As the coronavirus exposes the horrors of eldercare in Canada, pro-life sentiments are popping up from unlikely sources.

In a National Post editorial the author states: “Ensuring adequate care for those whose years rob them of the ability to fully look after themselves should be at the top of any priority list.”

Being Dependant

The fact that pre-born children are dependent on another for life is often given as justification to kill them. I recall engaging with someone on Facebook under an article about Canada’s lack of definition around abortion. She believed that the unborn, being fully dependent on the mother as a parasite is on a host, were therefore ineligible for personhood. I’d like to ask her what she’d do with all these people who are at the other end of the spectrum.

Or maybe such questions can now be deferred to the National Post! The article goes on to acknowledge that, “By their very nature, people in care homes aren’t able to create the sort of noise required to attract the attention of governments.”

Does that allusion to voiceless vulnerability ring a bell? Isn’t that precisely why we need a pro-life movement?

A System Not Designed to Protect

An editor with the Ottawa Citizen wrote about the elder care tragedy from a personal perspective. Substitute “pre-born” for “old” in her closing paragraph: “Yes, you’ll say, but they’re old… You may not care much. But I do. And I weep for those who will lose loved ones in a system that was never really designed to protect them in the first place.”

This is the reality for the unwanted unborn in Canada: The system is not designed to protect them. Allowing the weak and vulnerable to die as a result of intentional neglect is a national disgrace. Those addressing the elder care crisis agree. We pro-lifers add our voices to theirs on behalf of every human, no matter how long each has existed.

But the most stunning pro-life statement comes from the mouth of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. On April 11 in the Prime Minister’s address to the House of Commons, he said,

“Our job as Canadians is to uphold the dignity and sanctity of every single human life – whether they be rich or poor, young or old, ailing or healthy. That is our duty.”

This statement is in the public record. We can hold the government accountable by quoting it to our MPs, featuring it in letters to the editor, and sharing it on social media platforms. Because after this pandemic is over, the sanctity of human life will go on.