Stanton Healthcare's 'Baby Powder-Scented Candle' Provokes Fury Online
***Listen to Maria from Precious Life discussing this "controversial" candle on the Frank Mitchell Phone-In here.
Abortion advocates appear to have surrendered any semblance of remaining credibility they may have held onto following a furious attack on Stanton Healthcare, the pro-life pregnancy centre in Belfast. Enraged pro-abortion crusaders have been reporting rather breathlessly on what is undoubtedly the most profoundly non-newsworthy story of the summer. Believe it or not, it’s all over a Facebook post about – well – a candle. And yes, you did read that right because you’re probably wondering. The presence of a scented candle in a pro-life pregnancy centre has prompted an unruly uproar which has attracted comprehensive media coverage with Stanton being accused of using the candle to ‘manipulate women.’
Funny though, isn’t it? This flurry of anguish over a candle and yet, not so much as a shred of public condemnation has been directed at Marie Stopes by the same pro-abortion lobby which has launched this blistering and targeted attack on Stanton. Following a string of truly incomprehensible scandals at Marie Stopes International (MSI) clinics, the lid has been lifted on the UK’s shameful abortion industry. Media giant The Daily Mail first broke the story on the litany of horrors at MSI earlier this month, revealing that 400 botched abortions had taken place in the space of just six months at their facilities. Abortion apologists couldn’t have missed it – the story was nothing short of mammoth – they just chose to ignore it for convenience sake. Pro-woman? Pro-healthcare? Pro-‘rights’? Really?
Not only have Marie Stopes annually killed 60,000 of the UK’s unborn babies - literally the most innocent among us – in the most barbaric and horrendous way possible, they have treated their patients, especially the most vulnerable women, as nothing more than slabs of meat from which they can generate a juicy profit. Marie Stopes have left women in critical conditions following ‘treatment’ with numerous needing surgery and blood transfusions. Women have suffered unimaginable deaths at the hands of these callous abortion providers, and yet – still – silence, not as much as a whimper from the laissez-faire pro-abortion lobby. The all too familiar ‘free, safe, legal’ mantra – the supposed soundtrack of the abortion rights movement, is being exposed as a total sham as abortion becomes more and more of a social and cultural fixture.
How have we reached a point where, when a pro-life pregnancy centre lights a candle that smells of baby powder and encourages other centres to do the same, all hell breaks loose? This is the hypocrisy and insanity rampant in the minds of abortion advocates today. We would almost feel compelled to laugh if the whole scented candle scenario wasn’t so patently ridiculous. Broadly, a left-wing, feminist ‘women’s news’ outlet were the first to break the story. Predictably, after stirring up the whole situation, they were at great pains to stress that Stanton Healthcare were in “hot water” after posting a photo of the baby-powder scented Yankee candle on its Facebook page on July 21.
The post was far from remarkable, and simply read, "Stanton Healthcare would recommend to all crisis pregnancy centres the new baby powder yankee candle. It just smells like a new born baby. #lovelife #lovebabies #protectthemboth #loveyankeecandles." No big deal, right? Wrong.
The seemingly inconspicuous post and matching photograph of the candle went on to capture the undivided attention of aggressive pro-abortionists everywhere. Shocked and appalled that a pregnancy centre which serves – no other than pregnant women – would dare to light a candle that smelled like a baby, abortion advocates were vehement in their online rage.
As soon as the unlikely post caught the attention of so-called ‘pro-choicers’, an unescapable tidal wave of furious, vulgar and downright distasteful comments came flooding in. The floodgates had truly burst open and there was no sign of them closing – even several days after the post was first targeted two weeks ago.
Most of the irate comments were evidently uninformed, with many ‘repeal the 8th’ faux-feminists wondering how a pregnancy centre possibly had the right to adopt a pro-life ethos over a pro-abortion one. Many of the disenfranchised keyboard warriors were quick to blast the centre as ‘dishonest,’ ‘manipulative’ and ‘disgusting’ – simply for not offering women abortion. Maybe they need reminding that there is in fact a Marie Stopes facility operating on the exact same street as the Stanton centre – the whole point and vision of Stanton, an initiative imported from the United States in 2012, is to serve as an alternative for abortion-minded women. Why else would a pro-life pregnancy centre exist?
