|
|
Silent No More Awareness Campaign Canada
|
|
Canada Silent No More is a separate organization and
is not affiliated with Silent No More
Awareness Campaign Canada. |
| |
 My
name is Angelina Steenstra and I am the National
Coordinator for Canada as well as the Regional
Coordinator for the Province of Ontario.
Convinced that one of the most important and most
effective means of making a difference in the whole
abortion debate would be through the stories of men
and women who share their suffering and healing, I
became the National Coordinator of the Silent No
More Awareness Campaign in Canada. The Campaign has
been developing steadily in this country since its
first public event of May 13, 2004 on Parliament
Hill, Ottawa.
Inspired by Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech of
August 28, 1963, delivered on the steps of the
Lincoln Memorial, Washington, D.C., “I Have A
Dream,” I dreamt of a day when men and women, who
have experienced abortion in their lives, would
stand up across this nation and tell the truth about
what abortion had done to their lives. I
believed that in telling the truth, people would
discover freedom, and in doing so would reach others
who were isolated and alone, giving them hope.
I believed it was important to let others know the
harm that had been done to both them and their
children as well as their families. So when I
heard about the birth of the Silent No More
Awareness Campaign and its first gathering that took
place in Washington, D.C. 2003, I knew ‘the dream”
was coming true.
I knew I needed to be at the next event in
January of 2004 in memory of my daughter, Sarah
Elizabeth, who died on American soil as a result of
a surgical abortion performed in Buffalo, NY.
After participating with sixty plus men and women,
sharing 3-minute testimonies, raising awareness,
telling of their healing journey and inviting others
to come forward, I knew this Campaign had no
borders. This Campaign is meant for the whole
world. Convinced of this truth, and with the
encouragement and support of numerous people, I
found the courage and the zeal to bring the Campaign
to Canada.
It is my hope that if you are a woman or a man
who has experienced abortion, you would be
encouraged to join the Silent No More Awareness
Campaign. We host gatherings and events with
the intention of:
•Reaching out and providing information to
people who are hurting after an abortion,
encouraging them to attend abortion after-care
programs;
•Raising public awareness about abortion’s
emotional, physical, spiritual and relational
consequences through education, testimonies and
public witness;
•Inviting post-abortive men and women, who
are ready to share personal testimony, to break
their silence. In so doing they can help
others to avoid the pain and suffering of
abortion.
This campaign is something that can be furthered
by anyone because abortion touches everyone.
If you are interested in helping extend the Silent
No More Awareness Campaign, please contact me.
It is my sincere hope that as the Campaign
spreads throughout Ontario and Canada, many will
come to know true freedom. To be “silent no
more” is to be, in the words of Martin Luther King
Jr., “Free at last – free at last. Thank God
Almighty I am free at last!”
Press Statement for the 40th Memorial
Year March for Life
Angelina Steenstra
National Coordinator
Silent No More Awareness Campaign
Good morning. My name is Angelina
Steenstra. I am one of the few people you
may meet in your journalistic career who is
willing to talk about the devastating impact
of my own abortion after a date rape when I
was a teenager.
My story is only one of 3.2 million abortion
stories that make up the past 40 years of
abortion in Canada.
Many of your newspaper, radio, and
television reports in the next few days
will, no doubt, examine the devastating
effects that 40 years have had on these
millions of mothers, fathers, and babies,
and also on our moral conscience as a
nation.
Over these years, things have changed.
Many would say back then the unborn child
was a “blob of tissue.” Today, even
abortionists, if they are honest, will
repeat the DNA science that from the moment
of conception we are dealing with a human
being – there is no room for doubt.
But when I had my abortion, I was told it
was no big deal – that it would solve my
problems. In fact, it made them worse.
I lived in denial as an escape from the
emotional, spiritual, physical, and
relational pain. And I am only one of
millions of women who have suffered from the
many after-effects of abortion.
Today, after all these years, in the
psychological journals there is a slowly
growing recognition of the damage done to
men and women. Let’s not
cover up this story for another forty years.
Let’s realize that there can be “A
Future Without Abortion” – that years
of killing three million babies kills our
conscience and leads to a further devaluing
of human life.
There is room in Canada for the more
compassionate care of pregnant mothers, with
all their difficult circumstances, in the
coming forty years.
But, our political, legal, medical, and
academic professions need to reclaim a lost
moral ethic to defend the dignity of human
life if we are to face the challenges to
human dignity that await us in the years
ahead.
Thank you.
Angelina Steenstra
|
|
Click here for a list of Regional
Coordinators in Canada |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
| |
| |
Canada Silent No More is a separate organization and
is not affiliated with Silent No More
Awareness Campaign Canada. |
|
|