Canada
Abortion has generated discussion among columnists in The National Post. Matt Gurney suggested that the reason why a recent Forum Research poll indicated 60 per cent of Canadians thought abortion should always be legal was the abortion controversy surrounding M-312 and the U.S. election campaign. “Fiery rhetoric will kill your cause,” he counselled, looking at supposed gaffes by Republicans south of the border. “Debating legal safeguards and definitions of life may not grab as much attention as fuming about ‘legitimate rape,’ but it’s the best shot you have,” he wrote. George Jonas critiqued the language of the “pro-choice side”: feminists interpret social equality as “women having no burdens imposed on them that aren’t also imposed on men” including pregnancy, but “They can’t quite bring themselves to grant women a licence to kill, like 007. This is why the debate is filled with pious rhetoric about women controlling their own bodies, or lives aborted not being ‘life’.” Jonas has described himself as pro-abortion in the past … Sixteen-year-old “transgendered” student Samantha De Graauw, now calling herself James Spencer, is speaking out against not being allowed to use the men’s washroom at Clarke High School in Newcastle in Durham Region east of Toronto. She demands to use the men’s washroom because she self-identifies as a man and more than 200 students have signed a petition supporting De Graauw’s complaint … Scheduled to be discussed at its Nov. 18-20 meeting, the Alberta School Boards Association will examine mandatory fully funded, full-day kindergarten for “at risk” children as well as policies to counter “homophobia, transphobia, and heterosexism” in schools …Tourism PEI is attempting to spread the message that Prince Edward Island is “gay-friendly” through initiatives that include diversity training courses and links on its website catering especially to homosexuals. “If you ask for the King suite, you don’t want a staffer saying ‘but that’s just one bed’,” explained Vicki Francis, owner of the Cranford Inn in Charlottetown, to the Canadian Press … The Chilliwack Board of Education will draft a new policy for the distribution of Gideon Bibles after Richard Ajabu complained to the British Columbia Ministry of Education about a card sent home with his Grade 5 daughter asking for parental consent to obtaining the Bible, claiming it contained “promotional advertising content.”
United States
Six workers at abortion facilities quit during the past 40 Days for Life campaign, which, according to former Planned Parenthood facility director Abby Johnson, is causing “a heightened sense of paranoia.” She explained abortion facilities “don’t feel like they can trust any of their workers” … Babatunde Osotimehi, the executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), sent a letter to Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, expressing gratitude for President Barack Obama’s re-election: “We were grateful to learn that we will have continued support and vision under his leadership in ensuring that all women have access to quality and voluntary family planning and reproductive health care” … Reality TV star Jamie McKay from MTV’s 16-and-Pregnant announced that she had an abortion and regretted it. “I chose it out of fear. I feel like I made a mistake and I can’t take it back,” she wrote on Twitter … Former Miss America Angelo Baraquio is filming a pro-life commercial for the pro-life group I Am Whole Life. She had previously made a pro-life video for the 2008 elections … Brad Pitt agreed to match donations from members of the Human Rights Campaign up to $100,000 to support its efforts promoting same-sex “marriage” in various ballot initiatives in four states during the November elections. Earlier this year, Pitt’s mother made news when she spoke out against President Obama, abortion, and same-sex “marriage.”
International
The Polish government revealed plans to fund in-vitro fertilization for both married and unmarried couples with fertility problems. The initiatives have been opposed by Polish Catholic bishops, the opposition party, and a group of 100 Polish scientists, but the Civil Platform government seems prepared to push through the legislation … Spain’s Constitutional Court declined to hear a challenge initially brought forward seven years ago by the People’s Party to a law that allows for same-sex “marriage.” Same-sex “marriage” was legalized by former Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero of the Socialist Party, and the Court’s decision allows the law to stand … After less than a year of living as a woman, Ria (formerly Brad) Cooper, decided not to proceed with his full sex-change operation and return to his former life as a male. At 17, he was the youngest sex change “patient” in Britain and had asked doctors since he was 15 to become a woman. Cooper said that after the treatments started, he faced emotional suffering from hormones, attempted suicide twice, experienced isolation, turned to prostitution, and is currently unemployed.