Abortion is the direct and intentional killing of a pre-born human being. Approximately 100,000 human lives are ended by abortion every single year in Canada. As such, abortion is the greatest injustice our country faces, and we must work to end it as the highest priority. 

Against this claim, Christians often raise three primary objections in opposition to making abortion the foremost priority for Christian engagement in politics. We will answer each of these in turn.

First, some state that abortion is just one of many deadly crises in Canada, such as the rise of assisted suicide and the opioid crisis. To be sure, these are urgently important issues which must be addressed. 

However, as stated above, approximately 100,000 human lives are ended by abortion every single year in Canada. By contrast, not even the fentanyl crisis kills more people per year in Canada than abortion. According to the latest statistics, 44,700 people died from all opioid related poisoning in Canada between January 2016 and June 2024.¹

Taken together, this means that an average of 8,500 people are dying every year from opioid poisoning, which is about 8.5% of the death toll from abortion. We rightly are enraged when our government does not act to stop the fentanyl scourge, so where is the outrage at abortion?

Our passivity in the face of abortion is even more inexcusable when we remember that most people who die from fentanyl intentionally ingested the substance, whereas with abortion, the death was imposed by another. This doesn’t minimize addiction or place the responsibility for fentanyl deaths entirely on the person who dies. However, if it is wrong to look the other way while someone destroys themselves, it is far worse to look the other way while someone actively conspires in the dismemberment of the unborn.

Second, many Christians believe that freedom is more important than justice. To answer this objection, consider the following: we live in a country where abortion is legal through all nine months of pregnancy (including after the pre-born child can feel pain). Furthermore, every abortion in Alberta (and in all other provinces) is fully covered by our healthcare system. That necessarily means that your tax dollars are being spent on torturing children to death.

If a nation subsidizes torturing its own kids to death, can it possibly maintain true freedom?

Freedom is wonderful. However, injustice—if left unchecked—will ultimately render freedom impossible in the long run. After all, political freedom requires self-restraint and a culture that upholds values. But if we cannot restrain ourselves from killing our own children, then how is that type of restraint possible? 

If we brutally kill our own children in such astounding numbers, then what is preventing that same society from restricting fundamental freedoms? Killing is a much bigger psychological hurdle for a society to overcome. Once it has done this, all types of evil become trivial in comparison.

Finally, some object that we will never be able to restrict abortion. This idea is patently wrong.  The same was said about other injustices throughout history with much greater justification. Slavery, for example, was an institution in virtually every society before the abolitionists ended it in the Western world. Yet Christians, following the prompting of the Lord, put their minds to the task and ultimately defeated one of the greatest evils in human history.

It is true that there is a lot of work to do before we defeat abortion in Canada.  But given the stakes, that doesn’t mean we ignore it, but rather that we need to double down in our commitment.

Just a few years ago, many in the United States stated that Roe v. Wade would never be overturned. Things that seem impossible to man are made possible by God. This is not to say that God owes the pro-life movement victory. It may well be his plan that our efforts are not to result in that outcome, but rather His plan is deeper and ultimately more glorious.  He still expects us to fight, and fight we must.

Abortion is the greatest injustice our country and province faces, and we must work to end it as the highest priority.

1 - Key findings: Opioid- and Stimulant-related Harms in Canada — Canada.ca