Commenting on the U.S.’s refusal to accept abortion as a fundamental human right, and its insistence on language in the final document of the World Summit on Sustainable Development that respects national laws and cultural and religious values, Zonibel Woods of Action Canada for Population and Development resorted to the last refuge of the hopelessly desperate: rhetorical extremism. Woods compared Bush and pro-lifers to the Taliban. In Afghanistan, she said, “Women couldn’t go to the hospital, because women were not allowed to be doctors and women patients were not allowed to be examined by male doctors. President Bush, in responding to the anti-choice, pro-life lobby, is promoting behaviour the Taliban would have found completely acceptable.”
