News

By Patrick B. Craine

OTTAWA, Ontario, November 3, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Hundreds of pro-life supporters honoured a long-time Canadian pro-life heroine with an extended and moving standing ovation on Friday night at the International Pro-Life Conference in Ottawa, Ontario.

“I will fight abortion until the day I die,” declared Heather Stilwell, one of Canada's major pro-life leaders for the last 30 years, as she was recognized with LifeCanada's annual Mother Teresa Award.  The devoted mother of eight made a heroic trip from British Columbia to Ottawa for the conference despite her frail health.

“I think for many her name stands with the beginning of the pro-life movement in Canada,” said Monica Roddis, LifeCanada's Acting President, who presented the award.

Stilwell is the former president of Alliance for Life, the now-defunct national pro-life educational group.  There she produced 'Feel the Heartbeat', a widely-circulated documentary with interviews of young pregnant women and adoptive parents.

As president of the Surrey-Delta Pro-Life Association, she promoted pro-life candidates for the local hospital board and ran a TV program on local cable.  She also served as president of the Pro-Life Society of B.C, Western Regional Coordinator for Campaign Life Coalition, and as a prominent member of the conservative lobby group REAL Women.

As a trustee on the Surrey school board for 15 years, she was famous for her opposition to homosexuality, abortion, and sex education.  There she also helped parents lobby for a traditional school and, said Roddis, “courageously stood for parental rights despite very strong opposition.”

In 1997, Stilwell was involved in a legal battle that went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada regarding the decision to allow three children's books which portrayed same-sex parents in public elementary schools.  The board's decision to not allow the books was eventually overturned by Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin.

Additionally, Stilwell was a founding member and leader of the Christian Heritage Party.  Her other community involvement included serving on the board of an adoption agency.

Roddis explained that even with her many pro-life and pro-family commitments, Stilwell was a devoted wife and mother.  “When bringing home her seventh baby from the hospital, she was followed by the media, eager to interview her as the Alliance president about the Morgentaler decision [of] January 28, 1988,” she noted.

“Through all of this, her deep faith and love of the most vulnerable have shone through,” said Roddis.  “Those who have worked with her throughout the years have confirmed her kindness, her understanding, and her great encouragement as she endeavoured to be the voice for those who have no voice.”

Stilwell and her husband Bill, who recently celebrated their 45th anniversary, received the devastating news in 2008 that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer.  After chemotherapy and other treatments, she recently ceased treatments because they had become too aggressive.

Though frail and confined to a wheelchair, Stilwell's latest wish was to attend the International Pro-Life Conference in Ottawa.  She was able to do this after an outpouring of support from friends and family to cover the first class tickets she and her daughter, Elizabeth, needed so that she could lie down for the long trip.

Jim Hughes, national president of Campaign Life Coalition, a long-time friend and colleague of Stilwell, praised the award in the highest terms.  “She's been a tremendous fighter, she's had dogged determination, she's a faith-filled woman,” he said.  “It was wonderful to see her honoured in that way.”