Christ's birth is a joyous occasion and an opportunity to reflect on the beauty of pregnancy and new life. We at The Back Porch are excited to share our reflections on the Gospels with you and hope they touch your heart. Each account of Jesus's birth is rich with insight into God's love for humanity and the dignity of human life. We hope you will be able to ponder these mysteries this Christmas, too!

As a passionate pro-lifer on the University of Alberta campus from 2014-2018, imagine how surprised I was to hear about The Back Porch for the first time from my ardently pro-choice friend. It’s only now that I realize that I didn’t have any clue as to how many amazing resources are available to parents experiencing an unanticipated pregnancy and pro-life people in Edmonton.

We will start by outlining the abortion argument — the real argument that people are making, whether they realize it or not. We’ll look at how much of it is true (because some of it certainly is) and then we’ll move on to two major results of this type of thinking — the spectrum of personhood and the offloading of responsibility for pregnancy and children onto women.

Adoption and Foster care, what they are and how they relate, are often misunderstood. The difficulties and number of children currently in "the adoption and foster care system" are often used as an argument for making abortion more morally palatable.

Abortion is common in our society. So many people see it only as simple medical procedure that quickly ends a pregnancy. The dominant cultural narrative suggests that (almost) no one experiences any negative physical or mental after effects, and that the pre-born are non-human commodities until their parents decide differently.

These words emanating from the lips of your teenage daughter might seem like your worst nightmare.

I've never asked the question “What has being prolife done for me?” We are often asked questions like that about the ideas, organizations, and movements we spend our passions and lives pursing and supporting. Why did we choose it?

It all started when I got pregnant in 2012. I already had a child; a two year old boy with special needs. He couldn’t walk, talk, or do really anything on his own. At this point we were still grieving the news about having a child with special needs and overwhelmed trying to figure out the best ways to support him. He never wanted to be put down and it was impossible to get chores done with him.

Today I took my two daughters to an abortion clinic to teach them about their reproductive rights. They are 5 and 8 years old. Maybe this seems a little strange, or possibly disturbing, but my eldest daughter is only a few years away from technically being able to conceive a baby in her young, barely-out-of-infancy body. I wanted to take them to an abortion clinic so that they would know their rights.

Often pro-lifers are labelled as being restrictive or forceful because they are against abortion. Do pro-lifers restrict women in opposing abortion? Do pro-lifers force women to give birth?

We've all been there: you're chatting with a colleague or friend about what you did on the weekend. You share that you attended an event and they ask what it was for. This is the moment: do you tell them that it was for a pro-life organization, potentially opening a can of worms you didn't want to?

If you've read 1984 by George Orwell, you've likely considered how powerful language can be when it comes to shaping a society. In his dystopian novel, the totalitarian regime overtakes the private lives of individuals in numerous ways - the most chilling method being the control of language.

It's the classic narrative of abortion advocates: abortion is a woman's right. Abortion has been defended by the modern feminist movement in the name of freedom, independence, and equality. Not only is this idea misleading, but it is the exact opposite of what feminism stands for.