Youth Blog

Joanne Spyksma at Choice Chain event during the 2023 CLC summer internship program. 

August 25, 2023 (Campaign Life Coalition) – Looking back at my two months of interning for Campaign Life Coalition, Canada’s national pro-life organization, I find myself impressed by how much I experienced in so short a time. I had many great experiences this summer, from participating in Choice Chains around downtown Hamilton to writing articles about relevant pro-life issues. Every day, I worked for Campaign Life Coalition, I felt that the work I was doing was worthwhile and necessary. I loved every minute of it.

One highlight was when the other interns and I went to the Haldimand Pregnancy Care and Family Centre to help restore their memorial garden. Hearing all the stories of the mothers who came there to plant a tree or bush to remember their children lost to miscarriage or abortion was very touching, and the hard work we put into pruning and weeding felt incredibly meaningful.

Another highlight that I was not expecting was all the conversations that I had regarding the internship with my neighbours and friends. Every time I was asked what I was doing this summer, it was an opportunity to spread the pro-life message. I was surprised by how many of my neighbours were already pro-life, and by how many others were willing to talk with me. When I took a week off to go to a Catholic family camp, I had so many lovely and encouraging conversations with people who knew the good work that CLC was doing and wanted to show their appreciation.

Lastly, my most personal highlight of the summer was when I had my first Choice Chain conversation with a man outside the McMaster University Hospital. I was very nervous at first, but when I started speaking with the man, my nerves became less overpowering, and I was able to make a few good arguments for the pro-life position before he walked away. I would have been happy even if that was the only conversation I had with him, but he came back a few minutes later with more questions. This was proof to me that my arguments had got him thinking further about abortion. Perhaps the seed that was planted in his heart will grow.

Joanne Spyksma, right, with 2023 CLC summer interns at the Haldimand Pregnancy Care & Family Centre in Dunnville, Ontario. The centre's director Carol Butler is on the left. 

I had never had any conversations during pro-life activism before coming to CLC. My experience with activism was silent protests and praying the rosary outside hospitals that commit abortions, so I had a lot to learn. One argument that stuck with me showing the hypocrisy of our culture when it comes to life in the womb is that a pregnant woman is not allowed to take a drug called Thalidomide because it would deform the child, but a pregnant mother can take a different drug called Mifegymiso to kill her preborn child. I think it really calls out the cognitive dissonance of those who call themselves pro-choice and who are happy that Thalidomide is banned for pregnant women while, at the same time, seeing no problem with a woman taking the abortion drug.

When I attended my first Choice Chain, I didn’t have any conversations. I just held my larger-than-life sign showing what abortion looks like. One moment stuck with me, and that was when an angry pro-choice woman with a shaved head walked up to me and two other volunteers at started yelling at us. She screamed that the male volunteer was a man and couldn’t have an opinion about abortion and that the other volunteer and I were “too ugly to get pregnant.” This stuck with me simply because of how unhappy the woman looked as she was yelling at us, not just because she was angry at us, but maybe because she was trying to hurt us by using something that she was personally hurt by. I pray that that woman can find a way out of her insecurity, and can find her way to God, who heals all wounds.

Now that the summer is nearly over, I can say that I will return to school this fall with newfound courage and hope; courage in knowing that I have the knowledge and resources to continue to be a voice for the unborn at my school; hope in knowing that I am not alone, there is a whole community behind me, all standing up for life in any way that they can. This internship was a great opportunity for me to meet people who are filled with passion for the pro-life movement. Through seminars with leaders of the different branches of the pro-life movement like Angelina Steenstra of Silent No More, Jonathon Van Maren of CCBR (Canadian Centre for Bio-ethical Reform), and Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, my passion for the pro-life movement has been reinvigorated. I will go forward into the year, armed with the knowledge and confidence gained through my internship at Campaign Life Coalition to continue God’s work in the world.