O h, let's not kid ourselves.

The birds of `pray' who will be targeting women's clinics in Canadian cities for the next 40 days really don't care about saving lives.

If they did, they wouldn't be so much about intimidating the desperate women and girls who are seeking abortions.

That's because, no matter how much they will attempt to cloak their vigils outside two Toronto clinics with solemn vows to "never stop defending life," their true agenda is unveiled by their lack of support for babies once they're born, their often impoverished mothers and the kind of sex education and contraception accessibility that would avoid abortion in the first place.

Nowhere on 40DaysForLife.com is there any discussion of any of these matters.

That's why it's easy to assume that what the anti-choice movement is really about is exactly that: no choice for women. No choice when it comes to their reproductive rights, no choice when it comes to being free to pursue independent lives, no choice to have careers, no choice at all.

All across North America, where the nutbar mobs south of the border are battling public maternal health care for women, and here in Canada, where Prime Minister Stephen Harper's caucus, rife with members of the Christian right, is repeatedly supporting bills that would curtail reproductive rights, the pro-forced pregnancy cause appears to be gaining ground.

Indeed, a new study in a forthcoming issue of the journal Reproductive Health suggests a correlation between those U.S. states where there is the most thumping of the Good Book and higher teen pregnancy rates.

There are states – most recently Florida – where there are bills to ban contraception. Some pharmacists and doctors, both here and in the U.S., are refusing to provide the pill to patients, even married adult women.

There are reports in the blogosphere that Harper will replace Status of Women minister Helena Guergis – who hasn't done much for women, but that's another column – with the anti-choice Cheryl Gallant, who has fought against gay rights and even parental leave.

It just gets worse.

Last weekend, a prominent American anti-choice activist made a speech at the "Value Voters Summit" where she proposed that abortions be performed "in the public square."

This is the true backlash against feminism, whose second wave became a tsunami after the pill became widely available in the late 1960s.

It's all about keeping women down to those Biblical depths where they are little more than breeding stock, born to serve their masters.

What cracks me up is how often they attack the most backward and sexist Islamic countries for doing the exact same thing.

Last year, Alberta political scientist Michael Wagner, a favourite of anti-feminist groups such as REAL Women and Equipping Christians for the Public Square, authored a book about the Christian right.

He opens Standing on Guard for Thee: The Past, Present and Future of Canada's Christian Right with a definition of what the movement stands for: "A collection of people, organizations and publications which, because of their conservative Christian principles, are determined to oppose the effects of the Sexual Revolution."

That just about sums it up: shaming and harassing women back to the bedroom, baby's room and behind her man.

How far, far, far away is that from former prime minister Pierre Trudeau's declaration 40 years ago that, "There's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation."

No wonder Harper boasted two weeks ago, in a closed-door meeting of the party faithful, that he killed the mechanisms for women to protect their constitutional rights.

No wonder those 40 Days for Life vigilantes feel that their prayer days are about to hit a payload.

Antonia Zerbisias is a Living section columnist. azerbisias@thestar.ca. She blogs at thestar.blogs.com.