Stanton have always identified themselves as a facility offering life-affirming answers to crisis pregnancies that do not involve killing an innocent child in the womb. However, pro-abortion fundamentalists are finding this rather hard to grasp – exercising choices other than the one they prefer appears to be a somewhat foreign and utterly ghastly concept in their minds. So, predictably, they resort to tyrannical relentless online trolling and sustained whining.
'I wish you were aborted,’ one amiable user wrote, while another demanded Stanton ‘remove this now.’ ‘This operation needs shut down’ another claimed as various others accused the centre of supposed ‘brainwashing.’
Angered that Stanton would have the nerve to encourage others to try the baby powder scented candle, Broadly got in touch with the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS), an organisation that holds a radical right up-to -birth stance on abortion. BPAS have made a habit of demonizing Stanton and other alternatives to abortion in pro-life Ireland. So naturally enough, it was no surprise that the group were outraged.
BPAS spokeswoman Katherine O’Brien jumped at the chance to smear Stanton and degrade the efforts of Irish pro-lifers who are saving women and babies from abortion through facilities like this one. Her statement delivered to Broadly on behalf of BPAS read,
“Not only is this a rather cruel attempt to manipulate women who may be in incredibly desperate circumstances, it is also profoundly patronizing. The majority of women who have an abortion are already parents; they know perfectly well how a new-born baby smells, and the idea that any woman could be convinced to have a child by the mere presence of a scented candle is just insulting.”
Now, let’s take a step back here – no half-sane reading of the off-the-cuff Facebook post could even vaguely allow for the notion that a Yankee candle – of all things – will somehow be able to magically “manipulate” a woman into choosing life for her unborn child. That’s insane. The senseless and twisted rendering of the post reveals a warped, deluded and damaged mind-set. Every choice is absolutely fantastic, wonderful, and to be lauded; unless of course that choice is to reject abortion. In that case, you’re no longer exercising your brilliant ‘right to choose’ but rather, you’re caricatured as a mean-spirited, nasty, devious, religious zealot. This is the double standard and pretence which has long characterised the so-called pro ‘choice’ movement. But Hey - nothing new there from the abortion lobby. Credibility is at an all-time low.
O’Brien’s hyperbolic statement is also completely false on another deeper and more dangerous level; every single woman who chooses to abort her child is already a mother, not just the majority with other children who resort to abortion. That’s what pregnancy is – the development of someone’s son or daughter in the womb. This escapism of basic biology and fundamental truth from a woman representing an alleged ‘pregnancy advisory’ group is just as illuminating as the tortured distortion of the actual Facebook post itself.
The manufactured outrage even lead to Yankee Candle releasing an official statement following pressure from desperate pro-abortionists to publicly distance itself from Stanton Healthcare, as if Yankee candle could possibly be affiliated with Stanton.
“Yankee Candle is not affiliated with Stanton Healthcare Belfast. We are currently addressing the issue,” the company told Broadly after they reached out for comment.
Despite the tirade of abuse the post attracted, there was also flourishing support for Stanton and its mission. One lady who recently availed of Stanton’s services left a touching word of thanks: “Thank God for Stanton Healthcare – a proper healthcare facility that provides loving caring and 100% support for all mothers and unborn babies. I personally owe you all my life and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for standing by me every step of the way right through to the birth of my babies, we need more Stanton not Stopes.”
Trying to diffuse the situation, another user wrote, “It’s a sad state of affairs when those who are pro-abortion get upset about a candle but not a dead baby who has intentionally been murdered through an abortion.”
Bernadette Smyth, Director of Precious Life, who was instrumental in bringing Stanton Healthcare to Belfast in 2012, has labelled the targeted attack on the project as ‘pathetic’ and ‘completely absurd.’ Mrs Smyth, speaking this week, thanked all of Stanton’s supporters who came out so strongly and vocally to praise the centre for their tireless work saving women and babies from abortion.
“We’ve had so many people communicating with us since this all-out attack on Stanton, who have given us words of encouragement and thanks for the tremendous work being done just a stones-throw from Marie Stopes. It’s truly wonderful to see. This impassioned defence of Stanton has provided the boost needed to keep fulfilling their mission. I want to thank everyone immensely. Stanton Healthcare Belfast will continue working to provide women with real answers to crisis pregnancies. The answer is to eliminate the crisis, not the child. There is always a better answer to abortion. Always. ”