It was the first time pro-life activist were met with organized opposition at the annual Sault Ste. Mare Life Chain anti-abortion rally.
On Sunday, from 2-3 p.m., event organizers say roughly 185 demonstrators with the annual Christian-based Life Chain pro-life event lined Great Northern Road from Bruce Street to Second Line.
They were met by a group of around 20 pro-choice counter-demonstrators.
Perhaps the stark contrast in demographics told most of the story.
From looking at and talking to both groups, the Christian-based pro-life demonstrators were mostly senior citizens made up of both men and women while the pro-choice advocates were mostly non-religious females in their twenties.
“I’ve lived in the Sault 3.5 years (and) I’ve never seen counter protesters,” said pro-choice organizer Gillian Griffith. “In a lot of the circles I run in everyone always talks about a counter protest but this year we thought it needs to finally come to fruition because (the anti-abortioners) have had the stage for too long and because there are so many women, trans-people, and non-binary people that are faced with making the decision (of abortion) and they need to know that there are people here that support them.”
Life Chain organizer Claudette Breton said it was the first time since the events inception roughly 30 years ago that a noticeable counter-protest had shown up.
Breton attended the event holding a sign that read: ‘I regret my abortion’.
“Every day of my life I regret having an abortion. It’s difficult even 43 years later to talk about it. It had a very long term impact on me. It wasn’t until 15 or 16 years ago that I finally came to a forgiveness with myself,” said Breton.
Breton said her abortion left her feeling worthless and that medical scaring lead to her having three miscarriages.
“(An abortion) is probably the worst thing you can do… A lot of women aren’t able to move forward after it. They say it impacts you so profoundly that unless you’re able to find forgiveness... you just get kind of stuck,” she said.
Breton decided to hold the sign because it’s such a strong message and she thought maybe someone thinking of having an abortion might read it and change their mind.
Pro-choice demonstrator Kyrena Yun said seeing so many people advocating against abortion almost brought her to tears.
“It’s hard when you see a lot of people saying when you do an abortion it kills but, you know, when people go through an abortion they are not saying they want to kill (a) fetus. It’s for a lot of reasons people don’t want to recognize. Issues of whether they were sexually harassed or raped, or whether they have their own medical issues, or the fetus has their own medical issues and they’re not able to survive,” she said.
Yun said she believes men should not have a say in what a woman does with her body.
“As a woman, you do feel oppressed in society. Going through the protest today it’s much more than just the abortion affecting the life in the uterus, it’s also for the life of the women. They are telling a woman what they can and cannot do with their body. So, the protest today is much bigger than that. It’s about woman issues. I don’t think people realize how, on a daily basis, we do get oppressed and how we are looked down upon. (We’re oppressed in) how to eat and how we’re supposed to act when we’re going out. And if we do go out and you dress a certain way and you have a guy hit on you well, you’re asking for it if they try to grab you,” said Yun.
Blanche Dilabio, 82, stood at Great Northern Road and McNabb Street holding a picture of ‘the blessed mother’ so that she could ‘stop the free killing of babies’.
Dilabio said she lived in Italy during the Second World War and said times have changed significantly since then.
“There was war but there was no baby killing at that time but today we kill the innocent babies who can’t defend themselves. Free choice is my body’s free choice but the one you carry is not yours. They can’t defend themselves,” she said.
Dilabio said she doesn’t like the newer generation’s attitude towards abortion.
“We need new people to start this world. We’re getting old. The old people are dying like pancakes — heaven mercy. Look at Sault Ste. Marie is going down in population — it’s because the young people have been killing for 30 years,” she said.
Dilabio was asked if abortion should be allowed in cases of rape.
“That’s different altogether. But still, you shouldn’t kill that baby. You never know what that baby’s going to do some day,” she said. “Maybe 30, 40, 50 years from now it could be president, it could be anything, a doctor, save the world, you never know.”
John Lemieux, a parishioner at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church, felt strongly against abortion.
“Being pregnant is not a sickness, but people are using (abortion) as a form of contraceptive,” he said. “They are using mine and your tax dollars to get something they shouldn’t have to get because there are all these other forms of contraceptive. Now, as a senior citizen, I can’t get to see an eye doctor without paying, I can’t go to see my dentist without paying, I can’t get a chiropractor without paying — why are we paying for abortions?”
Griffith was later asked to counter Lemieux’s point about whether or not the government should pay for abortions.
“They absolutely should,” she said. “This is the only medical procedure that I’m aware of that even has any controversy like this surrounding it. Bottom line abortion is a medical procedure. It’s done at the hospital by doctors and trained staff. It is just a medical procedure."
Breton said the church’s that showed up on Friday were: Bethany Baptist Church, Bible Fellowship Church, Christ Church, City Bible Church, Elim Tabernacle, Free Methodist Church, Holy Family Parish, Our Lady of Good Counsel Church, The Salvation Army, St. Boniface Catholic Church, St. Gregory's Cathollic Church, St. Gerard Majella, St. Jerome Parish, St. Mary’s College, St. Veronica's Catholic Church, and The Summit.
Life Chain is an annual pro-life rally that takes place in over 200 Canadian locations and even more American every year on the first Sunday in October.