It’s an unwritten rule of the abortion wars that pro-life demonstrations get an easy boost in winning over public opinion because of the outlandish tactics used at pro-abortion counter-demonstrations.
The annual National March for Life in Ottawa is a case in point. There’s a radical contrast between the pro-lifers who pray or chant joyfully, wielding Rosaries and placards, and the pro-aborts who are often found waving coathangers, shouting obscenities, handing out condoms to teens, and even in some cases appearing half naked.
After 15 years of annual marches, it looks like at least one pro-abortion group in Ottawa is catching on. The ‘Radical Handmaids’, who are known for mailing wool-knitted ‘wombs’ and ‘vulvas’ to pro-life politicians and staging protests dressed up as oppressed women out of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, have called on pro-abortionists to take a different approach. I guess they want to look a little more… respectable, maybe.
Their hope is to win over the Catholic high school students who bus in from different parts of Ontario, and whom they apparently believe would be more open to their message with less bizarre strategies.
In a blog post on Wednesday, the group urges fellow activists to simply remain silent.
“Our choice to remain silent and not engaging with the marchers comes from the knowledge that most of the marchers are students who are bused into the march as a form of indoctrination,” they write.
“They are told that pro-choicers are ‘loud’, ‘crazy’, ‘irrational’ and ‘obscene’,” they continue. “Therefore, by remaining silent, stoic and simply holding up signs, we are hoping to encourage them to do their own research and question what they are being told by their schools, religious leaders and often times, family members.”
The ‘Radical Handmaids’ say that pro-abortion advocates will meet on Parliament Hill on May 9th at noon as pro-lifers gather there, and then they will move to a spot along the March route to hold up signs as pro-lifers walk by.
Last year, the RCMP cordoned off about a third of Parliament Hill for the pro-abortion counter-demonstration, squeezing in the nearly 20,000 pro-lifers while about a hundred counter-protesters huddled up against the fence and left a large empty spot on the Hill:
They still intend to wear costumes, however, so be warned.
