On October 18, the Toronto Star revealed that John Turner was about to announce a “new” abortion policy: unrestricted abortions up to 22 weeks, and some restrictions thereafter. The “new” policy was leaked by an aide, apparently upset (please note) at the restrictions to be applied after 22 weeks.
Statistics show that 90 per cent of abortions in Canada are done up to 12 (twelve) weeks! At 22 weeks gestation, babies are viable: witness the premature baby born in Edmonton at 22 weeks’ gestation in April 1986, today a hearty two-and-a-half-year-old in Vernon, B.C.
The obscene, “Turner,” ‘proposal’ was tied in with backroom juggling for power around Turner’s leadership. It kept the newspaper in copy for another week. Names mentioned included those of the Liberal campaign team (John Webster, former publisher of the Globe, Senator Al Graham and Michael Kirby, MP Andre Ouellet) and the MPs cabal of Herb Gray, Raymond Garneau, Robert Kaplan, Lloyd Axworthy and, again, Andre Ouellet. All of these, like Turner himself, are Trudeau-vintage pro-abortionists. (Graham refused to support the Senator Haidasz protection of life bill in the Senate when asked to do so). Their hero, of course, is not Turner but Jean Chretien, the Trudeau spokesman who successfully excluded the unborn from the Charter in 1981.
Fortunately, there is a new generation of pro-life Liberals in the making. In Ontario alone some 20 new Liberal candidates favour protection of the unborn. When elected they would do well to get organized immediately and refuse from the beginning to play second fiddle to the pro-abortionists. If the Liberal party is to recover, or even to survive, it must reverse itself and become fully pro-life.
Meanwhile, pro-life is gaining strength among Conservatives. They formed the bulk of those who voted for protection of the unborn on July 28, 1988. Thus they are attracting voters to the PC party. However, as long as the PC leadership refuses to commit itself to a firm pro-life stand, voters must make a habit of picking and choosing among candidates.
The Christian Heritage Party continues on the federal scene the work begun in 1987 by the Family Coalition Party of Ontario on the provincial scene. Its usefulness consists in shaking the conscience of pro-life voters. Its very appearance makes abortion an issue on the local level; it provides an alternative to the pro-abortion candidates; it weans away voters from voting out of mindless habit.
Two parties are unacceptable. The Reform party in Western Canada has announced that its elected members will hold a referendum in their ridings to determine how to vote on abortion. This won’t do. The lives of the unborn are not bargaining chips.
The NDP is not a choice for pro-lifers. Some years ago Joe Borowski, a former NDP provincial Minister, described it as the New Death Party. It is formally committed to a woman’s “right” to kill her pre-born baby. This has been party policy from the days of David and Stephen Lewis (the later still an ardent pro-abortionist), in the sixties, until today’s Ed Broadbent.
Still, even in this party, pro-lifers have begun to resist such mindlessness. In the ridings of Edmonton North, Sault Ste. Marie and Essex-Kent (Windsor), NDP candidates have publicly rejected their party policy; in Labrador the NDP flag bearer of 1984 is running as an Independent on a pro-life ticket.
To be pro-death for infants, pre-born or newly born, is to disqualify oneself from public office. Canada citizens should vote accordingly.
