October
11 Wendell Watters, retired psychiatrist from McMaster University in Hamilton and an intrepid abortion activist, accuses Justice minister Kim Campbell of being a ventriloquist’s dummy for Brian Mulroney and not really “pro choice” at all.
2 Poland’s Senate votes overwhelmingly to re criminalize abortion (legal for 34 years), an act which the Canadian media deplore as proof of Roman Catholic backwardness. The Canadian Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends that women seeking abortions be required to sign their medical records, to show they now what the procedure entails and to prevent lawsuits. Media stories proliferate about 50 doctors who supposedly have stopped doing abortions, while 200 others claim they will stop when Bill C- 43 becomes law. Bill C-43 must go, feminists demand. In Montreal, New York’s Dr. Bernard Nathanson explains to McGill University pro-lifers that new breakthroughs in premature infants to survive outside the mother’s womb as early as 20 weeks.
3 NAC (National Action Committee on the Status of Women) calls the obstetrician’s guidelines an insult to women. Laura McArthur, president of Toronto Right to Life says they are wonderful, but for the wrong reasons: doctors are trying to save their scalps because all along they have been performing abortions for non-medical reasons. David Souter, a New Hampshire judge, is confirmed as a Supreme Court justice by the U.S. Senate, by 90-9 vote. He may possibly tip the Court’s balance to the pro-life side. But then again, he may not.
4 Nineteen pro-life rescuers are fined for protesting outside Henry Morgentaler’s Toronto abortuary; five who refuse to pay are taken into custody. (See The Interim, November 1990)
5 Michele Landsberg, wife of the Ontario NDPs former leader, Stephen Lewis, and Toronto Star columnist demands that the NDP government in Ontario protect women from a “terrible abortion bill.” She cites law professor Bernard Dickens’s advice that Attorney General Howard Hampson reassure women that frivolous prosecutions under the bill will not be tolerated, and that the government declare it considers the law unenforceable.
9 The Toronto Star editorializes that making women sign a battery of waivers before getting an abortion is the last straw; it urges Justice Minister Kim Campbell to withdraw “this ill-conceived and unnecessary law.”
12 New reports claim women in Toronto are facing a 30 day wait for abortions and that women in the Maritimes and the Prairie Provinces are having to go the U.S.
13 Abortion picture grim, “says the Calgary Herald. Dr. Bill Hall, president of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta, estimated that 95 per cent of abortions now being done would not meet the criteria set down by the new law.
Kim Campbell blasts foes of Bill C-43 for “frightening” women out of terminating pregnancies and speaking out of ignorance.
Montreal’s Jean-Guy Tremblay, distinguished for trying to legally prevent his girlfriend, Chantal Daigle, from killing their child in the summer of 1989, is charged with assaulting his new girlfriend.
Medical columnist Dr. Howard Seiden, in his Montreal Gazette health column, described the old abortion law as asinine (rubberstamp therapeutic abortion committees, friends of doctors who got abortions while others didn’t), thus revealing he knew all along that abortion doctors were acting fraudulently. Now he claims Bill C-43 will make women third-class citizens. Unloved, uncared for, and unwanted children, he declares, will lead lives of careless destruction for themselves and society.
Pro-abortion groups hold rallies in cities across Canada. Cindy Moriarty, of the Canadian Abortion Rights Action League (CARAL), tells a small crowd on Parliament Hill that if C-43 becomes law, a small, vengeful, self-righteous group of women-hating people will be making decisions for women.
Ontario Women’s issues Minister Anne Swarbrik declare that the NDP will ensure access to safe abortions; other cabinet ministers and Premier Bob Rae follow suit over the next three or four days. (See front page story, The Interim, November 1990).
15 Time magazine surveys Eastern Europe’s abortion battleground: freedom unleashes an emotional debate on the subject, it declares. Nothing is said, however, that Marxist dictatorships favored and imposed abortion on demand.
16 A Canadian pro-life group, the Canadian Rights Coalition, says it is prepared to help women bring criminal charges or malpractice suites against doctors performing abortions.
