It’s no secret that in the United States abortion — as both a procedure and ideology — is constantly under attack. In some scenarios, it’s like Roe v. Wade never even happened.
However, the U.S. isn’t alone. Canada, a country in which abortion was made legal in the 1980s, has it’s own struggles. In a story published on BuzzFeed, a Catholic school in Alberta, has come under investigation after exposing students to a questionable anti-abortion presentation. In the presentation the speaker compared abortion procedures to the Holocaust.
In March, students in a tenth grade religion class at École Secondaire Notre Dame, sat and viewed a three-minute video titled, The Case Against Abortion: Personhood. The presentation was given by a woman from the Red Deer and Area Pro Life group. A student in the class, who preferred to remain anonymous, captured the presentation on camera and sent it to Alberta’s sexual health organization, Accessing Information not Myths (AIM). You can see the video here.
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Sexual health advocates have called for an investigation into practices throughout the province. “The messaging in the video shown was irresponsible; it was medically inaccurate; it was theological. It was misinformation and it was myths," said Cristina Stasia, the founder of (AIM), to the CBC.
After the presentation, students questioned the speaker’s views, particularly the view that there was no scenario in which a pregnancy should be terminated.
“One of the things that was the most troubling was the discussion about abortion in the case of sexual assault and putting adults in a room that would give that kind of information to students," Stasia said to BuzzFeed.
It was also noted to BuzzFeed that this isn’t the first time Canada’s schools have had problematic anti-abortion material in classrooms. A student from the same school also stepped forward saying he’d seen a similar presentation in which abortion was compared to school shootings.
Alberta’s education minister, Dave Eggen, took issue with the presentation.
"I think that it was entirely inappropriate material to be shown in any classroom," Eggen said.
Despite a group of worrisome adults pushing problematic views and comparisons on teens, Stasia noted that at least many of the students were "savvy enough to know they’re getting incorrect information."
the least students have been vocal about the troublesome presentations.