CHARLOTTETOWN, Prince Edward Island, January 4, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The P.E.I. Right to Life Association believes that the island’s unborn babies deserve more than the health minister’s word that P.E.I will remain an abortion-free province. To serve the unborn better, the pro-life association has teamed up with national pro-life groups and launched an education campaign to correct what they believe is “erroneous information” being spread by pro-abortion groups about abortion.
“Our main goal is to dispel the misconceptions and erroneous information that have come out in the last couple of months. We want to create awareness on the true facts concerning abortion,” said Ann Marie Tomlins spokesperson for P.E.I. Right to Life Association to LifeSiteNews.
“You are only getting one side of the story,” said P.E.I. Right to Life Association president Greg Hebert at a news conference yesterday that launched the campaign. “So, we are here today to present some information and hopefully shed some light on the other side of the story.”
During the news conference, Hebert called the right to life the “biggest human rights issue of our day.” Hebert said that the battle was not over the “imaginary right to abortion, or to choice, or to access; its about the real established right to life.”
To achieve their goal of educating the islanders about the true legal status of abortion as well as about the physical and emotional harm that the procedure inflicts on women and their babies, the pro-life association has teamed up with Campaign Life Coalition, the Knights of Columbus, and the Catholic Women’s League.
They plan to run a full-page abortion information ad next month in the islands major newspaper. They have already given briefs to the island’s minister of health and premier outlining how abortion harms women. Information packages and briefs will be sent to MLAs and to medical personnel throughout the province.
The group says it looks forward to playing an active role in bringing the Silent No More Awareness Campaign to the province’s university in March.
The group has recently revamped its website and created Facebook and Twitter accounts.
“We feel that we have to take steps to ensure that every citizen on Prince Edward Island becomes aware of the true facts on abortion,” said Tomlins during the conference.
Tomlins said that Canadian’s have numerous misconceptions about the status of abortion in the country, many believing that there is a legal right to abortion established by the supreme court. “We counteract this by saying that the supreme court ruled that women have to have access to medically necessary abortion. There is a big difference between these two statements,” she said.
“We talk about how abortion is not legal in Canada; rather it has been decriminalized and we are in a legal vacuum [regarding abortion].”
“All these statements to the contrary have been perpetrated by the abortion lobby group and put out through the media. Our main goal is that the truth becomes known.”
Tomlins refers to her province as the “life sanctuary,” noting that the island has not had any abortions on its soil since the late 1980s. “We do not want any abortions on island soil,” she said, adding that she would be happy if all of Canada came to see the province under this light.
“We are asking people to love both the woman and her child. If we are going to be asking women not to have abortions, we are going to be there to support them as well in whatever way we need to.”
“We will not rest until women know that here, in this life sanctuary, women are supported,” she said.