17 Pro-abortions groups want Ontario Solicitor General Mike Farnan to promise that his Roman Catholic beliefs will not influence his instructions to police who may be asked to police abortion ‘clinics’.
A Toronto Star editorial suggests the route the NDP battle against Bill C-43 could take; as recommended by Dr. Bernard Dickens. This theme is taken up by NAC’s Judy Rebick (Morgentaler’s former spokeswoman) during the following days.
19 Judge Joe Kennedy of the Nova Scotia Provincial Court rules as ‘unconstitutional’ the provincial law forbidding doctors from performing abortions in private ‘clinics’. Henry Morgentaler scores another victory. Says the public spirited doctor, as so often before, “ It’s a great day for the women of Canada.”
23 Morgentaler is met by Campaign Life Coalition protesters (led by a woman) when he reopens his Halifax ‘clinic.’ A placard reads, “Go home, Morgentaler!” These words provide the title for front-page coverage in the Toronto Star.
In a lengthy editorial, the “Globe and Mail concludes that Bill C-43, though it removes the requirement that several doctors approve of one doctor’s decision, makes the individual doctor a more visible target for “harassment,” i.e., picketing.
25 The Senate committee dealing with the abortion bill begins hearings. P.C. Senator Nathan Nurgitz, Committee chairman, says it faces a rough ride.
26 Appearing before the Senate Committee studying the government’s abortion bill, Justice Minister Kim Campbell reiterated that doctors who stop doing abortions out of fear of the new law are acting out of ignorance. The Justice Minister issues a ten-page statement explaining the true nature of Bill C-43. (See front page story in this issue)
30 The B .C. midwife case comes before the Supreme Court. (See “Unborn child again before Supreme Court” in this issue)
31 Still asking “How hard should Rae fight abortion bill?” the Toronto Star surveys the possibilities open to the Premier. Law professor Lorraine Weinrib tells feminists it is by no means certain the Supreme Court would find the bill unconstitutional.
Henry Morgentaler urges the Senate Committee on abortion to abort the abortion bill, but allows that he could live with a law restricting access to abortion somewhat after 28 weeks of pregnancy, “as long as it did not make criminals of women and their doctors.”
“I’m not guilty of any crime I’m a nurse, and a nurse is supposed to save lives.”
Ita Venner, jailed for rescuing, October 4.
Some political scientists and historian maintain that, politically speaking, abortion is a non-issue. If this is so, then why does it persist in occupying the attention of the media every day? As the following review of Canadian news stories over a six week period (October 1 to November 15, 1990) demonstrates, abortion is a burning issue that divided Canadian ever more deeply with each passing year.
November
1 From her wheelchair, Pat Israel of the Disabled Women’s Network tells the Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies meeting in Ottawa that doctors are too quick to suggest abortions of fetuses found defective.
2 The Toronto Star declares Register editorial divides Catholics. But does it? Pro-life Catholics are united in support of editorial’s view that Bill C-43 “provides as much protection for the preborn baby as a screen door on a submarine” protects sailors from drowning.
A spokesman for the Toronto Archdiocese, however, states that “the Archdiocese” does not “endorse” the editorial. Ontario Health Minister Evelyn Gigantes and Anne Swarbrick, Minister of Women’s Issues, meet Kim Campbell to try to persuade her to withdraw the abortion bill. A group of women’s organizations – including NAC, CARAL, and the Ontario Coalition for Abortion clinics (OCAC ) is pressing the provincial government to declare that the bill would be ‘unenforceable’.
3 The Justice Minister rejects the plea to withdraw the abortion bill. Glenda Simms, president of the federal Advisory Council on the Status of Women addressing a symposium marking the twentieth anniversary of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women in Vancouver declares that the abortion bill is unconstitutional and will be defeated in the courts if passed. “But in the meantime, women are suffering,” she claims.
4 Mary Robinson, a liberal lawyer who supports relaxation of laws against abortion, divorce, contraception and homosexuality seems likely to be elected president of Catholic Ireland. Canadian media hail the prospect announcement and print favorable articles. Japan’s stressful lifestyle is described as lowering its birth rate, now the lowest in the world. Journalist Thomas Walkom describes Ontario’s new OHIP card as a social ill. One of the main reasons why it was introduced is that it will protect privacy – such as the privacy of a 16-year-old girl wanting an abortion without letting her parents know. Here arises one more unexpected consequence of widespread abortion.
