnancy centres for women to view and take home on a USB.
“Being alone and not well informed in a crisis pregnancy situation leaves women vulnerable in one of the most difficult decisions of their lives.”
Davidson told the story of a 22-year-old woman in London, Ont., who was one year away from graduating with an engineering degree and early in a relationship with her boyfriend when she found out she was pregnant.
She never considered abortion until she left the hospital. Fear began eroding her resolve, and her boyfriend was apathetic and unsupportive. She began believing abortion “would cause her to go almost in reverse, as if the whole thing had never happened.”
But after the procedure, she was filled with torment, regret, and longing.
“This is my story,” Davidson revealed to the crowd of about 430 supporters, holding back tears. She wished she had been more informed when she made that decision 16 years ago. “I know the difference it would have made for me.”
The other new initiative is The Value Project, which tries to help teens spread messages of love and purpose at their high schools.
“There is a value crisis going on deep within their hearts. Many of them don’t know their own value and worth, let alone that of an unborn child,” Davidson said.
Signal Hill, a member of Focus on Life, gives life-affirming presentations to about 10,000 students every year. This new project would continue that work by helping students put on a five-day program with eye-catching displays and social media interaction.
Ryan Bomberger, the keynote speaker, also testified to the value of life; he was conceived in rape and adopted as a six-week-old infant.
His adoptive parents had three children of their own, then adopted 10 more with a variety of ethnicities, ages, and abilities. Local newspapers printed headlines: “‘Unwanted children’ find they are wanted.”
“My parents defied this myth which is the DNA of the abortion industry: unintended equals unwanted equals unloved. We were not unwanted,” he said.
Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB, pointed out similarities between abortion and the current hot topic of assisted suicide.
“Victims of this throwaway culture are the weakest and the most fragile: the unborn, the handicapped, the elderly, and now, the terminally ill and dying,” he said.
Legalizing assisted suicide “will contribute to how people think about the value of their own lives and the lives of others, and questions which should not be raised will be raised: ‘When I’m old, am I useless? Will my family be better off without me?'”
“All life is precious, beautiful, and sacred,” he said. “Who the heck are we to begin to introduce distinctions and decide what life is worth living?”
Focus on Life is built on a partnership between Signal Hill, the Archdiocese of Vancouver, and the Christian Advocacy Society of Vancouver.
