Local organizations see good turnout for Life Chain 2022

If you were out and about in downtown Moose Jaw in the early afternoon on Sunday, odds are you came across a group of people lining Main Street with a series of signs bearing pro-life messages.

The annual venture is part of Life Chain 2022, which takes place on the first Sunday of October each year and features pro-life demonstrations in communities all over Canada and the United States.

In Moose Jaw, close to 80 people took part in the event -- one of their larger turnouts in recent years -- as they looked to spread their message of pro-life positivity.

“It’s just to let people know that the unborn have no voice and we are their voices, and then with the disabled and elderly, there’s this whole culture of death now,” said Jean Landry with Moose Jaw Right to Life, the local organizing body behind Life Chain. “It’s helped people to realize that we’re striving for the culture of life and the dignity of the human person.”

The event has taken place for close to 30 years, with 300 communities across North America taking part in 2022.

Life Chain’s numbers were substantially bolstered this year by support from the Catholic Women’s League, which made a special point of bringing out as many folks as possible as part of their 100th-anniversary celebrations.

“We phoned all our members, we’ve been promoting it at meetings, we’ve been talking about it at church, doing everything we can to help bring people out,” said Rosalie Boots with the CWL. “So we made a real concerted effort to get people out for Life Chain and work with Moose Jaw Right to Life. We’re trying to get at least 100, and we didn’t quite get there, but we have some new faces out that we haven’t had in the past, so we’re pretty happy with that.”

Landry was also pleased to see the new support.

“What I’m really impressed with is it’s younger people, too, and a few families, so that’s always encouraging,” she said. 

The goal of the whole project is messaging, and with their prominent placement on Main Street, Life Chain was hard to miss for local drivers. That’s the whole idea, says Landry, with the hope of making people think.

“I always pray there will be somebody coming by who will be touched, or maybe their minds will be changed,” Landry said. “Like somebody who is thinking about euthanasia, and we can say we love you and hang in there.”

You can find out more about Life Chain 2022 by visiting their website at https://www.campaignlifecoalition.com/life-chain and for more on Moose Jaw Right to Life, check out their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/RightToLifeMooseJaw/.