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Salient. Victoria University Students Newspaper. Volume 37, No 26. October 2, 1974

Bronchitus

Bronchitus

Dear Salient,

I can understand your amazed reaction to the pro life rally, you just never though it possible for so many people to freely turn out to march for the protection of the unborn. Your description of hysteria seems to be unique among all reports. One would think that with so many other pro abortion news agencies around, any trace of hysteria would have been quickly grasped, after all, hysteria is news, not peaceful demonstrations of concern for a just cause.

The pro-life movement though aims basically at restricting abortion to those few cases where there is a genuine dilemma of life and death. Abortion involves the life of the unborn child, consequently only when the woman's life is seriously threatened does this dilemma arise. Do we think more of money or people, do we think more of our own convenience than of the lives of others?

You asked the question, how many adults can make a reasoned decision about a subject like abortion. Indeed so, this is why we need good laws to help us. Only the truly unselfish will not take the easy way out. It is also a fact of life that usually those involved emotionally in a situation are usually those least able to make an objective decision.

You quote that a society must treat demand for abortion as a symptom of its own sickness and not as an individual problem to be solved in individual cases. I agree society is sick, that is why so many want abortions, but liberalisation of the law won't cure this. You don't cure bronchitis by running out in the wind and rain. What is needed is a return to the appreciation of ordinary decent human values; the value of life, a more unselfish and responsible attitude to sexuality, not total liberality. People need to be treated as people not as things.

Last but not least, for those who are pregnant, they should receive encouragement, mental and spiritual support from those around them. Pregnancy is not a disease but the creation or new life. It is a time of great need, but it is also a time of growth as persons, loving, self-giving, responsible people.

J.G. Moffat