‘The baby is gone’: Mary Wagner shares stories from the front line

There were over 90,000 abortions performed in Canada in 2017. That was also the seventh year Catholic pro-life activist Mary Wagner spent time in jail for trying to do something about Canada’s abortion crisis.

“There is such pain in our country and our culture and in our churches, which is maybe part of the reason we don’t hear this topic discussed much, because it is so painful and there is so much there that we don’t know how to bring it up,” Wagner told a crowd at St. Luke’s Parish in Maple Ridge Nov. 8.

Wagner said whenever she is arrested, “there is an element of protest, but it is very implicit. It is really a desire to meet Jesus in that mother and child and stay with him.”

Wagner has earned an international reputation for her activism. In 2012, she received a Queen’s Diamond Jubilee medal from the Governor-General. The award was given to Canadians who had made significant contributions or achievements. 

Former Saskatchewan MP Maurice Vellacott, who nominated Wagner for the award, said at the time, “Like Martin Luther King and other human rights reformers, Mary is using civil disobedience to further a just cause.”

The B.C. native also has support from pro-lifers across Canada and from as far away as Poland.

At St. Luke’s, Wagner candidly spoke of the wins and losses she has experienced, including the babies she has been involved with saving. It was about 20 years ago that her calling became clear to her after meeting a pregnant teenager on the steps of Holy Rosary Cathedral in Vancouver.

“It was just after I had spiritual direction and was invited to put it all in God’s hands,” she told the audience.

While speaking with the girl, Wagner learned she was schedule to have an abortion the next day at the urging of her mother.

“Her mother had said to her, ‘Do this because it was the best thing that I did when I was in that situation.’”

Wagner was unable to remain with the girl, whom she encounter a couple of weeks later. “[She was] looking very sick. When I approached her, she just said, ‘The baby is gone and I don’t want to talk to you.’”

Wagner had a very different experience in 2016 while speaking with a woman she and a friend met outside a Brampton, Ont., abortion clinic.

“When I met her, she continued to go to the door and press the buzzer [of the abortion clinic].” A staff member answered and said the clinic was closed but offered to schedule an appointment.

“As she was booking the appointment, giving her name and phone number, I was speaking to her quietly and showing pictures of the baby developing in the womb,” Wagner said.

“She didn’t make eye contact with me. She finished and I walked out with her, asking her what she was going to do now, and did she know there was support.”

The woman looked at her and Wagner’s friend, and then “fell into her arms and said ‘I am keeping the baby. That’s it.’”

They took the woman to a class she needed to attend, then called the Sisters of Life, who met the mother-to-be after school and took her to a doctor’s appointment.

“Every step of the way, there was that presence there, that accompaniment,” said Wagner. “Her baby boy was born on the Feast of the Lady of Mount Carmel.”

Wagner has found support along her journey inside and outside of jail. 

“There was one officer who expressed to me that she supported what I was trying to do.” Another time, during a court appearance, she received a sticky note through her court-appointed counsel.

“Written on it was ‘You’re doing God’s work.’” It was from the court clerk.

Even some of the police officers called out to remove her from abortion premises are reluctant, Wagner said.

She said the first time she was arrested in Toronto, the arresting officers were Catholic. “They did not want to arrest me, so they tried everything to take me away. They drove me across town to a Catholic church and dropped me off.” Wagner called a friend, who picked her up and took her back to the clinic.

“The reality is that there is going to be a confrontation. That is just part of normal Christian life. It may not be as dramatic for a lot of people. Maybe in your job or your family. There will be confrontation.”

She told the audience the Church’s response to post-abortive parents needs to be one of compassion. “It’s seeking their healing. It’s not one of seeking justice or punishment.”

Wagner is hoping she’ll be able to spend her second Christmas outside of jail in eight years, but she knows she will again answer God’s call.

“Anyone can be pro-life. That means anyone can have a desire to see justice done for the little ones or justice for anyone. But if we are Catholic or if we are Christian, we know that we have this great treasure. This treasure takes us beyond the thirst for justice,” she said. “We are called to give and not to count the cost.”

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