I’m losing faith in humanity’s ability not to be morons.  Thats actually not strong enough; but I’ll try and keep it PG.

Fredericton’s a great place. People are extremely friendly, they don’t try to hit you with thier cars and they give canvasers money… Nice right? My point is, I don’t want to generalize too much here. I’ve met great people in this city and nothing’s going to change that. I mean, just this morning I had a lovely chat about MRIs with this woman I met on the bus. Weird? Yes. It sure beats talking about the weather though.

I’ll start from the beggining. A few weeks ago, I ended up getting into this really interesting conversation with Marcel, the guy I’m billeting with here in Fredericton. We got talking about women’s rights particularly in terms of healthcare and abortion. Marcel told me to go for a walk by the Morgentaler Clinic on a tuesday sometime. Last week, I finally did.

There are Morgentaler Clinics all over Canada and they specialize in providing safe and compassionate abortion care. The Clinic in downtown Fredericton has been subject to a huge protest for the last month. It’s called “40 Days For Life” and was organized by a catholic pro-life group. although there are protesters at the clinic year round, this new “campaign” was started in protest of a law suit going on which asks for abortions to be covered under New Brunswick’s provincial healthcare. Quebec and New Brunswick are the only two provinces that do not honour the Canada Health Act by failing to provide this service free of charge.

The protesters here in Fredericton are particulary nasty, and gather en masse each Tuesday (the day the abortions are performed) to pray, yell and otherwise harass the women entering the clinic. They’ve gone as far as to set up a fake clinic next door, hoping to trick the women into thinking that it’s the Morgentaler Clinic.

Last Tueday morning I went down there my self to see what was going on. At 7:30 in the morning there were already people gathering. The Clinic Escort (staff from the clinic, helping women come inside) were standing ready with there coffees and winter clothes. None even so much as raised an eyebrow when I started taking photographs.

Here are a few from that day:

This man hid his face, when he saw that I was taking pictures. Proud of his cause?

This woman was my favorite. When I started taking pictures of her, she asked me what I was doing. I nicely explained to her. She then demadingly asked me why I hadn’t asked her permission first. In very nice language (as sweetly as I could manage) I calmly explained to her that because she was on a public street, and part of a potentially offensive protest, that she had no reasonable expectation of privacy. I think she was expecting me to apologize and leave. After I explained, she rudely said, “Okay” and went right back to ignoring me. I think I heard her mumble something about me being a sinner under her breath. I didn’t realize how obviously pro-choce I looked, I mean, I could have been there in support of their protest!

This man’s sign simply say’s “Prayers to End Abortion” but some of the other’s where quite  a lot worse. “Jesus Loves Us Mommy” seemed to be quite popular.

Oh, one other thing about this man. When I got near him, he said demandingly, “Who are you?!” I said, “Um, I’m not quite sure what you mean.” To which he said again, “Who are you?!” I was just annoyed after that so again, trying to look all innocent I smiled and said, “My name is Bron, How are you this morning?” He walked away.

Here’s a quote from the 40 Days blog. It creeps me out to read the blog and frankly just makes me feel sick.

“We heard a sad story from one vigiler how a mother and father walked by with two young children, maybe 5 and 6 years old. The mother shouts out, ‘I agree with abortion! I had an abortion!’ Can you imagine? Saying that in the presence of these little ones! You can just imagine one of them asking, ‘Mommy, what’s an abortion?’ What would the answer be? The father just seemed to hang his head down, as they walked on.

“This was a poignant reminder that despite all the rhetoric from the ‘pro-choice’ crowd how the real issue is ‘choice’, not abortion, the real issue really is abortion. This is what women have to live with for the rest of their days. This poor woman may think she’s got some kind of handle on it, but the truth is abortion has got a hold of her. Lord, as you hold her aborted child close in your arms, have mercy on this mother and her family.”

It’s a direct quote from their blog. Don’t believe me? It’s at: http://www.40daysforlife.com

However, I recommend reading this: http://antichoiceantiawesome.blogspot.com/

It’s called Anti-Choice is Anti-Awesome, and it’s the blog of a clinic escort at the Morgentaler Clinic. It’s great.

And also:  http://www.morgentalernb.ca/

“I have a commitment to human values, to human dignity, respect for people who are different, to social justice, to a richer life for all people, to democracy in its broadest social and political sense”

Henry Morgentaler – 1965