Thousands of Canadians Join Canada March for Life Protest to Legalized Abortions Up to Birth

International   |   Micaiah Bilger   |   May 10, 2019   |   12:32PM   |   Ottawa, Canada

Canadian pro-life advocates rallied peacefully in the nation’s capital Thursday to mourn 50 years of legalized abortion on demand in their country.

The National March for Life drew thousands of people to Ottawa, calling for protections for unborn babies and their mothers, according to the Catholic News Agency. They also urged restored protections for the vulnerable people who are being targeted for euthanasia, which recently became legal throughout the country.

“The cold hand of euthanasia is upon our country as well,” Catholic Cardinal Thomas Collins of Toronto told the crowd.

Collins said Canada must begin to recognize again “the profound preciousness of the gift of life from the first moment of conception until natural death.”

Other speakers included American pro-life advocate Abby Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood director who became pro-life after watching an unborn baby be aborted.

“It is cowardly to support death. It is courageous to support life,” Johnson told the crowd. “There is nothing polite about abortion!”

Thousands more pro-life advocates rallied in Toronto, Alberta, Saskatchewan and other communities.

Ottawa Matters reported seeing a large number of young people at the main march, many holding signs that read, “Love life, choose life” and “Remember the unborn.”

“We care because this is something that is corrupting politics,” 16-year-old Gabrielle Vandrgragt told the news outlet. “If we could restore the sanctity of life, I feel like we could fix a lot of problems in our society.”

The entertainment news site Flare also noted the growing passion among young adults for the pro-life cause.

According to the report:

Those on both sides of the issue say the anti-abortion movement is gaining a newfound momentum, much of it stemming from the teens and twentysomethings who are educated, motivated—and ready to march. Josie Luctke, community outreach coordinator for Campaign for Life Coalition and one of the organizers of this year’s event, attended her first March when she was in grade nine. “Youth is the present of the pro-life movement, and also its future,” she says, adding that being anti-abortion is the counter culture of today’s society, where the default position is predominantly pro-choice. “Decades ago, being pro-choice was seen as being cool and rebellious and going against the social norm. These days, it’s [being] pro-life.”

A group of counter-protesters told Flare that they planned to disrupt the Ottawa march by physically blocking the route and trying to make enough noise to drown them out.

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Several local news reports noted that abortion activists showed up at the rallies to counter-protest, some of them mocking pro-lifers for defending the unborn.

Abortions are legal for any reason up to birth in Canada. Euthanasia also has been legal in Canada for several years now, and politicians are talking about expanding euthanasia to sick children as well. Currently, only adults may be euthanized.

Canadians have faced a slew of assaults by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his administration. In 2017, Trudeau’s administration introduced a new policy requiring any group that applies for a Canadian Summer Jobs grant to sign a statement that they support abortion. The requirement has prompted protests from Christians, Muslims, Hindus and other religious groups.

A recent poll found the policy and Trudeau’s radical pro-abortion policies are widely unpopular among Canadians.

In 2017, abortion drugs also became available for the first time in Canada, and many provinces now force taxpayers to pay for them. Approximately 4,200 unborn babies in Canada were killed using the deadly drugs in the first year, according to Health Canada.