“Prosecuting women and girls for abortion is not only cruel and discriminatory, but also puts their health and lives in danger by driving them to clandestine and unsafe procedures,” Margaret Wurth said during an interview in 2019.

Abortions happen: Whether legal or illegal, safe or unsafe, women get abortions, by free volition or coercion. If it is legal and safe, over time, the rates will go down, and women’s health will improve. If illegal and unsafe, the rates go up, and women’s health gets progressively worse.

In British Columbia, where I live, opposition to abortion is less a grassroots movement than a pulpit-driven campaign. Anti-abortion groups here often lean heavily on religious orthodoxy, framing their resistance in the language of faith rather than public health. Churches—more than any other institutions—are the loudest voices calling for restrictions on reproductive freedom. However, their fervor, however sincere, tends to sidestep medical evidence and ignore the real-world consequences. If their vision were enacted, it would lead, inevitably, to preventable injuries—and deaths—among women.

“Unsafe abortion is a leading – but preventable – cause of maternal deaths and morbidities. It can lead to physical and mental health complications and social and financial burdens for women, families, and health systems,” the World Health Organization writes.

I don’t write this for myself alone. I write for the countless individuals—particularly those who have grown up in or remain tethered to conservative Christian communities—who risk social exile for challenging the church’s reach into public policy. Speaking out against religious overreach isn’t just difficult; it can be dangerous. Dissenters often face harassment, threats, professional repercussions, and estrangement from family and friends. Many are pushed to the margins of their communities, especially women who are shamed, misled, and pressured by theological teachings when facing critical, personal decisions about reproductive health.

Atheists and other nonbelievers, too, are frequent targets of deep-seated prejudice, facing not just theological condemnation but also social and psychological harm. The result is a climate of fear and silence—a moral absolutism that stifles dialogue, punishes nuance, and endangers lives.

Langley, British Columbia, is the home to Christ Covenant Church, which made headlines in the Aldergrove Star. On October 16, 2021, 10,000 pink and blue flags were placed on the church lawn, led by Elyse Vroom. Each flag represented 10 aborted fetuses. The protest banner read “We Need a Law,” calling for legislation restricting late-stage and sex-selective abortions to protect the ‘pre-born.’

In Surrey, British Columbia, the Precious Blood Parish recently participated in Life Chain, an annual anti-abortion demonstration held across Canada. Organized under the banner of silent prayer, the event is promoted as a moment of reflection. But the underlying message—especially as reported by BC Catholic—is anything but subtle: abortion is framed unequivocally as a moral evil. Rallies were held on October 5 and 6 in various locations, including outside St. Joseph’s Parish in Port Moody and near Surrey Memorial Hospital.

These vigils are part of a broader and increasingly organized faith-based movement across the province. Immaculate Conception Parish in Delta maintains a dedicated Pro-Life Group that takes part in globally coordinated anti-abortion efforts—Pro-Life Sunday in June, Life Chain in October, and the March for Life in May. Nearby, Sacred Heart Parish runs its own “Hope for Life” ministry, while St. Joseph’s Parish has expanded its activism beyond abortion to include opposition to euthanasia. St. Francis de Sales Parish in Burnaby also hosts a similar ministry.

In Vancouver, St. Mary’s Parish, St. Anthony of Padua Parish, and St. Patrick’s Parish all support structured anti-abortion ministries. St. Mary’s holds monthly prayer sessions, asking for divine intervention to end abortion. While prayer itself is not coercive, its political function is harder to ignore—especially given that studies like the 2006 Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP) have found no measurable impact of prayer on health outcomes.

St. Anthony of Padua’s ministry goes a step further, offering prayers specifically for workers at abortion clinics, urging them to “seek truth” and reconsider their careers. St. Patrick’s Parish hosts a similar ministry under a more ambiguous name: the “Pro-Life Society.”

The irony at the heart of these campaigns is difficult to ignore. Presented as exercises in public awareness, they are in fact rooted less in medical reality or principles of informed consent than in theological certitude. In a pluralistic democracy, the elevation of religious dogma over scientific consensus in shaping public health policy carries profound risks—to individual autonomy, to evidence-based governance, and ultimately to public trust.

What’s unmistakable is that these are not grassroots public health initiatives. They are ministries—explicitly Christian and almost exclusively church-led. Their mission is not medical education or community health support, but rather moral persuasion based on a particular interpretation of faith. So long as these beliefs remain in the private sphere, they are protected—and in many ways, unthreatening. But when translated into policy aspirations, the consequences become clear: restrictions on reproductive freedom, backed not by evidence but by ideology, and the predictable suffering that follows for women and families across generations.

Notably, there appears to be little in the way of organized anti-abortion advocacy in British Columbia outside of these Christian ministries. The movement, at least in this province, is almost entirely ecclesiastical in origin. Its limitations in effect are not due to a deference to women’s agency, but rather to these religious organizations’ inability—at least for now—to successfully legislate their moral vision.

For those committed to safeguarding human rights, protecting equitable and safe abortion access, and pushing back against religious encroachment into personal medical decisions, the importance of vigilance cannot be overstated. These churches and ministries may claim only to raise awareness, but the international record tells a different story—one where such movements, when unchecked, often culminate in real-world restrictions that endanger lives, erode freedoms, and turn private choices into battlegrounds for theological control.