D
Over the past few years, I have published a number of Guest Opinions and Letters to the Editor in Island newspapers on the topic of abortion and protecting unborn children. I am providing a list of links to these articles, either as PDF files which can be easily printed, or as links to the actual website pages of the newspapers where the articles can be found, or both. The list starts with the most recent articles. I provide a brief explanation of the “context”with a few sentences describing the situation at the time each piece was written to highlight what prompted me to write and publish these articles.
December 9, 2016: FUNDING ALL ABORTIONS REMAINS ILLEGAL. I sent this Guest Opinion to Island Newspapers on December 9 and it appeared with the same title in the Eastern Graphic on December 14th, and the Journal Pioneer on December 16; and in the Guardian on December 20 with the title, Funding Abortions Still Illegal.
August 29, 2016: MOTHER TERESA: A COURAGEOUS VOICE FOR THE UNBORN. I sent this to Island papers a few days before Mother Teresa was declared a saint by Pope Francis. It appeared in the Guardian on September 1, 2016.
July 25, 2016: A RESPONSE TO THE GUARDIAN EDITORIAL ON ABORTION JUDICIAL REVIEW. A couple of days after Judge Nancy Key denied me standing to bring a Judicial Review of PEI’s Abortion policy before the PEI Supreme Court, the Guardian Newspaper published an editorial titled, “Time to Move On: Abortion Debate Long Over.” I wasn’t planning to write another Guest Opinion on abortion anytime soon; however, the Guardian’s editorial was so factually inaccurate, biased and unfair it demanded a response. I sent this Guest Opinion article to the Guardian on July 25 but the Guardian refused to publish it, so I uploaded it to my website.
April 29, 2016: RECENT FEDERAL COURT RULING PROTECTS UNBORN CHILDREN [PDF]. This Guest Opinion was published in the West Prince Graphic on May 4th. It was published in the Guardian Newspaper on May 13th under the title P.E.I. Must Drop Abortion Plans. It appeared in the Journal Pioneer with the original title on May 17. The piece summarizes and comments on a Federal Court of Canada decision rendered on April 21, 2016 which obliges governments to both enact and interpret laws which protect the unborn and serve their best interests. Despite the legal significance of this landmark ruling, to my knowledge it has not been reported or discussed in the mainstream media within Canada. You can read the entire ruling (19 pages) by clicking on this Link.
April 23, 2016: AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PREMIER ON ABORTION [PDF]. This Guest Opinion was also published in the Journal Pioneer under the title Province Does Not have to Facilitate Abortions. The Journal Pioneer changed the format of my article from an open letter addressed to the premier, but did not make any other substantial edits. The Guardian published the piece exactly as written using the same title [Click here for an online Guardian version, where you can make comments and share on social media] . The article included a link to this website and encouraged Islanders to take the time to read the “factum” to understand why PEI does not have to offer or pay for surgical abortions.
April 18, 2016: THE NAMES THAT MUST NOT BE SPOKEN ALOUD [PDF]. This Guest Opinion was just sent to the Guardian, Journal Pioneer, Eastern Graphic and West Prince Graphic newspapers. The Journal Pioneer published it on April 19 with the same title: The Names that Must Not be Spoken Aloud. It addresses the way in which language is used to keep the truth about abortion from informing our moral consciousness. In particular, it highlights how Premier Wade MacLaughlin and the Minister of Health and Wellness, Hon. Robert Henderson, were able to make the recent announcement about offering abortion services in PEI without ever mentioning or using the names “human being” or “unborn children.”
February 18, 2016: JUDICIAL REVIEW SOUGHT [PDF]. This Guest Opinion first appeared in the Journal Pioneer on February 16 under the title Abortion: Application for Judicial Review filed with the P.E.I. Supreme Court, then in the Guardian on February 18 under the title Judicial review sought on P.E.I. abortion policy. This article gave a summary of the main points and claims on the legal case I filed. I had asked the Guardian editor if he could put a picture of an 
unborn child with the article since it was really an article about keeping and following the existing policy and laws which were not so much about providing abortion services as protecting unborn children from unnecessary abortions. The picture of a child in the womb that was both powerful and beautiful, which I very much appreciated.
