K-W Right to Life Association

How did we get involved in the Pro-Life movement? Our memories emphasize different aspects here. Marilyn feels that the major impetus behind our involvement was the television program Bear Pit that on one occasion featured Grace Hargrave of Toronto Right-to-Life. Grace's calm and cool demeanor, while under attack, was impressive. Our follow-up phone call led to our participation in a subsequent pro-life demonstration in Toronto, including a walk from City Hall to the St. Lawrence Centre, where we first heard Jack and Barbara Wilke of Cincinnati Right-to-Life.

Hart has strong memories of a steady onslaught in the then Women's Section of the Kitchener-Waterloo Record that appeared to promote the views of the United Church hierarchy and the Canadian Medical Association in favor of making abortion a personal and private affair, beyond the purview of the law. One night the Record carried the story of Frances Martin, a delivery-room nurse at the Hamilton Henderson Hospital, who was demoted and transferred to another department because of her refusal to participate in abortion procedures. Her stated reasons were based on moral and religious grounds.

By late 1971 our concerns had brought us into contact with other like-minded people and we became part of a steering committee of seven. One of the group's first concrete actions was to invite the Wilkes to address a public meeting to be held on the campus of WLU in early 1972.

During the last planning meeting in preparation for the Wilke visit, one of the group, the Reverend Ralph Humphries of Glen Acres Baptist Church, urged us to launch a local Right-to-Life group and KW Right-to-Life can trace its beginnings to that evening.

In the early days of the abortion debate, the subject generated broad interest in the greater community and members of the group were invited to speak at many public meetings, in a broad area, extending from St. Catharines to Walkerton, from Guelph to Goderich.

K-W and the surrounding communities responded readily and generously, participating in petitions to city councils, hospital boards, and provincial and federal governments. Many joined our group, large numbers protested in a huge circle around KW Hospital on Mother's Day in 1973, and they began to sponsor advertisements in all the local media.

We came from so many different backgrounds, but the bond that united us was the knowledge that the act of abortion is a violation of the core values that bestow meaning and dignity to our existence.

K-W & Area Right to Life Association

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