FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Former Patient takes up Challenge by Member of Parliament to Debate Abortion
Dr. Hedy Fry, Member of Parliament, says she is ready to debate abortion with anyone
May 4, 2010. Calgary. In response to Dr. Hedy Fry’s claim that the abortion debate is unnecessary in Canada, one of her former patients is publicly challenging her to discuss the issue – a patient cared for by Dr. Fry in-utero and beyond.
Yesterday, Fry, Member of Parliament from Vancouver Centre, stated that she was ready to debate abortion with anyone but that the debate was not necessary in Canada (http://www.cbc.ca/politics/insidepolitics/2010/05/abortion-the-debate-about-the-debate.html).
“She obviously hasn’t paid attention to what’s going on at universities recently,” said Stephanie Gray, executive director of the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform (CCBR). Gray cited student groups across the country engaging in the debate: “Pro-life students are being censored, banned and even charged for trespassing on their own schools,” said Gray. “That doesn’t sound like a dead debate to me.”
Gray said she herself, and members of her staff, have faced great resistance from abortion advocates attempting to shut their presentations down—and even successfully doing so at some schools. But this doesn’t discourage her.
“The fact that we’re being invited to speak at schools at all means that the debate isn’t over. There’s a growing movement of young people who are saying that it is undemocratic for Canadians of one generation to close the debate on such an important topic for all Canadians.”
Gray, whose own mother was a patient of Dr. Fry when she was pregnant with her, says a new generation of Canadians who weren’t old enough to vote when abortion was debated in the 1980’s, are demanding that their voice be heard now.
“If Dr. Fry is truly prepared to debate anyone on abortion then I would be glad to take her up on that challenge,” said Gray. “The fact that there are people of my generation who are willing and able to talk about the great injustice happening to the unborn means that the debate is not only necessary but that it something Canadians want to hear.”
Gray said she sent Fry’s office an invitation for her to participate in a public debate and will await her response.
For more information, please contact:
Stephanie Gray, 403-200-0777 (cell) or sgray@unmaskingchoice.ca
OPEN LETTER
May 4, 2010
Dr. Hedy Fry
Member of Parliament
Vancouver-Centre
Dear Dr. Fry,
I read the May 3 CBC report, “Abortion: The debate about the debate” (http://www.cbc.ca/politics/insidepolitics/2010/05/abortion-the-debate-about-the-debate.html) where it referenced you saying, “Fry says she has all her arguments ready and is set to debate anyone on the topic, but she feels it's unnecessary.” I am also aware that in 2008 you were willing to do a debate on abortion at the UBC medical school but the event never went ahead.
I am therefore asking if you’d be willing to debate me in a public forum about abortion?
As a representative of the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform (CCBR), I have been speaking and traveling across the country on abortion for over 8 years, which includes many formal debates. In my experience the abortion debate is very alive. And yet, I was intrigued by the aforementioned CBC report that, when reporting on your feeling that the debate is unnecessary, said, “Because the question in Canada is settled; so there's no need to re-examine it.”
From Memorial University in Newfoundland to the University of Victoria, pro-life students are reopening the abortion debate on university campuses and are getting national attention for their work. The fact that abortion advocates at those schools feel it is necessary to ban, censor or even threaten with arrest, students for simply protesting abortion or holding debates on abortion tells me that the debate is far from finished. There is a need to re-examine it.
As the former minister for the Status of Women and a medical doctor, I know that you are well aware that in Canada 1 in 4 pregnancies end in abortion. Moreover, Canadian taxpayers pay for those abortions. In other words, we are all affected by this issue. This is why it is surprising that you would feel the debate is unnecessary.
However, I am glad to know that you are also more than ready to debate anyone on the abortion issue.
When my mom was pregnant with me, you were her medical doctor. And in that sense, and after my birth, you were my doctor too. You may not have been aware then, but the pro-life values of my parents are ones that I advocate now and I would be glad to take you up on your offer of a debate. I would be glad to participate in an uncensored discussion over abortion with you.
For your convenience, perhaps you’d be interested in debating at the University of British Columbia, where I graduated from.
Please feel free to contact us so we can work out the details.
Sincerely yours,
Stephanie Gray
Executive Director