January 7, 2016: PEI GOVERNMENT HAS NO LEGAL OBLIGATION TO PROVIDE ABORTION SERVICES This Guest Opinion published in the Guardian and Journal Pioneer was another attempt to correct public statements by the leaders of Abortion Access Now P.E.I., who had just made a public announcement that a lawsuit had been launched against the provincial government challenging PEI’s decision not to provide surgical abortions in PEI. This piece was also published in the Journal Pioneer under the title, Let’s Establish More Life-Giving Medical Procedures in PEI.
July 13, 2015: IN DEFENCE OF RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE After Premier MacLaughlin announced that abortion-on-demand would be implemented for Island women without a doctor’s referral, Bishop Grecco of the Diocese of Charlottetown sent a letter to all Parishes addressing this issue, as well as the recent decision by the Supreme Court of Canada to strike down Canada’s law preventing euthanasia. There was considerable backlash, in particular a Guest Opinion from Dr. Richard Deaton attacking the Bishop titled: Bishop Violates Wall Between Church and State. My Guest opinion was a response to Dr. Deaton’s article.
May 28, 2015: ABORTION IS NOT A LEGAL RIGHT IN CANADA This Letter to the Editor was published in the Journal Pioneer under the title Abortion Not a Constitutional Right on May 28, then appeared in the Guardian on June 1st. It was a response to numerous recent public statements by abortion advocates and the newly elected premier of PEI that greater access to abortion for Island women was necessary to comply with the legal right to abortion afforded to women by the Supreme Court following the 1988 Morgantaler ruling. This Letter attempted to correct this misinformation and clarify that the PEI government was not required to pay for medical procedures that were not “medically necessary.” The very next day after this piece appeared in the Guardian, June 2nd, the premier held a news conference to announce that abortion-on-demand would be offered Island women at the Moncton hospital in New Brunswick and no doctor referral was required: Premier Announces Abortion-on-Demand.
April 21, 2015: POPE CONTINUES TO REJECT ABORTION This Letter to the Editor was a response to a Guardian editorial criticizing the Bishop of the Diocese of Charlottetown for expressing the opinion that Catholics should not support abortions. The Guardian editorial made statements suggesting that Pope Francis was not concerned about Catholics opposing abortion, including the statement: “Perhaps Island Catholics should listen to Pope Francis who has urged the church to cool its obsession with abortion…and just talk about Jesus.” My Letter included a lengthy quotation from Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation expressing in no uncertain terms what a heinous crime and sin abortion is and why Catholics must do everything possible to protect the unborn.
July 17, 2014: UPCOMING ABORTION CONFERENCE WILL BE ONE-SIDED AFFAIR This Guest Opinion published in the Guardian and Journal Pioneer, then subsequently posted on the PEI Right to Life website, exposed how an international conference on abortion scheduled to take place at the University of PEI in August, 2014 was actually a “pro-abortion” conference with only abortion advocates being were invited. This Guest Opinion was discussed in various national media, including in National Pro-Life News Today under the title: Biased pro-choice activism wrapped “in the guise of ‘academic excellence’”
June 19, 2014: POPE FRANCIS ON ABORTION AND HUMAN RIGHTS [PDF]. This Guest Opinion was published in the Journal Pioneer newspaper [Click here for online version] to address several recent suggestions in the mainstream media that abortion was not an issue that Pope Francis was concerned about. It quotes Pope Francis saying how defending the unborn is the most basic and fundamental human right upon which all other human rights depend.
December 12, 2012: DEFENDING NEWBORN BABIES [PDF]. This Letter to the Editor was published in the Guardian newspaper [Click here for online version] to address a disturbing fact which had not been covered in the mainstream media: that a little segment of a Statistics Canada report on abortion confirmed that from 2000 to 2009, 491 babies were left to die after they were born alive during botched abortions. Despite the fact that the Canadian criminal code regards these as severe crimes, none of these instances, although officially reported to the government, resulting in any criminal investigations or charges.