A Bloc MP has just said she was just yesterday reading the 1988 Morgentaler decision which, she said, was "unanimous" in its decision overturning the existing abortion law and that Supreme Court acknowledged a right to abortion. It wasn't unanimous (5-2) and only one justice (Bertha Wilson) said that there was a right to abortion, but even she acknowledged the right of Parliament to regulate [...]
Bloc MP Nicole Demers apologized to women in the developing world for the "misfortune" of becoming pregnant in countries that don't have health care. Demers lamented the lack of basic health care in the developing world. But isn't that what the Conservative government is trying to address by focusing their maternal health program on clean water, inoculations, safe deliveries and nutrition programs? On one level, [...]
Press release issued by REAL Women: Liberals reject motherhood We now know why the Liberal Party is so keen on including contraception and abortion in the G-8 Summit’s proposals in June. Such proposals will eliminate motherhood - every time. This came to light when Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett stated (Hill Times, March 22, 2010) that motherhood wasn’t a “real job.” Instead, she [...]
A Bloc Quebec MP says the Conservative government is ideologically rigid and right-wing, charging them with defending "the right to bear arms but not the right to choose." If I was taking a swig every time the opposition employed a non sequitur, I'd be drunk right now.
Keith Martin asked Candice Hoeppner that if she is truly pro-life why doesn't she support giving women in the developing world the right to abortion. Hoeppner said she won't be baited by the Liberals into debating abortion and accused Martin of playing politics with women's health. Nice turning it around on the Grits. NDP MP Jim Maloway accuses the Tories are getting [...]
Liberal MP and former Minister of International Cooperation Maria Minna said that the current minister, Bev Oda, should resign because she isn't doing her job if the government won't fund contraception as part of maternal health. Is acting on behalf of Planned Parenthood part of the job description of Minister of International Cooperation? Perhaps we should just let the Canadian Federation of Sexual [...]
Some observations from the past 30 minutes of "debate" in the House of Commons over Bob Rae's motion to require the government to include abortion and contraception in its maternal health initiative. Bloc Quebecois MP Johanne Deschamps says she doesn't "understand" how a maternal health program cannot include abortion for 12- and 13-year-olds who were raped in war. Is that the cause [...]
We go to press tomorrow and I'm working on the fnal story on the Liberal Party's motion to require the Conservative government's maternal health initiative to include contraception and abortion. (The motion doesn't say abortion but that is what the party and their NGO advisors mean when they say 'reproductive health'.) Liberal MP Keith Martin in his contribution to this vital debate [...]
As Kathy Shaidle (among others, including the National Post) have noted, Ann Coulter's speaking engagement at the University of Ottawa has caused quite a stir. Mark Steyn notes: The reflexive position of the Canadian establishment (of which M. Houle is a very typical example) is to insist on ever narrower bounds of public discourse regulated by an ever more coercive state. Thus [...]
From William McGurn's column which Oz Clark noted previously, a very important paragraph: [F]ew accept the idea that the executive order really adds anything. In fact, on this point National Right to Life, the Catholic bishops and the Susan B. Anthony List are largely on the same page as Planned Parenthood. As are the pro-life Republican leader Mr. Smith and the pro-choice Democrat Diana DeGette [...]
William McGurn of the Wall Street Journal adds to the growing meme of the disappearing pro-life Democrat, but he mostly ignores the politics and gets into the ramifications of Stupaks' surrender: the Congressman's acceptance of the health care bill without the Stupak language "encouraged those who want to get rid of the Hyde amendment itself, which for decades has prevented federal funds from paying [...]
The Hill reports that Senator Ben Nelson (D, Neb) will vote against the reconciliation bill. His reasons have nothing to do with pro-life, unlike his earlier dance in December; three months ago he caved into pressure from his party's leadership. There is plenty of time for arm-bending if it is deemed necessary but because reconciliation is not filibusterable, the party probably won't need [...]
Denver Archbishop Charles Chaput condemned Catholics who endorsed Obamacare, suggesting that it is pro-life to support health care reform that increases access even if it means increasing access to abortion. Archbishop Chaput states eloquently why they make this tragic error: "[S]ome Catholics have an almost frantic unwillingness to see the abortion issue for what it is—a foundational matter of social justice and human rights."
W. James Antle III writes about the disappearing pro-life Democrat, beginning with some history: "Abortion has long divided the country, but it did not always divide the two major parties." George McGovern opposed inserting pro-abortion language into the 1972 Democrat platform and Jimmy Carter opposed taxpayer funding of abortion in 1980. (Carter would later leave the Southern Baptists over the congregation's opposition to [...]
Many Democrats who are usually silent about their concern for number of abortions committed in the United States argue that universal health care will decrease demand for abortion. William Saunders, vice president of legal affairs for Americans United for Life, debunks the argument at The Daily Caller. Saunders says that ease-of-access to abortion, not health care, determines how many abortions there are, and Obamacare expands abortion access.