The keynote speaker for the Rose Dinner Gala at this year's Canadian March for Life week (May 6-9) plans to accentuate the “dignity and strength of the human person” and why life must be cherished and protected starting at conception. 

Emily Stimpson Chapman, a Catholic writer and speaker based in Steubenville, Ohio, told The Catholic Register of her desire to discuss “how we need to expand our vision and advance the conversation if we want to protect women and children from the harm of our very case-based culture.”

In other words, instead of stomaching the brutal and utilitarian view of human life — particularly toward the pre-born — espoused in many secular corners, pro-life champions must trumpet a vitalizing and big-hearted message.

Stimpson Chapman, a native of Rock Island, Illinois, will share her own life story. She has been very open in speaking and writing about her struggles with infertility. Now, she and her husband Chris are blessed with three adopted children.

In a question-and-answer posting to her Substack platform, Through a Glass Darkly, about in vitro fertilization (IVF), Stimpson Chapman declared that “infertility is one of the greatest crosses I have ever carried.”

Because of the strong formation she received in studying the Theology of the Body — the 129 lectures delivered by Pope John Paul II that examine human sexuality through a God-centred lens — at the Franciscan University of Steubenville, she never considered IVF an option.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (No. 2377) declares that while homologous artificial insemination and in vitro fertilization are “perhaps less reprehensible” than treatments that require a person from outside the couple, nevertheless the techniques are “morally unacceptable.”

The Catechism declares that procedures like IVF “dissociate the sexual act from the procreative act. The act which brings the child into existence is no longer an act by which two persons give themselves to one another, but one that entrusts the life and identity of the embryo into the power of doctors and biologists and establishes the domination of technology over the origin and destiny of the human person.”

Despite the unequivocal stance of the Church, Catholic couples are among the thousands who desire the procedure in the U.S., Canada and abroad.

On Feb. 18, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to expand access to IVF for Americans. This command urges staffers to propose policy recommendations “to protect IVF access and aggressively reduce out-of-pocket and health plan costs for such treatments.”

Stimpson Chapman, who was delighted with Trump granting pardons to 23 pro-life activists in the first days of his second term, greeted the IVF announcement “with sadness.”

“As someone who is infertile and not able to conceive, I have so much empathy for women and couples who conceive through IVF,” said Stimpson Chapman. “I understand why it seems like such a great hope and such a good solution. Babies themselves are always great — there is a unique human life there.

“The executive order and many responses to it truly don't understand the issues at stake. They don't understand what it means to really respect the dignity of the human being and take care of women and honour women, particularly women's health.”

Stimpson Chapman added that we are just now “really learning how to care for women" and talk about the issues “that compel women to seek solutions like abortions or IVF,” and perhaps for too long the pro-life movement has not devoted enough focus to talking “rights that a human person has from conception until death.”

The American Catholic also expressed that the Church “has not kept pace” in communicating its stance on IVF as the societal perception of it being “a seeming good” and a legitimate solution for grieving aspiring parents continues to become more dominant.

Paragraph 2375 of the Catechism is clear that “research aimed at reducing human sterility is to be encouraged," on condition that it is placed "at the service of the human person, of his inalienable rights, and his true and integral good according to the design and will of God.”

To summarize: treatments that heal the body are acceptable while those that manipulate the body are not.

Stimpson Chapman wrote in Through a Glass Darkly that she wants women to “know that adoption isn’t some inferior backup plan. It’s a path to motherhood that is every bit as beautiful, joyful and salvific as pregnancy and childbirth.”

The Rose Dinner Gala is being hosted at the Ottawa Events and Conference Centre on May 8 starting at 6:30 p.m. EST. The National March for Life will be staged on Parliament Hill starting at noon.