Monday May 10, 2004
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LifeSiteNews.com Interview with Angelina Steenstra: Co-ordinator of Silent No More Awareness Campaign
First Canadian event for post-aborted women to take place at Ottawa March for Life
TORONTO, May 10, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In anticipation of this Thursday’s National Silent No More awareness campaign, which follows the March for Life in Ottawa, LifeSiteNews.com interviewed the co-ordinator of the event, Angelina Steenstra. Steenstra is co-founder of Second Chance Ministries in Toronto, a ministry for women suffering from Post-Abortion Syndrome.
Steenstra attended a Silent No More awareness campaign in Washington, D.C., which took place concurrently with the U.S. March for Life in January. The campaign had its debut at the January 2003 March for Life in Washington, and has since been hosted by numerous people across the U.S. The campaign in Ottawa on Thursday is the first for Canada.
Steenstra said that “Silent No More” was the name of a book written by Dr. David Reardon, a post-abortion specialist and researcher who has documented extensively the effects of abortion. Dr. Reardon’s web-site, https://afterabortion.org/ has available past journals documenting such statistics as that teenage girls are 10 times more likely to attempt suicide after abortion, that 60 percent of women consider suicide, and 28 percent attempt it post-abortion. Reardon also documents that women post-abortion are almost four times more likely to engage in substance abuse.
Post-abortion effects are rarely reported by main-stream media, says Steenstra. She points to the de Veber institute as a Canadian institution doing excellent post-abortion work. The Institute documents the fact that abortion risks such as cancer, infertility, and suicide are underreported. Steenstra said that one psychiatrist she talked to attributed 80 percent of the depression he treats in practice as abortion-related.
Many ministries exist for women suffering from post-abortion syndrome. The Catholic Church has a diocesan outreach known as Project Rachel; Ottawa has the Miriam Centre; and Toronto, Second Chance Ministries. The evangelical church has a network of crisis pregnancy centres across the U.S. and Canada, as well as the Christian Association of Pregnancy Support Services. Second Chance Ministries offers one on one personal support, as well as a weekly open-ended support group.
Steenstra also said that some centres offer retreats, such as Rachel’s Vineyard retreats, a ministry of Priests for Life; as well, the Sisters of Life in New York city offer regular retreats and monthly days of prayer for women suffering from post-abortion trauma.
We live in a “post-abortion culture”, emphasizes Steenstra. She said the repercussions of abortion are multi-faceted: some women are left with infertility; the self-hatred that often results has a damaging effect on relationships; abortion also impacts women on a spiritual level, she said.
The Silent No More awareness campaign will convene on the steps of Parliament Hill in Ottawa on May 13,2004 at 3:00 p.m. after the March for Life.
See a list of resources:
Sisters of Life web-site: https://sistersoflife.org/aboraft-fr.html
Rachel’s Vineyard: https://www.rachelsvineyard.org/
Ottawa Miriam Center: https://www.ottawayouthforlife.org/oyl/oyl/Resources/cpcs.htm…
Project Rachel: https://www.noparh.org/
See the March for Life page at: https://www.lifesitenews.com/events/Marchforlife/2004/
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