The 1989 abortion statistics, made public April 3, were the worst ever – over 79,000 abortions in Canada. This figure includes the thousands performed in’ clinics’ inside Quebec, but not in those of the rest of Canada, not those done in U.S. border cities.
When will the plague stop?
One simple answer is, “When doctors stop performing abortions!”
When will that be?
When they realize they are killing babies.
Don’t they know that now
Of course. But they try to put it out of their minds.
Obstetricians
The position which the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada (SOGC) took on BillC-43 is revealing. In the December 1990 issue of its Journal, the SOGC restated its position on abortion, basically unchanged since it was adopted on 1982:
“The Supreme Court decision in 1968 placed the decision for abortion between the patient and her doctor as a medical matter which is where the SOGC feels it belongs.”
The sentence is wrong on three counts.
It is wrong on the date (the Morgentaler decision was made in 1988, not 1986) and it is wrong on the nature of the ruling. The Supreme Court did not say that the decision on abortion was a purely medical matter. Nor that it was a decision between a patient and her doctor. Such casual contempt for accuracy says much about the frame of mind of those who govern the society.
The statement goes on to say that circumventing the need for abortion should be the ultimate goal. But the SOGC then promptly advocates programs in each province devoted to sex education ”with family planning clinics and abortion services.”
Enlightened
The SOGC describes the decision to perform an abortion as a medical one, “on the basis of patient need as interpreted by the enlightened view of the qualified medical practitioner.” (emphasis added)
It continues to use the term ‘therapeutic abortion’. Officers of the Canadian Medical Association across the country have pointed out that abortions are not therapeutic, but are done for socio-economic reasons. It declares that abortions should not be punished under the Canadian Criminal Law. It recognizes that all practitioners and hospitals are not in favour of therapeutic abortions, but declares that abortion services should be uniformly available to women across Canada.
It also says, “Consideration must be given to those situations where a diagnosis of lethal fetal anomalies is made to permit termination of such pregnancies…”
That is the only reference to the fetus in the statement; the child in the womb counts for nothing.
David Popkin
In a discussion between Dr. David R. Popkin, SOGC president, and Minister of Justice, Kim Campbell, published in the October 1990 issue of the /society’s Journal, it is Kim Campbell who has to tell the doctor that abortion is more than a normal surgical procedure such as the removal of a wart or an appendix.
Popkin is wholly taken up with the protection of the abortionist from lawsuits or harassment; time after time he asks why she is putting doctors at risk for performing what he calls “an essential health service”. She patiently explains that the now-defunct legislation “will not make criminals out of physicians who are providing a medically required procedure to Canadian women.”
Campbell, too, dodges the question of when, if eve, abortion is medically required. But several times she returns to the fact that abortion is a serious matter: “Abortion is not just any other medical procedure. Society also has an interest in protecting the fetus, which is reflected in the Bill,” she states.
Dr. Popkin, however, is completely intransigent. Kim Campbell at least pays lip service to the idea of protecting the fetus; he shows no concern at all.
In the interview, Popkin states that most physicians seeing a patient wanting an abortion feel they should be able to grant it if they are satisfied that the woman has valid reasons for the abortion.
“This is in keeping with modern medical practice whereby the woman is regarded as being an autonomous and responsible individual capable of making important decisions about her person and quality of life,” he asserts. “Why doesn’t the Bill reflect the reality that women effectively decide to have an abortion today and doctors basically agree to provide this service, like any other medical procedures?” he asks.
The society of Obstetrics and Gynecologists seems to have forgotten some very basic principles. It appears to have become the Society for the Protection of Abortionists.