Pro-life leader finds creative way around Canada's 'bubble zone' laws to help save the unborn
Episode Stats
Summary
Pro-life advocates in Canada are often limited in what they can do to speak out in support of the pro-life movement. However, some pro-lifers have found a way to get around some of the restrictions that are in place to prevent them from speaking out in front of abortion centers.
Transcript
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You know, there's something really interesting about the pro-life movement in Canada.
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We're not allowed to be like within 50 feet or sometimes meters of an abortion clinic,
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an abortion place where they're doing abortions.
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However, some pro-lifers have gotten really creative.
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Sometimes they open up pro-life pregnancy centers providing care and outreach for women
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right outside of or next to or across the street from abortion centers.
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We're going to talk to the person who runs one of those and who's expanding also.
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You're going to want to stay tuned for this episode of The John Henry Weston Show.
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Let's begin, as we always do, with the sign of the cross.
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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
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So, Gabrielle, you are involved in something, I won't say sneaky, but in a way to get around
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some of the restrictions that are in Canada, some of the unfair restrictions that are there
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to prevent pro-life people, loving people who want to offer a hand of outreach to women
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seeking abortions, for an alternative, a way to respect the life in the wombs and to get
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assistance to be able to carry that life to term and even beyond term to care for that unborn child
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or that now-born child. And you've opened already a center, a pro-life pregnancy center,
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across the street from an abortion clinic. Tell us how that's going.
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So, that's going really well. Just a little bit of the backstory. We started in 2006 in Edmonton.
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The Back Porch is the name of our Pregnancy Options Information Center. We are right across
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the street from the abortion clinic here. And that was started by a group called Allies,
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which is the group that I'm the executive director of at this point. But we've been here since 2006,
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and we've been able to minister to women who are on their way to abortions. We've been able to
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offer them information on all the options, make sure that at the very least they have informed
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consent and can find healing after the abortion. But obviously, we're here to promote life-affirming
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options. So, we've had many clients in the past who have been able to choose life and been able
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to be privileged to support them through their pregnancies and afterwards.
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Beautiful. And just right off the bat, I want to mention that LifeSite News has a LifeFunder,
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which is our crowdfunding platform, going on right now. So, if you go to lifefunder.com,
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you'll be able to support Gabrielle's work. So, Gabrielle, tell us, yes, we're not allowed to
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be sort of picketing or providing alternatives on the street in front of abortion centers. But you
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guys being right across the street are able to do that. How do people find out about you? How do you
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get your clients who come over to you from the abortion center? How does that work?
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So, there are lots of different ways. But interestingly, the main reason that a lot of
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women come to us is because they mistake us for the abortion clinic at the outset. So, when they
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walk in the door, we have about 30 seconds to engage them in conversation because they're here
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for their abortion appointment. And when they tell us that, we obviously are upfront and we let them
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know, you know, if you have an abortion appointment, it's not with us. But we can offer you information on
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the abortion procedures. We can make sure that you know what's about to happen. And we can offer you
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information on resources in the area, which a lot of them haven't had the time to explore or look into,
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having made just a knee-jerk kind of decision to, I'm pregnant, I wasn't planning this, I'll get the
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abortion, and let's not even think about it. So, we're able to engage them in conversation and offer
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a little more information. Beautiful. Now, one of the neat aspects of the bubble zone laws is that
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while there are, you know, no pro-lifers allowed to present options to women going into the abortion
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clinic, it also, as you told me before the show, cuts both ways. Explain that for us, if you would,
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please. Yeah, this is one of my favorite things to share with people. So, just from the very broad
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description in the legislation, the way that it's worded, it just, it does not allow for any kind
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of picketing, any kind of protesting, anything abortion-related to be happening within 50 meters
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of the clinic, which effectively means within 50 meters of us either. So, while people from 40 Days
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for Life can't stand there with signs, neither can people who are going to come and harass us in the
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work that we do or tell women that they should not speak to people who are trying to promote life-affirming
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options. Beautiful. So, that then prevents pro-abortion picketers from blocking women or whatever
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who want to come to you for help. Yeah, absolutely. So, it's problematic, but it's also protective of
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our ministry. Very interesting. So, tell us, in the work you do, what is for you one of the really
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rewarding things that strikes you and keeps you going? So, I think the thing that has stuck out
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to me the most since I began working here at the end of 2018 is just how spiritual the work is. So,
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anytime that we're speaking to a woman, it's not really us that's talking to her. It's the Holy
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Spirit working in us in whatever way God chooses. And sometimes that means that she chooses life and
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then there's a human being who otherwise probably would have died if we weren't here. And sometimes
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it simply means that we've been able to plant a seed for the future or offer some measure of hope
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for healing after an abortion. It's really just wonderful to be able to be Christ's hands and feet
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in this place and in this ministry that is so important to Him because it deals with really
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vulnerable people and with the most innocent of human beings.
