EDITOR'S NOTE: In tribute to the late Jim Hughes (1943-2026) half-century of commitment defending the the rights of the preborn, The Catholic Register is publishing the in-depth profile about the former Campaign Life Coalition National President that was featured in the Register's Lives Lived for Life magazine.

Do not tell Jim Hughes he must be a compromiser who tempers his pro-life beliefs.

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The national president of Campaign Life Coalition, the political arm of the Canadian pro-life movement, from 1984 to 2018, does not answer to you, lobbyists, corporations or any government. The octogenarian Catholic abides by the law of God, who unambiguously told Moses on Mount Sinai, “Thou shalt not kill.”

“He didn’t say after 14 weeks or talk about any strategy,” said Hughes. “He said do not kill an innocent life.” 

Back in 1972, at the urging of his wife Ginny, a registered nurse at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto, Hughes attended a seminar hosted by the Toronto Right to Life Association at the Canadian National Exhibition. The non-profit showcased slides of a child developing in the womb. Three years beforehand, the Criminal Law Amendment Act, 1968-69, signed into law by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, legalized abortion for expecting mothers if their health or life would be at risk if they continued the pregnancy.

“I said, ‘surely to goodness, they can’t kill children right up to birth,’ and she said ‘yes, they can,’ ” recalled Hughes. 

One year later, Hughes helped orchestrate and present that same slideshow eye-opener. Ginny encouraged him to devote two years of professional life to championing the pro-life cause. 

Declaring that Hughes, who first joined Campaign Life’s Toronto chapter in 1978, went above and beyond this short-term pledge is one massive understatement. This year marks his 52nd year of anti-abortion advocacy and he devotes 60 hours each week to this movement as an 81-year-old. Before retiring from the Campaign Life presidency in 2018, his crusading motor hummed more than 80 hours per week.

Hughes, gifted with an encyclopedic command of all the prominent figures he has encountered in his half-century of activism, recalled a conversation he once had with the late president of the Toronto Right to Life Association, Laura McArthur, upon his entry into this arena. 

“She said, ‘you’re not a compromiser are you?’ I responded, ‘No, I’m not a compromiser.’ She said, ‘I hate compromise. Every child and human being is important and essential.’ I replied, ‘You’re right.’ ”

A stark statistical case can be made that the value placed on human life has diminished so much that Canada’s future is perhaps precarious. Hughes said a government and secular culture heralding abortion on demand and universal access to contraceptives has resulted in Canada recording its lowest-ever fertility rate in 2022 of 1.33 children per woman. (To sustain a country’s population level without relying on a deluge of immigrants, the replacement level fertility rate needed is 2.1.)

Perhaps even more ominously, according to Statistics Canada, the total fertility rate decrease from 2021 to 2022 was negative 7.4 per cent, the most significant single-year decline since 7.6 per cent from 1971 to 1972. 

Another early seed of advice Hughes received that echoes decades later emanated from Paul Formby, one of the co-founders of Campaign Life Coalition with Gwen Landolt and Paul Dodds.

“He would always tell us to ignore the buzz in the background and keep focused,” said Hughes, the Canadian representative on the International Right to Life Federation board of directors. “Keep your eyes on the prize. The eye on the prize was to remain faithful.”

In the context of the right-to-life fight, the word conform could be considered a synonym of compromise. 

In Romans 12:2, St. Paul clearly opposed conformism. The apostle wrote, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — His good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Any diligent student of the faith, and Hughes manifestly fits the bill as a devout Catholic and discerning reader of the Bible, is cognizant there are verses that explicitly state the Earth is under the sway of Satan, notably 1 John 5:19 and 2 Corinthians 4:4.

Resisting the whims of influential figures with secular agendas is how Jesus operated during His 33 years in the flesh. Campaign Life, under the national leadership of Hughes, his predecessors and successor Jeff Gunnarson, strives to imitate this example by not succumbing to the political pressure to deem abortion morally acceptable in particular circumstances or up to a certain number of weeks.

“We can’t stop after they’re 12 weeks old or 21 weeks old; we have to stop killing them right from conception,” said Gunnarson, who joined Campaign Life in 2006. “Jim reinforced that every chance he could with all staff. I remember he used to get upset when he heard some of the talk, mostly from politicians. I was sitting there in his office and he just kind of threw up his pencil and said, ‘they’re killing babies for crying out loud!’ That was in response to some statement, or perhaps motion or bill trying to preserve a small portion of the unborn.”

Under Hughes’ leadership, this philosophy was on full display from 1989 to 1991 as Campaign Life lobbied against Bill C-43, tabled by the late Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservatives. It was advertised in the public as an effort to re-establish legal boundaries for abortion after the 1988 R. v. Morgentaler Supreme Court of Canada decision completely decriminalized the procedure. Some in the pro-life community and Catholic clergy endorsed the proposal. 

The appeal was that practitioners could be imprisoned for two years if they performed abortions when the woman’s health was not at risk. 

However, closer examination of the legislation — ultimately passed in the House of Commons but defeated by a deadlocked vote in the Senate on Jan. 31, 1991 — compelled Campaign Life to mount an opposition campaign. Thanks to the late Senator Dr. Stanley Haidasz (1923-2009), groups critical of Bill C-43 were given a voice at the committee hearings. 

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“Bill C-43 was designed to help the aborting doctors and would not save unborn children. If it had passed as presented by Brian Mulroney’s government, abortion would have been legalized in Canada,” said Hughes.

Hughes was not alone in his interpretation. A Montreal Gazette editorial from Nov. 4, 1989, declared, “the government has wholly ducked the rights of the fetus. The law does not even refer to fetal rights.” A Globe and Mail column argued, “access to abortion will be easier and quicker under this Bill.”

