Canadian Senator A Little Less Cordial Than Abortion Money Beggars Would Like

Health Zone – Aid experts alarmed by Canada’s new anti-abortion stand in foreign policy have received some raw political advice from a Conservative senator: “shut the f— up” or it could get worse.

“We’ve got five weeks or whatever left until G-8 starts. Shut the f— up on this issue,” Conservative Senator Nancy Ruth told a group of international-development advocates who gathered on Parliament Hill on Monday to sound the alarm about Canada’s hard-right stand against abortion in foreign aid.

Human Rights Chick: Hey, Where’s All The Free Money?

Globe and Mail – What issues are you going to be raising?

We’re thrilled the Canadian government has decided to focus on maternal and child health for the G8. But the fact is that they’ve been backsliding. This is a government that hasn’t taken gender equality and women’s rights issues very seriously in terms of our foreign aid. The Canadian government used to give a lot of funding directly to women’s organizations, but we’ve been shrinking that funding over the years.

Blogger Looking For Canadian Politicos’ Balls

Blue Like You – Yes indeed. Let’s abort those female fetuses so they don’t have to worry about making the same decision themselves in the future, and spare them the ethics of those nasty ‘men’. There’s a step forward. (And of course there are no female doctors in Canada.)

Good grief, Canada. Is this where we’re at when our politicians don’t have the gonads to take a stand?

Interesting Choice Of Words: “Cannot Survive, Hacksaw, Chipping Away”

Medical News Today – Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman (R) on Tuesday signed a first-of-its kind bill (LB 1103) that bans abortion beginning at 20 weeks based on supporters’ claims that fetuses can feel pain at that point, the New York Times reports….

Nancy Northup, president of the Center for Reproductive Rights, said that the law is “flatly unconstitutional” and “absolutely cannot survive a challenge without a change to three decades of court rulings.” She added, “Courts have been chipping away at abortion rights, [and] this would be like taking a huge hacksaw to the rights” (Jenkins, AP/Yahoo! News, 4/13).

Remembering Lech Kaczynski: Bummer Dude Had The Gall To Mention Abortion

CNS News – In 2007 Poland angered its European partners when it stood alone in opposing plans to hold a symbolic “European day against the death penalty,” denying the 27-member union the consensus it needed to go ahead with the event.

Warsaw argued that Europe should instead mark a “right to life” day, with abortion and euthanasia on the agenda along with capital punishment.

If These Clowns Just Called It “Abortion,” We’d Show Them Some Respect

Bold ours.

Toronto Star – “We now know that doubling current spending on women’s health—on family planning and pregnancy related care together—from the current $12-billion to $24 billion annually would reduce maternal deaths by 70 per cent, cut newborn deaths by nearly half and increase productivity and economic growth,” Obaid said.

Damn Liberals Won’t Pay For Other Countries’ Birth Control And Abortions

Canada Views – Yesterday, the Ignatieff Liberals embarrassed themselves by abstaining, voting against, or absenting themselves from a Liberal motion to guarantee Canadian funding for a broad range of family planning programs, including contraception and abortion, to improve maternal health outcomes in developing countries.

Tribune Writer Sniffs Glue, Starts Typing

Columbia Daily Tribune – Anti-abortion zealots armed with a sonogram will look right through a pregnant woman and desperately seek a sacred fertilized egg, perhaps hoping to find it twirling rosary beads, as the pregnant woman — a person — fades into the background, disappearing and forgotten.

Damnit, When Are We Going To Start Paying For Other Countries’ Birth Control Pills?

RH – After a firestorm of negative publicity following the Canada government’s  announcement that it would not fund family planning programs as part of its global contribution toward reducing maternal death and illness, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper appeared to backtrack on the inclusion of contraception as part of his G8 initiative on maternal health reports theGlobe and Mail…

Harper’s “no contraception” stance was–and his inability to state proactively that contraception is an important part of maternal health programs is– unequivocally ideological, ignoring a vast body of public health evidence about one of the most effective, least costly prevention interventions in existence.

Contravening The Human Rights Code? STFU

Oak Bay News – UVic pro-life group protests Students Society board decision…

A decision to revoke the club status of a controversial student group has members of Youth Protecting Youth fighting for their right to free speech…

Veronica Harrison, chairperson of the Student Society board, said two of the rules for harassment violations in the existing UVSS policy manual are in question.

