I will start my article by stating, for those who do not know, I am Pro-Choice, I always will be, and I put strong emphasis on the word choice.

Providing education and affordable, easy access, to birth control is the way, I feel we can limit abortion. Law or no law, we will never eradicate abortion completely.

I also do not feel we should, it is a personal choice, and not the business of anyone outside the people who created the pregnancy. Obviously as the carrier of the pregnancy, the woman has the most right and part in the decision.

It may take two, but the majority of the work, in many aspects, falls on the woman.

I am also the most passionate about ending coercion or forced abortion. Again, the choice goes both ways. Your choice is to carry the pregnancy to term, whether your decision is to keep the child or put it up for adoption, or to terminate the pregnancy.

Coercion takes all the choice away from the woman who has the right to make the decision.

Roxanne’s Law is a sad example of the turn coercion can take into violence.
It is a much needed law that makes coercion a criminal offense, in the hope that it will interrupt the chance for violence to take place.

Sadly, Roxanne Fernando called “apple” by those who loved her, is no longer here to tell her story on her own.

Moved with her family to Canada in 2003 from the Philippines, she would lose her life in 2007, at the hands of her boyfriend and two of his friends. She was 24 years old, and despite repeated attempts by her boyfriend to coerce her into having an abortion, she repeatedly refused.

She had made the choice to have and keep her baby. Many Canadians now consider her as a hero. Her choice was taken from her, after being brutally beaten by her boyfriend and two others, and left to bleed to death in a snowy ditch in Winnipeg.

One of her killers was only 17, and although he received the maximum penalty provided by law, it would only be ten years.

Her boyfriend Plourde, took her to the snowy park on Valentines Day, as a ruse to get her secluded, as he did not any longer want a relationship and she did. Nathanael Mark Plourde, plead guilty to first degree murder and received life with no chance of parole for 25 years.

The other adult killer, Jose Toruno, plead guilty to second degree murder, and received life without parole for 15 years.

Roxanne’s Law has yet to move forward. There is now an online petition in favor of it, and a Face Book page dedicated to it.

Coercion is not Pro-Choice, it is not Pro-Life, it is the Un-Choice, and regardless of which side you stand on, we should all agree it must be stopped.

To sign the petition, or for more information, I have included links below.