‘Stop being bashful’ and stand for life: ex-abortion doctor at Coquitlam talk

My latest for the BC Catholic weekly newspaper

Christians of all denominations need “to stop being bashful” and instead act boldly to turn the tide on abortion, a leading U.S.-based pro-life advocate told a Coquitlam audience last week.

Dr. Haywood Robinson, a spokesman for the Texas-based 40 Days for Life campaign, spoke to nearly 200 people at Our Lady of Lourdes Church on Feb. 23, calling abortion “the greatest genocide in history.”

With Canada accounting for over 100,000 abortions a year and 200,000 lives lost every day, he said “The whole abortion holocaust offends God more than it does us.”

Formerly a physician who performed abortions in California and Texas, Robinson said he believed he was simply providing a medical service and making easy money in the process. But as the years passed and his faith deepened, he could no longer ignore the human reality before him. That awakening changed his medical practice and ignited his Christian faith.

With his wife Daphne Robinson listening, he told his audience that pro‑lifers are not the radical activists of the abortion debate, as their opponents argue. “We are the ones standing up for 2,000 years of Christian history,” he said.

Although being anti-abortion may place the audience in the minority, he offered them a message of hope from Deuteronomy 32:30: “How could one man pursue a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless the LORD had given them up?” God, he said, does not need large numbers to accomplish great things, he only needs faithfulness.

Likewise, he said, God’s work can be seen in the hundreds of 40-Days for Life vigils launched worldwide last week, including near the B.C. Women’s Hospital and Health Centre. That physical presence is a key part of the campaign and something God builds on.

“When you guys are out there, they know you’re out there,” he said. “We are telling them, ‘We aren’t going anywhere until you go. We aren’t going anywhere because we serve the risen King.’”

Robinson spent time with attendees afterward, including Kimberly Bromley, executive director of the Pregnancy Concerns crisis-pregnancy centre in Coquitlam. She told him that with financial assistance from the Knights of Columbus, the centre will soon purchase an ultrasound machine — a tool proven to help mothers choose life. 40 Days organizer Heather Thompson said Robinson’s speech could not have come at a better moment. “It was a night of conviction, courage, and renewed resolve,” said the St. Clare of Assisi parishioner. “It felt like the beginning of something bigger.”

Vancouver 40 Days for Life organizers were pleased by the large and enthusiastic audience, having only had a week to organize and publicize the event.

“On very short notice, 175 to 200 people came to listen to this talk tonight,” said Father Larry Lynn, Our Lady of Lourdes pastor and pro-life chaplain for the Archdiocese of Vancouver. “It was inspirational and galvanizing. People want to step in, to do their best to stop the killing. And it’s growing."