Campaign Life, the national political arm of the prolife movement, is the sole organizer
By Deborah Gyapong
OTTAWA (CCN)
Pro-life groups have often fought over tactics, but this year Campaign Life Coalition is welcoming every organization fighting for the unborn to the National March for Life, May 12.
“We’ve done something very deliberate this year,” said Campaign Life Ottawa lobbyist Johanne Brownrigg. “We have decided to present a unified voice from the entire prolife movement as far and wide as we could reach.”
Even though Campaign Life, the national political arm of the prolife movement, remains the sole organizer of the march, its promo video released March 14 includes groups such as WeNeedaLaw.ca and the Association for Reformed Political Action (ARPA); and educational pro-life groups such as LifeCanada, the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, Priests for Life, and 4MYCanada. The promo may be viewed at Marchforlife.ca.
The theme of this year’s march is “End the Killing,” and its focus is abortion, “despite very serious, very concerning developments on euthanasia and assisted suicide,” said Brownrigg. “Of course, for us, these issues greatly intertwine. When you decide to kill the vulnerable, it’s clear you are going to continue to kill more vulnerable people.”
“For our purposes, the March for Life is about abortion, and we don’t want that issue to be diluted,” she said. The march is one of the only opportunities every year where abortion is guaranteed a headline.
“We are grateful to Campaign Life Coalition for hosting this event and will do what we can to build support for it,” said WeNeedaLaw.ca director Mike Schouten.
WeNeedaLaw.ca supports incremental legislation that would use a gestational approach to restricting abortion, a tactic Campaign Life has opposed because of its emphasis on protecting life from conception.
“It has been our experience for some time now that if we are going to be successful in advancing legal protection for pre-born children it is necessary for respective pro-life organizations to focus on those things we have in common, rather than on our differences,” said Schouten.
“The annual March for Life needs to become more than a stand-alone event. The March for Life affords us a great opportunity to work together to build as much momentum as possible for the following weeks and months.”
ARPA legal counsel Andre Schutten thinks the inclusion of his and other organizations in the March’s promotional video is a “sign of healthy growth and the maturing of the movement.”
“I think it’s great,” he said, noting “a movement that has many different perspectives and approaches is a sign of a healthy and large movement.”
Schutten said he has observed a trend over the past five years of the prolife movement working together more and more. There is also “more and more diversity” among prolife groups, and “that’s a good thing.”
The events connected with the National March for Life start with a vigil the night before; pro-life Masses and church services the morning of the march; the march itself beginning at noon on Parliament Hill, followed by a Rose Dinner. On the following day, march organizers host a youth conference attended by about 700 high school students.
The speaker for the Rose Dinner will be the founder and president of Culture of Life Africa, Obianuju Ekeocha, who will also address the youth conference the next day.
A Nigerian who lives in Britain, Ekeocha became well known in prolife circles for her open letter to Melinda Gates over $4.6 billion in funding for contraception.
“I see this $4.6 billion buying us misery,” Ekeocha wrote Gates. “I see it buying us unfaithful husbands. I see it buying us streets devoid of the innocent chatter of children. I see it buying us disease and untimely death. I see it buying us a retirement without the tender loving care of our children.”
