Posted on 08/10/2007 10:34:35 AM PDT by wagglebee
CALGARY, August 9, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In contrast with the media blackout that pro-life Canadians are used to expecting at their demonstrations, media coverage of the Reproductive Choice Campaign trucks rolling on Calgary streets this week has been lively. The trucks feature three-metre high photos of aborted children and an email address for more information.
Local papers and radio stations were joined by CBC and Global News who took video footage, while CTV News Calgary has run a two-minute television news spot three times in the last two days and included the sponsoring group's website address. This coverage constitutes a frenzy compared to the nearly total media blackout that is traditional at pro-life events such as the annual March for Life event in Ottawa.
The Calgary Sun headlined today's article, "Graphic abortion images shock Calgarians" and carried the CTV story verbatim in print form. A smaller local paper, Fast Forward Weekly, ran the headline "Little truck of horrors" and quoted Stephanie Gray, Executive Director of the Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform, the truck's sponsoring group, responding to the accusations of shocking onlookers. "If there is nothing wrong with abortion, the images shouldn't bother them," she said.
A talk radio station, CHQR 770, has been broadcasting their report on the trucks every half hour from noon yesterday to five pm today. 630 CHED radio in Edmonton will carry a live 30-minute interview with Gray and she will be on 940 Montreal at 10:35 am EST for ten minutes.
CTV's video spot, which is available online, clearly shows close-ups of the photos and reporter Najuma Yagzan says, "You can clearly distinguish a body, hands and feet."
Jose Ruba, a cofounder and staffer of CCBR who today drove the support car accompanying the trucks, told LifeSiteNews.com that this was likely the first time the GAP pictures had been seen on English-language Canadian television.
"We had the GAP photos in Ottawa in 2004 when Planned Parenthood was giving Henry Morgentaler a lifetime achievement award and the national French-language TV used the images. But even when the CBC covered the controversy over the GAP display at UBC [in 2000], they only filmed the GAP images from 30 or 40 feet away."
"The whole story at UBC then was about the signs, but they didn't even show them. So today's coverage from so many sources was a big win for us in that they showed the signs," Ruba said.
Onlookers interviewed by CTV agreed that the images are "shocking" but also that they depict something true. "I've had nothing to do with it personally, so you don't think seriously about it, but looking at that, you can see the murder aspect of it all," one man said.
CTV offered a counter argument from a spokesman of Sexual Health Access Alberta (SHAA), but declined to mention that the group is an abortion advocating organization that until September 2006 was called Planned Parenthood Alberta. SHAA's Executive Director, Laura Wershler, criticised the tactic saying, "In those circumstances there's no opportunity for meaningful discussion or debate."
But Stephanie Gray told LifeSiteNews.com that she and her group were still waiting to hear back from Wershler on their offer of a public debate. Gray said, "I contacted Laura requesting a debate partner and I'm waiting to hear back from her and this is months ago."
CCBR said they contacted Wershler on November 16, 2006 on behalf of the pro-life club at the University of Calgary. "I emailed her a sample debate format and agreed that the debate should be a civil one with a neutral moderator."
"I'm still waiting to hear back from her," Gray said.
Wershler did not return calls from LifeSiteNews.com by deadline.
Onlookers interviewed by CTV, however, showed no signs of psychological trauma from seeing the photos. In one street interview, a young woman appeared unsettled but admitted that the images were depicting the reality of abortion, "To me, that's really harsh, but that's reality I guess. It's what happens when you have an abortion. But, wow, that is graphic, yeah."
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Billboard-Size Abortion Photos to be Shown throughout Canada as Trucks Take the Message to the Streets
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/aug/07080802.html
Pro-Life GAP Display At UBC Causes an Uproar
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2000/oct/00102501.html
Bloggers Trump Mainstream Media With YouTube Videos of Canadian March for Life
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/may/07051705.html
Watch CTV coverage:
http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/RTGAMArticleHTMLTemplate/B/200...
Excellent!
"If there is nothing wrong with abortion, the images shouldn't bother them," she said.
The pro-death crowd can't double-talk its way out of this. Their only defense is the usual media blackout.
Murderers?
However, this is no excuse to expose children to it. They are babies themselves. The Jewish Holocaust, the Rwandan Holocaust and abortion are all terrible. We shelter our children from the pictures until they are old enough to understand the teaching in it.
They are crass in child magnet areas. Parked on the street by an abortion clinic? More power to them. Parked at the beach at 2:00 pm? It’s tasteless.
Tough times require tough people.
>>It’s not collateral damage, the truth hurts sometimes. but it must be faced<<
To a four year old? Really, think. He is just a baby himself!
>>Tough times require tough people.<<
That is correct. However, smart people know that there is a time and place for everything.
What is to be gained by exposing five or six year olds to these pictures? And specifically targeting places that are meant for children this young?
*************
I agree with you. As adults, it is our job to protect children.
I’m sorry he had to be traumatized at all, I’m glad the pictures traumatized him because if they didn’t he would be a very disturbed individual.
I don’t know the circumstances of your situation, I was talking about this particular news story, nowhere does it say they were concentrated in amusement parks or beaches, just regular city streets.
I’m not sure why you felt the need to bring up something not relevant to the story.
Thank you!
Hmmmm, are you finding on this thread that people care more about the preborn than the born?
Isn’t that a conservative stereotype?
I’d prefer that to a million babies murdered, yes.
“They give Pro-Life people a bad name.”
I prefer you be offended and one or 2 or 3 or more children be traumatized and ultimately see abortion end than to see one more child die at the hands of a murdering abortionist.
No flames from me. I totally agree with you.
It’s a discussion.
We discuss it from all experiences.
I told you mine.
You told me that you don’t care about the emotional wellbeing of a five-year-old child of Pro-Life parents.
I guess we both know where we stand.
>Hmmmm, are you finding on this thread that people care more about the preborn than the born?
No, I just find violent murder more abhorrent than mental trauma.
I guess we both know where you stand on that.
I agree with you. I am all for these billboards on college campuses, across from DNC conventions, in the face of Congress etc. They don’t need to be in more family oriented areas. It is a cruel, harsh world, but I am called as a mother to protect the innocence of my children. I think it is a matter of people working with each other on this issue.
>>No, I just find violent murder more abhorrent than mental trauma.<<
Targeting children to give them mental trauma is cruel and not a good use of those trucks. Targeting those who need the education, is.
Show people pictures of smiling children in the womb, not of blood.
>>....but I am called as a mother to protect the innocence of my children.<<
Oh thank you so much!
That is exactly what I am saying.
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