Canada is known for its steadfast pro-abortion policy – paid for by the government and available through all nine months of pregnancy. The country is known for approval of euthanasia as well – also liberally available and paid for by the government. One British Columbia organization complements services to pregnant women with programs for seniors, those vulnerable to abortion and euthanasia respectively.
The Cherish Project, located in Chilliwack, started serving pregnant women and other moms in need nearly 45 years ago, said executive director Angela “A.J.” Rooke.
“The organization began as Chilliwack Pro-Life,” she said. “We’re a charity that works as part of the community, which is about 100,000 people.”
It’s evolved like many things do, she said, meeting needs in different ways.
“We offer alternatives to abortion and to euthanasia. In Canada we are perhaps the world leader in euthanasia,” said Rooke. “It’s very, very easy to die in Canada.”
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Cherishing others amid a culture of death
According to a 2022 report on Statista, more than 10,000 Canadians died by legal euthanasia, also known as assisted suicide, in 2021. The next highest death toll occurred in the Netherlands, where more than 7,600 people died by euthanasia. For both countries, the assisted suicide rate rose between the years 2018 to 2021, with Canada seeing less than 4,500 deaths by euthanasia in 2018 and the Netherlands recording more than 6,100 that same year. In 2022, more than 13,200 Canadians were euthanized, according to the country’s health services organization.
The Canadian assisted suicide program is known as MAiD (Medical Assistance in Dying), and it began in 2016. In addition to terminally ill patients, those with mental health issues have also been able to request, and receive, euthanasia. However, that aspect is under scrutiny, and the country’s government is reported to have put a hold on that allowance for a few years.
To help Chilliwack senior citizens better cope with depression, anxiety, and loneliness, which, coupled with physical afflictions, has led to the elderly choosing MAiD, the Cherish Project offers a program called Cherish Seniors. Providing friendship, support, and referrals to community resources, volunteers and staff seek to live out the mission of cherishing senior citizens through phone call check-ins, providing bread and companionship, helping transition the elderly after a hospital stay, and providing household items like fans in the summer and blankets in the winter, helping seniors feel more comfortable and safer in their homes during the different natural seasons.
Approximately 30 clients are part of the program on average, Rooke said.
The Cherish Project also offers community education.
“We go into churches and private schools, and we talk about abortion, or we talk about euthanasia,” Rooke told Pregnancy Help News.
“For me, it’s trying to make connections with the isolated and vulnerable,” she said. “What we're trying to do is equip volunteers to affirm the value and life in these people that are being confronted with the option to have MAiD or those who are older, vulnerable, and isolated. Some of the seniors that we work with don't have anyone in their life who is affirming their value except our volunteers.”
Cherishing women, children, and the unborn
Rooke and her team also strive to reach women vulnerable for abortion and help them see their value and the value of their unborn child. The Cherish Project’s Women’s Resource Centre offers a brick-and-mortar location and a mobile van that travels around Chilliwack.
The Cherish Project has a long history in the community.
Tweet This: The Cherish Project has a long history in the community.
“When we opened, it was a response to abortion, and it wasn't right away a pregnancy center, it was more of a social activism movement,” Rooke said. “Some time ago they opened a pregnancy center to try to offer alternatives to abortion and support women that were experiencing an unplanned pregnancy.”
Abortion became legal in Canada in 1988 without restrictions. In 2022, more than 97,000 abortions were reported in the country, 13,400+ taking place in British Columbia. The province of Ontario reported the most, with more than 40,000. Abortions are performed in hospitals and clinic settings.
The Women’s Resource Centre is not medical because ultrasounds are available free in medical settings due to the country’s socialized medicine, Rooke said. Her organization does offer pregnancy tests but focuses on options counseling and resource referrals.
“We give them their options, and some women are coming because they don't want an abortion and they feel like it's their only option,” she told Pregnancy Help News. “Maybe their boyfriend is pressuring them, or their family is pressuring them. Some are contacting us because they want an abortion and they want the information. We do our best to offer them all the support they need so that they don't have to say, ‘yes’ to that abortion.”
Providing resources is a critical component of their work.
“When you break it down, they say, ‘Well actually I don't have a stable place to live.’ That shouldn't be a reason to have an abortion, so we say, ‘Let us help you find somewhere to live.’ Or ‘My family will not support me,’ so then we try to help them get into a safe situation in another location,” Rooke said. “There's all sorts of reasons [women think they need an abortion], so we try to be flexible and offer what's needed.”
Making connections and finding new ideas at Conference
Rooke and a few of her colleagues attended Heartbeat International’s 53rd Annual Conference, held in Salt Lake City in April of this year. She said this was her first time attending any pro-life conference in person, although she and her staff had watched virtually in the past. Rooke attended a special breakfast for international pregnancy help leaders hosted by Heartbeat staff during that week.
“I really valued the international stuff. They were really lovely to the internationals,” Rooke said. “I liked making connections with other people and other nations and seeing their experiences. I really valued that.”
She said she and her team gleaned helpful ideas that they brought back to Chilliwack. One involves working with people dealing with trauma.
“We're talking about how we can integrate more options for people that need healing for trauma and just talking about courses or what can we do,” Rooke said.
Finding ways to help women with housing issues is another topic she and her staff are discussing. She said her interest piqued upon learning how pregnancy help organizations in America are increasingly adding women’s homes and maternity homes to their services.
“We have a real housing crisis in our nation, and a lot of people are choosing abortion and MAiD because they are going to be homeless,” Rooke said. “It’s not the medical reason that they say they're choosing [abortion and euthanasia] for but that's why – it’s because there's such a housing crisis where we are. So, I was really encouraged by hearing from people running maternity homes. I am definitely praying about that one.”
As Rooke and her team consider responding to needs for emotional trauma care and housing, she said they are also thinking about expanding to a larger location and expanding their services to outlying areas.
“We're looking at some of the smaller, rural communities around us that have a lot less support than we have here,” she said. “Low-income people and families are struggling in Canada everywhere. Low-income parents are struggling, but some of these smaller, outlying areas are struggling even more, so we're looking into reach-out into those communities.”
She also seeks to “build more communities,” and therefore, may seek a larger facility “where we can have more community-building activities, like moms’ groups, senior coffee time, those kinds of things,” she said.
Because of the Canadian government’s strong support of abortion and euthanasia, paying for these like actual health services, pro-life organizations like The Cherish Project face deep challenges.
“It’s not one organization that's my enemy, it’s my own government and my own health care system within my own province,” Rooke said. “We're just doing what we can to help people. One time we had people come [into the center] who were illegally in the country, so they didn't have medical coverage. They wanted to keep their baby, but they didn't have any money, so they were going to have an abortion because of that. We found an extra donor to pay for the medical coverage so that they could keep their baby.”
She added, “We try to do whatever is needed.”
