This beautiful story comes from the Love Out Loud campaign, which celebrates motherhood in all its forms. The campaign has at its heart the message Cara defines this way: “As moms we have different journeys, but the one thing we share in common is the unconditional love we have for our children.”
Motherhood is a unique journey for every woman who walks it. Perfect families don’t happen unless we adjust our ideas of what perfect can look like.
As this story shows, how we speak and act as a society can also impact how supported or scared women feel facing motherhood, especially when their child is given a prenatal diagnosis that shakes their world. We can react to a difficult diagnosis by turning to abortion, or we can face it with love for life, even when that life may look different than we had envisioned.
Cara in this video states that her work as an ER nurse has taught her that “no one is promised tomorrow.” So let’s fight for them have the right to fully live their todays.
One of the main issues we’re tackling on lifeTOUR is legal recognition for pre-born victims of crime. Wanted babies can be killed without legal ramifications, not only by abortionists, but also by controlling lovers, violent partners, abusive spouses, and complete strangers. A Pre-born Victims of Crime Law would allow wanted babies to be legally recognized as victims if they are killed in the course of a criminal act committed against a pregnant woman.
To be clear, this law does not specifically target abortion, as the mother herself could not be charged under such a law. Abortion providers would also not be charged, as long as they have the consent of the pregnant woman to perform the abortion. While it may seem abundantly clear to us that abortion is more deliberate than the most intentional of murders, Canadian law has yet to catch up to logic on that one, and that is not what this law would address.
There are numerous cases in recent Canadian history where surviving family and friends are shocked and saddened to learn that the pre-born child they so looked forward to holding in their arms counts for nothing in our laws and in our courts. Cassandra Kaake’s pre-born daughter Molly was the most recent such tragedy, and Molly’s father continues the fight to have her recognized in law as a victim in her own right.
As Canadians, we are passionate about victims’ rights, and the need to support and uphold victims. Pre-born children are our most vulnerable citizens, and, if the life of one is taken in crime by someone who clearly knew the victim was pregnant, that life needs to be recognized. We need to validate the choice of every woman who chooses to love and carry her child. We need to tell women and children that they will be protected, and, if protection fails, they will be honoured and esteemed for the lives they were and could have been.
Please join us in supporting a Pre-born Victims of Crime Law. For more details, come see our presentation at one of the lifeTOUR stops near you, visit our Molly Matters page, and join us in signing the petition to make this law a reality.