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Now, that's very interesting. So, you're dealing not only with women going to an abortion, but you're
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also, after an abortion, you're there to help as well.
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Yeah. So, most of the women that we talk to, we do see them before the abortion.
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Some of them come over afterwards because they've been through the abortion and they see our building
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across the street and they wonder what we're about. And then we're able to provide them
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information on hope and healing afterwards, on finding the care and the counseling that they
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might need to be able to process what's just happened and to be able to just to recover from
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this trauma for a lot of women. It's not in every case. Some women kind of carry on as though nothing
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happened, but most women do experience some regret and some difficult emotions because it's a really
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difficult thing. Can you share with us one of the testimonies that has struck you and sort of show
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us, if you will, one of the clients that you've had that has chosen life?
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Absolutely. So, we can play a little tip here and you can take a look.
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Being a single parent is a challenge, but it's a blessing to wake up every day and see him
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smile onto you. I believe he's going to grow and be a great person and everyone do deserve
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a life. That's all I always tell myself that, you know, everyone deserves a life. No one deserves
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So, that was just a little bit from Rita, who is a former client of ours. She's not one of the women
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that I spoke with, but you did see in that clip the woman that she spoke to when she walked in the
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clinic, or sorry, when she walked in here instead of the clinic. And one of the things that I love
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about her testimony, aside from the fact that her beautiful son is there and alive and here on this
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world because she came to us by mistake or, you know, by providence, if you prefer, is that she
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now is able to say things like, every life is precious and no woman should have to go through
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an abortion and that she was preserved from that herself. So, not only was her son saved, but she
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Wow. Can you describe for us probably a sentiment that you've had, a feeling that you've had,
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or a sensation that you've had that most of us will never have in our lives, the sort of before
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and after effect of speaking to a woman who then chooses life, later getting to see that woman,
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and perhaps even getting to see or even hold the child whose life is sort of there in a way because
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Yeah. It's an incredibly humbling experience, for sure. I have this vivid memory of
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actually, when we were filming that video that we played earlier, while they were recording Rita
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and our staff member and some other people involved in the video, I was watching her son
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for part of that. So, all of this was going on, she's describing her testimony, and I'm here holding
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this child that would not be here today if it weren't for the ministry of the back porch.
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It can be quite overwhelming at times. It can be very humbling, and it really does fuel the desire
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to continue doing what we're doing because how many more lives can be saved, and the whole world
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is changed by that, right? Every human life makes such an infinite impact on the world. So, it really is
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Amazing. What is your motivation, Gabrielle? What really drives you to continue in this work
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Oh, my goodness. So, the short answer to that is, God asked this of me, and when God asks,
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you know, what are you going to do? Are you going to say no? Of course not. But, yeah, I know I think
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that this is such a place and such a ministry where you can have impact that you can't even
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understand, and on top of that, knowing that I'm doing what God is asking of me and knowing that each
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moment of my life is spent doing something that Jesus cares so deeply about is such a wonderful
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thing. The ability to be conformed to Christ in that, to be able to talk to these women and know that
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as much as I, in this moment, love them and their children, how much more Jesus loves them. And so,
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I know that I can be pleasing to Him and love Him in that way, too.
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Now, so often, calls from Christ to engage in certain things are difficult to hear or discern.
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Would you mind sharing how you got that call and generally how to recognize it?
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Oh, my goodness. So, I'm not sure how to answer that question. I think, for me, for the period of
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time before I started working at the back porch, God closed a lot of doors that I thought made sense.
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And I gave Him permission to do that. You know, I said, I just, I want to do whatever you want me to
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do. So, take me there. So, He closed some doors. And then, when a place opened up to work here at the
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back porch, I was ready and primed to do that. And as soon as I heard about what they were doing
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and what I could be involved with, it was, it was a very clear, just a very clear picture that this
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is something that is meaningful, something that is valuable and something that I was at least going
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to try. And then, I think that was affirmed in the success that we've had that, okay, this is where I
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should be. Beautiful. Beautiful. Where can people get in touch with you and support the work that
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you're doing? Oh, well, you can email me directly if you want, executive director at allies.ca.
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That's allies with one L, A-L-I-E-S. You can find out more about what allies does generally at
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allies.ca, A-L-I-E-S, or thebackporch.info. Beautiful. Anything else you'd like to convey as a
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close? Oh, just to let people know that part of the reason that we're trying to get more
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information out there is that we are hoping to expand. So not just being in Edmonton here across
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from the clinic, but our hope is to open up a similar ministry right next door to the Kensington
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Clinic in Calgary as well. Beautiful. Canada is hard territory to work in. We, of course, have laws
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that don't protect life at all here, actually on either side of the spectrum of life. So it's great
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and heroic work that you're doing. Thank you. Yeah, thank you so much for having me. God bless you,
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Gabrielle. You too. And God bless all of you. We'll see you next time.