Life Chain gives witness

By Cleveland V. Stordy

On the first Sunday of October, at 28 locations across B.C., thousands of pro-lifers banded together to form Life Chain 2008. They were bearing witness, as is done annually, to the value of life.

Some 500,000 Christian parishes across North America participated, most of them starting at 2 p.m. local time.

Life Chain is not chiefly a demonstration intended for the viewing public. Participants, who were holding signs that with such phrases as "Abortion Kills Children," "Abortion Hurts Women, Jesus Forgives and Heals," and "Adoption: the Loving Option," were invited to spend their hour in prayer for mothers and babies, for fathers, and for those who work to provide abortion.

In Vancouver hundreds of Life Chain supporters were out on Oak Street near Women's Hospital at 30th Avenue.

Supporters respected any "bubble zones" on their route, keeping to the other side of the street in those neighbourhoods.

Betty Green, President of Vancouver Right to Life, who was positioned near Women's Hospital, pointed out, "The city's main maternity hospitals that deliver babies are sometimes the same places where the very same doctors who deliver the babies perform government-funded late-term eugenic abortions."

"The people who run the abortion clinic and the care clinic and Women's Hospital appear to be the main organizers of the abortion industry in this area. They hold the meetings where they plan strategies, and appear in court cases."

Langley's Life Chain had hundreds of participants lining 200 St. in the area of the Langley Bypass and north from there. According to one of the organizers there were significantly more participants than last year.

In Surrey Life Chain extended for several kilometres north and south of Surrey Memorial Hospital along King George Highway.

Life Chains were also held in Abbotsford and Chilliwack.