'Save the baby humans'

Pro-lifers line streets to call for an end to abortion

By RAMON GONZALEZ
WCR Staff Writer
Edmonton

Holding signs that said, "Abortion kills children" and "Abortion hurts women," the protesters stood along 149th Street and Stony Plain Road for an hour waving to passing motorists.

One demonstrator dressed up in a panda bear costume to bring home the message that even animals protect their offspring. "Save the baby humans," read a sign held by the panda.

Called International Life Chain, the demonstration was one of 13 taking place in communities across Alberta.

In Drayton Valley, some 70 people took part in the demonstration. Forming a cross at the intersection of 50th Street and 50th Avenue, participants waved at passing motorists holding signs that read: "Life, the choice of the next generation" and "Abortion and euthanasia stop a beating heart."

Similar demonstrations took place in the rest of Canada and around the world.

The purpose of the Life Chain demonstration is "to remind people of abortion, how it is hurting women, how it is killing our children," said organizer Robert Mollot, vice-president of Alberta Pro-Life.

"This is a show of support, of solidarity with the pre-natal children that are being slaughtered."

Mollot said the protest was also aimed at trying to get politicians to give more protection to the unborn.

"We would like more protection for pre-natal children," he said. "Canada is the only country in the Western Hemisphere where there is no law to protect pre-natal children. Abortion could be done for any reason, at any time, even five minutes before birth and all of that paid with tax dollars."

Mollot said there were more than 10,000 abortions in 1998 in Alberta.

A huge sign pasted on the side of a trailer parked on the corner of 100th Avenue and 149th Street gave more information to passing motorists: "Abortion . . . crime of the millennium," it read. "11 classrooms murdered every day in Canada. Over 2.4 million abortions to date in Canada."

Rene Hyde, a teacher at Austin O'Brien Catholic High School, took part in the protest "because I'm a Catholic and I don't believe in abortion at all."

"I would like to see it totally abolished in Canada, unless the mother is in danger, of course."

Riley Klassen, a St. Albert stockbroker, has participated in the protest for the past two years to show support for the pro-life movement and to make abortion "more of an issue."

"It seems to me that abortion is not an issue anymore," he lamented. "Even those who are pro-life have forgotten about it because they feel there isn't anything they can do."

Klassen, a father of two, hopes demonstrations like Life Chain can "stir something within politicians and other Christians who have let the issue within themselves die and it doesn't disgust them anymore."

Tony Lagrange, a St. Albert businessman, attended the demonstration with two of his four small children.

"I think that if good people sit around and figure that God will take care of it, nothing is going to change," he said. "We are God's foot soldiers, if we are not around there doing it, nothing is going to happen."

Added Lagrange: "I feel that we have to change hearts and if we change hearts then the laws will just necessarily change as a result."

Anne Pinkoski was one of the 70 people in Drayton Valley who demonstrated against abortion for an hour.

"The reason I went is it's a peaceful prayerful witness for life," she explained. "Jesus asked us 'Couldn't you stay awake with me one hour?' So I don't think one hour is too much - it's an hour in solidarity with the unborn that we lose every year."

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