The request by Parker Grimmer, director of P.E.I.’s Public Schools Branch, to create a safe zone to protect high school students from the truth is certainly premature. One call or email to the organizer of the May 2019 event, yours truly, would have revealed that the high school presentations were meant to be a one-time event.
Most young people do not know the truth of abortion. Society, with the help of the media, has convinced them that abortion is a simple procedure, a way to solve a problem by removing a blob of tissue from their womb and getting on with their lives.
It is really cruel to deceive young people this way, especially those young women who, faced with an unplanned pregnancy, choose abortion and in many cases, a life full of complications and regret when they discover after the fact that their abortion involved the violent destruction of their child.
Show the Truth Canada (the group that organized the May 2019 event) presents the truth through visual imagery in the hopes that faced with the truth, some may make a better choice and that those who see the truth and still choose abortion will at the very least have a better idea of what abortion is.
Our presentations are shocking, not because of their graphic nature; our youth see much worse on a regular basis. The images are shocking because they expose the great lie that abortion is a simple procedure and the great denial of the humanity of the preborn child.
Given the timing of Mr. Grimmer’s request and subsequent request by the PSB, almost a year after the event, one must wonder what exactly their motive is.
Do they want the truth hidden from view? Are they biased toward protecting the great lie and the great denial? Are they responding from complaints from parents whose children saw the truth and are questioning what they have been taught about abortion? Do they think that the students are weak and need a bubble zone to protect them from the world? Do they believe open dialogue and exposure to a different point of view has no place in or near a high school? Do they not understand that education is about seeking the truth, not hiding it?
I have no intention of returning to Island high schools in the near future. But I have no regrets about being there in 2019. The dialogue, exchange of views, and great discussions, even the criminal harassment, hateful Facebook messages, death wishes, and sabotage of my writing career that followed were worth it. These things showed me that I was right to be there, to present the truth of abortion to those who needed it most. They also showed me that there is a great deal of work to be done and that our fair isle is no longer a life sanctuary.
Showing the truth was a great beginning, but the work has barely begun.
Ann Marie Tomlins, formerly of Montague, now lives Charlottetown and is a member of Show the Truth Canada.
