From the desk of Andrew – a friend of AGM.

I grew up in a conservative Catholic household that was decidedly pro choice.

When the topic came up during my teenage years, I didn’t even quite grasp what the gruesome act really was, except that it ended the unwanted pregnancy.  My parents affirmed that it was a woman’s choice and that the man really didn’t have a say, even if he desired to keep the baby.  Despite living in a relatively traditional nuclear family, that was uneasy with feminism and the breakdown of traditional values and family life, there was a yield to the onrush of feminism and post modern ambiguity that was continually threatening the core of our christian lives.  In those moments the pro life movement seemed to me to be composed of radicals and ultra traditionalists.  Protection of life from the moment of conception was a concept still so foreign to me, and I was nearly completely ignorant to the real science behind the formation of life between the parents as ordered by our nature.  

My ignorance and attitude of tolerance towards these infiltrating attitudes in society continued into my freshman and sophomore years of college.  By my sophomore year I was well established in my Catholic Christian community on campus and active with campus ministry and other Catholic groups on campus.  This is where my intersection with the pro life moment first started.  I saw pro life supporters of my now friends and acquaintances setting up tables on campus featuring graphic pictures and descriptions.  I still viewed this as radical and politicized and basically steered clear, despite coming to a growing awareness that this was an integral component to our christian faith.  

My injection into the pro life movement came during my junior year with an invitation from a friend to help form an official pro life chapter on our campus.  Formerly, there was no group on campus, and it was perceived to be a hostile environment to get a pro life faction founded.  Officially, I was invited to represent campus ministry, (I was now a peer minister for the Catholic college on campus), but with a definitive non partisan stance.  This was orchestrated by my friend who had taken the definitive charge with his small cohort of willing contributors.  It was during this time that my friend and the other members, while gathering materials from the provincial pro life group, and the necessary students’ union approval for a conditional group to be sanctioned on campus, that I started to see the science and nature behind the act of abortion.  I saw just how threatening and damaging this was to the woman and child involved in this savage act.  This was affirmed by visits to a crisis pregnancy centre and hearing the testimony of the workers there.  I very quickly changed my mind to let go of my preconceived social conditioning of being pro choice, to accepting the science and reality of abortion, and the absolute necessity of being pro life as a Catholic Christian.  
In the years that followed I convocated from university and moved onto grad school.  All the while growing in my conviction of the necessity to be pro life and counsel others to be as well.

The next instrumental step in my pro life devotion came when I was initiated into the Knights of Columbus.  Through this initiation I came to see the local and international work that this Catholic fraternity of men does in support and defense of life from conception to natural death.  I grew in my knowledge and vigor for living out the pro life message daily, especially through devotion to Our Lady Mary for the protection of mothers and unborn children.  

Most recently my pro life encounter has come through following the work of Abby Johnson.  Her testimony of conversion from pro death proprietor and abortion clinic manager to pro life advocate extraordinaire has been a huge inspiration and thrust for the cause forward.  Her conversion into the Catholic faith with her family is also a huge cause of momentum for me to continue to chase my faith and life motivations without compromise.

I continue to daily educate and influence my family and friends to embrace being pro life.  In Canada this is a multi prong engagement due to the recent federal euthanasia legislation.  For me, this continued battle for pro life advocacy involves fighting anti life attitudes at all stages of life.  It’s focus is on the Gospel values of giving preference to the most vulnerable and poor among us, honouring their lives as having equal dignity and value as us in places of privilege and influence.  When we loose protecting of the most vulnerable, the unborn and the elderly, we loose any scope of the true value of life as a gift and willed by an ever loving Lord and Saviour.  And when we become willing to compromise the value of these hidden and forgotten ones, it’s only a matter of time before we loose sight of our true value before Christ as well.  Being pro life means exactly that: fighting for all lives to matter as being willed and ordered by God for the sake of salvation of souls.