Scottish Catholic Observer

Certainly during her years as a leading figure in the Democrat Party and as a major international figure the former US Senator and Secretary of State has done her utmost to advance the pro-abortion agenda as much as possible.

From a pro-life point of view, her record is appalling when it comes to voting on abortion related issues, including opposing conscientious objection rights for the medical profession, which earned her the Planned Parenthood ‘Margaret Sanger Award’ in 2009.

Her supporters will say her work on abortion is part of her work to achieve equality for women around the world and to promote the feminist cause and there is no doubt that many people think along these same lines.

However, even as voices were being raised over the issue there was, in fact, positive pro-life action taking place on the streets of St Andrew’s giving a very different view on life in the womb and equality for all to that promoted by the likes of Mrs Clinton.

A pro-life response

Project Truth, which is going from strength to strength in Scotland and is working towards a major road show event over a six-day period in 2014, joined forces with members of the St Andrews University fledgling pro-life group to raise awareness of the awe-inspiring development of life in the womb during the early stages of pregnancy.

Students from the St Andrew’s Students for Life group and volunteers from Project Truth distributed more thsn800 leaflets on the streets of St Andrews on the day of the event.

Speaking about the positive impact of the Project Truth event, one campaigner Chris Jones, said: “We wanted to respond to the honouring of Hillary Clinton in a way that promoted a positive pro-life message rather than a negative anti-abortion one. People were very responsive; hundreds took the leaflets and read them as they walked away and several good discussions took place.”

The message of the Project Truth campaign is one that is life affirming, based entirely on scientific fact and is centered on honouring mother and baby when it comes to pregnancy, not one or the other as is often the case when it comes to those on the two polar sides of the abortion debate, by providing accurate information on what the choice of abortion is really about.

The important thing for us was to use the event as a catalyst to spread the pro-life message, rather than focusing on any kind of personal attack on Mrs Clinton herself as a political figure.

“The students from the pro-life society were keen to respond to the event, but also wanted to do so in a positive way, by raising awareness of the beauty of life in the womb. This is the whole focus of Project Truth, changing hearts and minds by promoting the facts about the life of the unborn child. People often dehumanise abortion and we seek to challenge that by showing the humanity of the child in the womb, in the hope that more people will choose life because they recognise it as that; a new and unique human life, a person who deserves the right to live,” Rachel at SPUC Scotland said.

Exposing the reality of abortion

When it comes to crisis pregnancy—one that is unexpected, unwanted, unwelcome in some way—it is a trauma for all involved and in response some people see only the baby, others only the woman, and the talk is of one’s rights versus the other’s.

Frederica Mathewes-Green of Feminists For Life recently encapsulated this idea when she wrote about the rights… and wrongs of abortion, stating: “The abortion debate seems like an unresolvable conflict of rights: the right of women to control their own bodies, the right of children to be born. Can one both support women’s rights and oppose abortion?…Women’s rights are not in conflict with their own children’s rights; the appearance of such a conflict is a sign that something is wrong in society…

“Truly supporting women’s rights must involve telling the truth about abortion and working for it to cease…

“Abortion rhetoric paints the unborn as a parasite, a lump, that ‘glob of tissue.’ But it is in fact her own child. Many women grieve silently after abortion, their sorrow ignored by a society that expects them to be grateful for the ‘freedom’ to abort…”

This is the reality that we aim to expose in all of our pro-life work at SPUC Scotland, that abortion not only ends the life of a new human being, but also damages the mother, the family of the child and society as a whole.

“The damage caused by abortion is becoming more and more evident; we see this on a day to day basis through the work of Abortion Recovery Care. We believe that it is only a matter of time before society recognises the truth about abortion, that far from being a ‘right’ which liberates women, it is in fact a failure to help women and a failure to treat them and their child with the love, respect and support they deserve,”  according to Rachel at SPUC Scotland.

The Project Truth campaign is having a great impact on the public in Scotland wherever it goes and we are looking forward to seeing how it develops over the coming year, in the lead up to the roadshow next summer.

DONNA NICHOLSON