Another dissenting voice against Bill C-43, who spoke in front of the committee, was the late Dr. Bernard N. Nathanson. He classified it as “a fatally flawed piece of legislation.” Nathanson added that “C-43 is worded in such a vague manner that it would permit everything from abortion done in mobile vans, as is currently the case in Texas, to abortions legally enshrined.”

Nathanson co-founded the National Association for the Repeal of Abortion Laws (NARAL) lobbying organization, and he operated the Center for Reproductive and Sexual Health (CRASH), the most prolific abortuary in the world for a time, in New York. His transformation into a pro-life defender represents one of the most storied conversions of the 20th century. 

Hughes, who built a “very good relationship” with Nathanson, fondly told the story of the hot New York day when his friend decided to venture into St. Patrick’s Cathedral — he was not a man of faith at the time — to beat the heat.

“It was not by coincidence, it was by God-incidence,” said Hughes. “And at one point, when the service was going on, he said the two people ahead of him, a young couple, turned to him and said, ‘the peace of Christ, Dr. Nathanson.’ He (later) said to me, ‘they knew who I was, and they still gave me the peace of Christ.’ So, he staggered out of there. He said, ‘I got out of there, and then I began to think about all of this. Finally, I changed my mind.’ ”

Recognizing the potential inspirational power of Nathanson’s conversion, Hughes invited him to debate the famous Canadian abortionist Dr. Henry Morgentaler, pivotal in stripping the preborn of any legal protection, in a 1983 televised debate. Hughes was originally invited to square off with Morgentaler, but this ended up being one of many cases where he chose to empower the talents of others. In some instances, he identified God-given gifts in people they had not yet realized they had inside them.

Mary Ellen Douglas, who served Campaign Life as a national organizer, board member and Ontario president for decades, worked alongside Hughes to launch the Life Chain anti-abortion prayer demonstrations in 1990 and the Canadian March for Life in 1997, which draws tens of thousands annually to Ottawa. They and others also collaborated to institute a pro-life caucus in Parliament in the late 1980s and built a system to qualify the for-life bonafides of all elected government representatives.

Douglas lauded her close friend as “the kind of leader every organization should have.”

“His strength and leadership were absolutely amazing,” said Douglas, noting he would never take any credit for anything he did. “But nothing would have happened over the years if Jim hadn’t been at the helm of the ship because he was the spark that started things.

“He would start something but quickly give it away to somebody else. He’d make sure you didn’t drown in doing it, but he was always there to back you up, but he made sure you did it. So, we went places we never expected to go regarding speaking and media.”

Gunnarson is another longtime colleague who admires Hughes’ use of his network to find the right people to execute campaigns and strategies.

“He often called himself a connector of people,” said Gunnarson. “He had all these competent people around him, or at least on the other end of a phone call. He knew if something that was not in our bailiwick, or we didn’t have the full meaning of what it was or what it might become, he would send that off to what would be determined to be an expert in that particular field.”

Hughes said he cherished “connecting somebody’s problem over here with somebody’s solution over there” and that his instinct and determination to solve problems were a blessing he received from being raised by “Mary Washerwoman” and “Charlie Lunchpail.” Still, he remains mindful that someone else is in control.

“What’s the gratifying part of it all is that you are not the author of all this,” said Hughes. “You’re not the smart guy. You are the guy who is faithful, and you’re doing what God’s called you to do. Every day, I say ‘thank you for allowing me to do your work today.’ ”

He is also quick to praise “the hundreds of people” who have “helped him to do all these wonderful things” within Campaign Life Coalition or externally, and he expressed thanks for his wife, children and grandchildren.

Following in Christ’s footsteps, Hughes also exhibits graciousness to individuals on the other side of the pro-life debate. Throughout his life, he recognized Morgentaler as his brother in Christ and committed to praying for him every day. 

One of the seminal conversations of Hughes’ life was when he encountered Morgentaler in a small Toronto restaurant in the company of Frank Kennedy, a columnist for the Interim life issues newspaper (nurtured by Hughes) and Dick Cochrane, the founder of Aid to Women. 

The two men politely waved at each other upon first glance, and later, Morgentaler came by to say hello at the end of Hughes’ 60th birthday meal.

“We talked a little bit,” recalled Hughes. “He said, ‘has anybody ever told you to do a good job on TV?’ I said, ‘I think my mother might have one time, but I’m not so sure about anybody else.’ He said, ‘you do a good job.’ I replied, ‘thank you.’

“As he was going out the door, which was quite close to where we were seated, and this restaurant was crowded, I said, ‘hey Henry.’ As he turned around, I said, ‘I’m still praying for you.’ He smiled and said, ‘thank you.’ And off he went.”

Regarding Morgentaler, Douglas said she and Hughes felt that “because of the prayers and his understanding about what we were doing, we were close to bringing him on board” to the pro-life side. Only God knows what was on the abortionist’s heart and mind before his 2013 passing. 

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Meanwhile, Hughes, blessed with an indomitable spirit on behalf of the unborn, will continue advocating for Canada to turn back from the culture of death pervading the nation. He said there is hope for the future as there are always “ordinary people doing extraordinary things for God,” and new young leaders are embracing and standing up for pro-life values. Over 50 years since Hughes’ entry into advocacy against abortion, the man’s zeal and gratitude remain fervent. He thanks God as “every single day has been a gift.”

“He’s been right there by my shoulder for so long, and not just mine, everybody’s shoulder for so long,” said Hughes. “I just have to acknowledge that He’s there and do what He would have me do.”