With the new year came fewer abortion restrictions in New Brunswick, to the dismay of pro-lifers.

Members of Right to Life New Brunswick are demanding a vote in the provincial legislature on the Liberal government’s plans to make it easier to procure an abortion in the province.

TORONTO - Charges of disobeying a court order and obstructing a peace officer against Toronto pro-life demonstrator Linda Gibbons were withdrawn on Nov. 12, charges that never should have been laid in the first place, according to her lawyer. 

WASHINGTON - Pro-life groups that have battled with the federal government since the first rules were issued on contraceptive coverage in 2012 derided the government's latest rules allowing religious institutions -- and potentially some for-profit companies -- to opt out of the contraceptive mandate in the Affordable Care Act.

OTTAWA - Canada’s pro-life Crossroads Walkers finished a three-month trek across the country in Ottawa Aug. 16 with a small rally near Parliament Hill’s Eternal Flame. 

OTTAWA - A recent Angus Reid Global poll shows 59 per cent of Canadians are “fine” with no law restricting abortion, contradicting LifeCanada’s consistent polling results since 2002 that show Canadians seek some restrictions on abortion.

LifeCanada is calling for solidarity in the pro-life community for its National Day of Prayer and Fasting for abortion issues.

TORONTO - A pro-life activist launching a constitutional challenge regarding the current definition of a human being in Canadian law was released from custody as her trial came to an end on June 12, almost two years after she was arrested at a Toronto abortion site. 

Hamilton’s Catholic school board has let Liberal leader Justin Trudeau know it is unhappy with his decree that all Liberal candi-dates going forward must be pro choice.

TORONTO - Vincent Foy paced back and forth, tears rolling down his 10-year-old cheeks, and promised God that if the Lord would spare the life of his mother, he would do everything in his power to become a priest.

Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau interrupted the first long weekend of the summer to issue a “personal reflection” on his decree, announced on May 7, that pro-life candidates would be barred from contesting Liberal Party nominations.

The federal New Democrats have backed down, for now, in presenting its abortion-rights motion.

Just as elected officials are required to uphold the law they also have the right, and sometimes the duty, to advocate for reform. That doesn’t mean they’ll get their way — and most times they don’t — but in a free and democratic society it does mean they can follow their conscience, act on principle, voice reasonable opinions and, hopefully, not be judged for their beliefs, particularly those founded in faith.

Just before Christmas, 1967, then-justice minister Pierre Trudeau famously said: “There’s no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation.”

OTTAWA - When Ottawa Auxiliary Bishop Christian Riesbeck became the pastor of a parish in Houston, he came face to face with a difficult pastoral challenge — the pregnancy of a young girl.