COLUMN: Think Again – When promoting life becomes controversial

“Celebrate the gift of life!”

That was the message on Life Culture’s Christmas digital billboard campaign. It showed a picture of a pregnant woman and included a link to Life Culture’s website. This ad was supposed to run on electronic billboards in Steinbach and Winnipeg throughout the month of December.

Sadly, people will never see this ad on a billboard. That’s because the billboard company rejected Life Culture’s ad, claiming it would create too much controversy. Further, the billboard company implied it would not run future ads from Life Culture.

Obviously, private billboard companies have the right to do what they wish with their own advertising spaces. I find it unfortunate, however, that a simple message about celebrating the gift of life is deemed too controversial in Canada today.

While Life Culture is a pro-life organization that opposes abortion, it does much more than that. Life Culture provides a variety of resources for pregnant women such as baby diapers, formula, and counselling. Some of the support groups run by Life Culture include Angel Baby (pregnancy & infant loss), infertility support, and a foster mom support group. Earlier this year, Life Culture even started running self-defence classes for women.

One of the most common accusations made against pro-life activists is that they don’t value the lives of women. That certainly does not hold true for Life Culture. Not only is Life Culture’s executive director, Susan Penner, a woman, so is everyone else who works there.

Now I cannot claim to be unbiased on this matter. Susan Penner is a long-time city council colleague of mine and a close personal friend. In addition, I serve as the board chair of Life Culture. This means that I have a personal stake in what happens to Life Culture.

However, my role as board chair has also given me a firsthand view of the inner workings of Life Culture. At our board meetings, we regularly discuss ways to promote a culture of life in Canada.

Visit Life Culture’s website and you will see a clear statement that “Living a holistic pro-life ethics means to value the lives of all people, including those with different values, opinions, and lifestyles.” Simply put, Life Culture’s resources are not limited to women who pass an ideological litmus test. All women are welcome at Life Culture.

In addition, Life Culture states that it will “support policies that are pro-life in nature, even if not explicitly pro-life. This means working alongside people who have different positions on abortion, but still finding common ground so we can make incremental gains in areas that support women and life.”

This pragmatic approach means that Life Culture is more interested in making practical gains for women and babies than in political grandstanding.

Because Life Culture doesn’t have the same ability to advertise as other organizations, it relies primarily on word-of-mouth to get its message out. Consider this a personal invitation from me to learn more about Life Culture by visiting its website at lifeculture.ca.

As we enter the Christmas season, I can think of no better time to consider adding Life Culture to the list of organizations that you support. Whether that is through your prayers, emails/letters of support to Susan Penner and her employees, donations of baby supplies during the annual Walk for Life, or direct financial contributions, anything you can do is much appreciated.

Promoting life might be too controversial for a commercial billboard company, but it shouldn’t be controversial for ordinary people like you and me to do what we can to affirm the value and worth of every person.

Michael Zwaagstra is a high school teacher and deputy mayor of Steinbach. He can be reached at mzwaagstra@shaw.ca.