They include behaviour that contravenes the B.C. Human Rights Code (which includes discrimination on the basis of sex, religion and sexual orientation), and behaviour that creates a hostile or intimidating environment.

First Trimester Abortion In Mexico Now Legal In All Circumstances

[OpEd News]With an 8 (for) to 3 (against) vote in Mexico’s Supreme Court, the April 24, 2007 law making abortion legal in Mexico, under any circumstance during the first twelve weeks of pregnancy, is now deemed constitutional.  On Thursday, August 28, 2008, eight justices agreed that the case of unconstitutionality brought before the Court by the National Attorney General’s Office and the National Human Rights Commission against the new law was without basis.

Yup. No Finesse There

[Detroit News] Citing Barack Obama’s recent pass on a similar question — “At what point does a baby get human rights?” — Brokaw asked Pelosi what she would say to Obama were he to ask her advice.

Pelosi didn’t finesse her answer, as Obama did when he said the question was above his pay grade, but she may wish she had.

“I would say that as an ardent, practicing Catholic, this is an issue that I have studied for a long time,” Pelosi began. “And what I know is, over the centuries, the doctrines of the church have not been able to make that definition. … St. Augustine said at three months. We don’t know. The point is, is that it shouldn’t have an impact on a woman’s right to choose. … I don’t think anybody can tell you when life begins, human life begins.”

And If A Father Wants The Abortion, Can He Say He’s Not A Sperm Dildo?

[Toronto  Star] Religious advocates simply cannot pick and choose what constitutes a human right in this country. Those who advocate against abortion for all Canadians do not see women as having the same rights as any other Canadian person. Women are not vessels. And they are definitely not objects for and about whom decisions should be made.

The rest.

What? There’s Fathers Involved?

[Windsor Star] My experience with abortion may not be unique, but it has shaped a unique perspective. My first child was aborted 25 years ago, and I paid $100 American for that termination. That ended the life of my child, and caused painful years of reflection.

Legally, if an unborn child was provided the right of security, and life under the charter, I would be guilty of conspiracy to commit murder, but this is not the case.

In Canada, the unborn have no rights unless the mother chooses to recognize them. It appears the issue of choice means different things to different people. My support, choice and decision has left a scar of some permanence, and regret, that time cannot, and will not move, for it is one of blood…More.

–Rob Chesire, Letter to the Editor

Against The Morgentaler Award? You Must Be From The Extreme Religious Right

[Sisyphe] Action Canada for Population and Development urges Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada, to stand firm by the decision to honour Dr Morgentaler with the Order of Canada. “As members of the extreme religious right protest today at the Governor General’s home, we call on all fair-minded Members of Parliament, members of the Order of Canada and Canadian women and men, to take a stand and denounce the invasive intimidation against the Governor General and to express strong support for this historic decision, for the sake of women’s rights”, says Katherine McDonald, Action Canada for Population and Development Executive Director.

The rest.

Labour Council Worries About Another Kind Of Labour

[Nanaimo Daily News] Also critical of Lunney’s comments was John Little, president of the Nanaimo, Duncan and District Labour Council. Little said that Lunney is “off the wall” and that he and the Labour Council support a woman’s right to choose.

The rest.

Ferguson: Smearing Morgentaler Bad. Smearing Religious People OK

[The Province] But I am disappointed with the outrage Morgentaler’s award has stirred up across the country, in particular from the princes of the church.

Toronto Archbishop Thomas Collins was the first to lead his flock into a feeding frenzy when he pronounced the doctor’s award as a “dishonourable act” that “must be revoked.”

Frothed the bishop: “Canada’s highest honour has been debased. We are all diminished.”

Hold on a bit, bish. It’s been 20 years since our Supreme Court struck down the criminal code’s anti-abortion provisions because they violated a woman’s constitutional right to security of person.

The rest.

Morgentaler Protest: Priest Returns Order Of Canada

[Star Phoenix] A B.C. priest is returning his Order of Canada after abortion activist Dr. Henry Morgentaler received the same award Tuesday.

Father Lucien Larre of Coquitlam, who founded the Bosco Centres for emotionally disturbed and addicted adolescents, said he’d rather return the honour than be associated with Morgentaler.

The rest.

