Graphic postcards that compare abortion to the Rwandan genocide are angering mothers in Chilliwack.
Photographer Kim Mallory was home with her family in the city's Promontory area last Tuesday when a card was dropped off at her door, The Province reported.
The postcard juxtaposes an image of a Rwandan child apparently killed by machetes against a 10-week-old aborted fetus that was "killed by suction machines."
The flyer then carries a quote from an anonymous Rwandan woman who lost her family to genocide saying, "Abortion is worse. Because at least my family could try to run away."
"I would have died, I would have been mortified, if my kids had seen this," Mallory said.
She soon texted neighbours to warn them about the postcards. Erin Newlove-Nicholas intercepted one before her eight-year-old son could see it, saying that she wants to talk to him about abortion when he's ready.
The postcards were distributed by a group called Valley Against Abortion, which ordered them from the Calgary-based Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform (CCBR), a group that is distributing hundreds of thousands of the cards as part of a national anti-abortion campaign, CTV News reported.
Valley Against Abortion leader Rachel Slootweg said that her group is trying to educate people about the procedure, adding that shock value is one of the few ways to get people's attention.
"Our number one goal is to save these children, save them from being aborted," she told the network.
"Feelings (of people who receive the cards) are less important than the lives of an actual person."
Mallory called the RCMP to complain about the postcards but she was told that, while the police don't like them, they can't stop their circulation because they're protected by free speech rights, Metro News reported.
John Dixon, a spokesman with the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, said that the postcards were likely to build more derision than support for the pro-life movement, though he also said they shouldn't be censored.
This is not the first time such messaging has generated controversy in Canada.
The CCBR targeted Calgary Conservative MP Michelle Rempel with a postcard earlier this year, claiming that she and other politicians had "failed pre-born children."
Check out the anti-abortion postcard that was circulated in Chilliwack. Warning, it contains graphic images:
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