5 An Edmonton group, led by Susan McNeely of Campaign Life Coalition, protests against Morgentaler’s plan to open an abortion ‘clinic’ in that city. Women members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, meeting in Ottawa, vote in favor of the Alliance lobbying against Bill C-43. Morgentaler receives permission to open an abortuary in Edmonton.
6 A Toronto record company goes on trial in Ottawa for selling the allegedly obscene records of a ‘punk rock’ group calling itself the Dayglo Abortions. One of the albums in question is called Feed Us a Fetus America. In the U.S. congressional elections, Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina crushes his pro-abortion opponent with a majority of over 200,000 votes. New York’s pro-abortion, Catholic Governor, Mario Cuomo, touted as a presidential material for 1992 presidential candidate, wins, but barely, his majority slipping from 65 per cent to 52 per cent. Canadian media commentators never get around to mentioning these facts.
7 An Ontario Divisional Court upholds the July 1989 injunction against Cambridge Right to Life. (See front page story)
10 Canada’s national newspaper, The Globe and Mail, not surprisingly, carries a large photo of Ireland’s newly-elected president, Mrs. Mary Robinson, on front page. Soon the excitement in the Canadian media diminishes, once it is learned that the Irish presidency is largely ceremonial.
11 In the Ottawa Sun, columnist Peter Stockland accuses the Justice Minister of intellectual fraud. In Ms. Kim Campbell’s ten page document to doctors explaining the “philosophy” behind the abortion bill, Mr. Stockland finds that she makes it clear that the notion of balance promised in the bill was never anything more than a cruel joke. The real purpose of the bill is to make abortion universally accessible. So, at long last, one Canadian journalist (other than Claire Hoy and Trevor Lautens) has caught up with the pro-lifers who were saying the same thing one day after the Bill’s appearance in Nov ember 1989.
12 Globe and Mail columnist Dorothy, Lipovenko admits finding it difficult being pro-life and a feminist. ‘Pro-life’ for her means accepting abortion for rape, incest, and, yes, for the emotional health of the woman. She doesn’t like ‘inflexible’ pro-lifers. Nationally syndicated columnist Leonard Shifrin makes one (last?) attempt to push the feminist interpretation of Bill C-43, regurgitating tales about panicky abortionists. What the country needs, he thinks, is legislation against pro-life ‘harassment’ (i.e., protests, picketing and counseling). Meanwhile, the abortion mills grind on mercilessly.
13 Henry Morgentaler opens a ‘clinic’ in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Outgoing Mayor, John Murphy says he will rescind approval of he clinic’s zoning permit because it was gained by deception.
14 Henry Morgentaler tells New Brunswickers that they will soon have the privilege of one of his franchises in St. John. The Nova Scotia government announces it plans to appeal the court ruling that the provincial law regulating abortion facilities is unconstitutional. It applies for injunction to close the Halifax abortion clinic. The city council of St. John’s Newfoundland revokes Morgentaler’s permit for his abortuary. Morgentaler claims that 18 abortions have been performed since October 27, but that three have been kept secret to avoid making his ‘clinic’ an issue in the municipal elections on November 13. The newly elected mayor, Shannie Duff does not support rescinding the permit.
15 A front-page Globe and Mail story reports a new Ontario NDP government plan for full scale financial, legal and political support for facilities where women may have their unborn babies killed. The plan also includes a strategy for “cracking down on protesters who harass clinic patients.” “Harass” is the pro-abortion code word for picketing, counseling and praying in front of abortuaries. Afternoon newspapers feature federal NDP leader Audrey McLaughlin appearing before the Senate Abortion Committee upholding a woman’s right to kill her unborn baby.
“[Bishop Robert Lebel]cannot have it both ways. He either endorses the stand of the Minister of Justice or he opposes it. He is for the bill or he is against it.”
Fr. Carl Matthews, S.J.
Publisher/Editor
Catholic Register