Abortion Doctor Receives Order Of Canada

[Ottawa Citizen] Dr. Henry Morgentaler, who single-handedly brought abortion rights to the national agenda when he opened an illegal abortion clinic in Montreal in 1969, was named a member of the Order of Canada yesterday.

…

“I’d say it’s about time,” said Joyce Arthur, co-ordinator of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada. “He should have gotten it a couple of decades ago.”

“For me, it’s got a symbolic importance that it was announced on Canada Day,” added author and feminist Judy Rebick.

The rest.

Abortion Rights Crusader To Receive Order Of Canada

[CBC] The Governor General is reportedly preparing to name a leading abortion rights crusader to the Order of Canada, news that has outraged anti-abortion groups.

Dr. Henry Morgentaler, who led the fight to legalize abortion in Canada, was supposed to be honoured Monday, but the ceremony has been delayed for unknown reasons, a government source told the Globe and Mail.

The rest.

UK Charity: Female Babies Disappearing From India

Increasing numbers of baby girls in India are either being aborted in the womb or fatally neglected, a British charity alleges. 

ActionAid said in a report that the number of baby girls in India has reached a record low due to the country’s alleged cultural practice of favoring boys over girls, the BBC reported Saturday.

The group’s “Disappearing Daughters” report says in the Indian state of Punjab, there currently are only 300 female children for every 1,000 male children born to high caste families.

The rest.

Just Accept It And Give Us The Money

[ABC, Australia] “Women will pursue termination regardless of the law. All the law does is determine whether the high cost, whether they will pay a high cost or a low cost for doing that,” she said.

“So we need to just acknowledge that terminations happen and we need to ensure that for the majority of reproductive people, they’re able to make that decision for themselves.”

The rest.

When Human Rights Collide

More from the Abortion/Free Speech file, and another example of why we’re called DWE. The human rights answer to everything? “Ban them all.”

In response to a series of controversies over abortion debates on Canadian campuses, the student government of York University in Toronto has tabled an outright ban on student clubs that are opposed to abortion.

Gilary Massa, vice-president external of the York Federation of Students, said student clubs will be free to discuss abortion in student space, as long as they do it “within a pro-choice realm,” and that all clubs will be investigated to ensure compliance.

“You have to recognize that a woman has a choice over her own body,” Ms. Massa said. “We think that these pro-life, these anti-choice groups, they’re sexist in nature … The way that they speak about women who decide to have abortions is demoralizing. They call them murderers, all of them do … Is this an issue of free speech? No, this is an issue of women’s rights.“

The rest.

When Human Rights Collide

Another round of free speech vs. abortion. DWE is pretty certain that Students Unions are the training camps of human rights commissions.

[National Post, May 21, 2008] It is just one of several recent campus disputes that have pitted an anti-abortion minority against their elected student leaders, and which are increasingly finding their way into the quasi-judicial system of human rights tribunals.

At Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, for instance, a human rights complaint is being drafted over a student politician’s written order that the anti-abortion group may not hand out leaflets, use the school’s name, or engage in any “unsolicited conversations.”

The Post talks about the Capilano College story, but we posted that last week.

The Invigorating Experience Of Abortion

DWE isn’t much for the abortion debate because it’s huge and threatens to take over a website with one posting. But we run into it all the time while we look at human rights mumbo-jumbo. Anyway, this piece just more or less scared the shit out of us. 

[Caroline Carter, Fist Post Daily] Guess what these women are talking about: “As soon as I came round from the anaesthetic I felt amazing – invigorated and positive”; “The procedure itself was uncomfortable but interesting and I feel lucky to have had the experience.”

Liposuction? Breast augmentation? No. Abortion. Both of these women are describing their experiences on the website of the pro-choice campaign group Abortion Rights.

Sheer honesty such as this is a rare commodity in the pro-choice community. We might like the fact that abortion exists, but we keep a tight rein on our enthusiasm. The best prevarication is: “Of course it’s a terribly difficult decision for any woman,” but, really, we’re silently scoffing, “A baby!? You must be joking!”

Of course, abortion is a hugely traumatic and confusing prospect for many women. But for others, it’s not. It’s not a soul-wrenching, hand-wringing ordeal. For plenty of women it’s a no-brainer. I have friends who’ve agonised longer and harder over what to wear for a date than whether or not to bring a new life into this world.

The rest.