And so marks the end of the shortest love affair in the history of the Canadian left;
… There’s been a moral dimension to this debate that’s quite complex, and I think deserves respect. So I respect people who say, “I’m against abortion because there is a right to life, and the fetus is sacred.”
I respect that, because I think all life is sacred. So, where do I come to thinking we should be able to have – and must have – access to therapeutic abortions in Canada?
It’s the other side of a moral dilemma: If we make them illegal, women will die. We know this. It happened for hundreds and hundreds of years, that women would seek out whatever butcher they could find to cause an abortion to happen, and they would die horrible deaths, and the baby would die too.
So I see it as a moral dilemma, and I don’t see it as a clear-cut black-and-white.
And I think one of the things I would like to bring to Canadian politics is to show enough respect to the other view, that we could actually have a dialogue about it. Because one of the things that is wrong about polarization is the language becomes a barrier to understanding.
So if one group of people say, “A woman has a right to choose,” I get queasy, because I’m against abortion. I don’t think a woman has a frivolous right to choose.
What I don’t want is a desperate woman to die in an illegal abortion. But I also don’t think it’s right to say – Well, you see, you end up having this conflict.
What I’d like to do in politics – and I’ve talked about this in some other settings besides here today, because this is the first time it’s come up in London North Centre – what I’d like to do in politics is to be able to create the space to say, “Abortions are legal because they must be to avoid women dying. But nobody in their right mind is for abortions.”
I’ve talked women out of having abortions. I would never have an abortion myself, not in a million years. I cannot imagine the circumstances that would ever reduce me to it.
So can’t we then have a different kind of conversation? What kind of programs and strategies do we need to have to reduce the number of legal abortions that take place? Instead of having this rather polarized and, you know, really, futile debate that only fuels divisions and makes both sides feel as they’re, you know, in some form of battle …
h/t to reader Diane.
Let the games begin!
Bob: You wrote: “Ron Good thinks taxpayers should pay for any and all abortions, no questions asked. Ron Good thinks abortion is OK for a woman’s physical and mental health. Ron Good thinks women should be able to use abortion as birth control.”
and you wrote:
“I’ll also note that you – a self-proclaimed libertarian – have no problem with paying for other peoples’ abortions; you could have chosen to argue against “free” taxpayer paid abortion on demand. Instead, like the statist that you are, you chose to argue for abortion “rights”. Very, very typical of today’s libertarians to give the statist left a free pass and taking the more politically correct route of attacking the conservative right.”
I think none of the above. But your rush to make assumptions is just one more reason I’m not a democrat or a statist. I’m curious: where, Bob, did you get _any_ of that from what I wrote?
As for quoting Steve Sailer to me: The ability of a culture’s males to cooperate with each other is correlated with the overall quality of life in that culture…you don’t come across as very cooperative. You actually come across as argumentative, confrontational and hasty.
Maybe you oughtta visit my blog and read a while–then you might realize that I’m nothing like what you think. In the meantime, don’t put words in my mouth.
Wow, what a tool she is. She just lost my respect.
Of course, a lot more could be said (contrary to what you claim, Jose, this issue has not honestly been discussed in Canada – nor in many other western countries). I often laugh when people try to tell me what issues I’m ‘allowed’ to have views on (yes, Lew, I’m talking about you). If anyone wants to excuse themselves from having opinions on one of the most instrumental moral issues of our day, that’s a perfectly legitimate ‘choice’ for you to exercise, just don’t expect the rest of us to follow suit. Silly emasculated male ….
It’s funny how the pro-abortion lobby conjures up visions of bloody wire clotheshangers and morgues filled with hemorrhaged women who bled out from botched abortions. Could the same conditions portrayed in a film like “Cider House Rules” ever really exist again in Canada 2006?
According to the egocentric lefties sexual freedom must win out over the rights of the unborn at all costs…because anything less will make clotheshangers once again instruments of heinous murder and torture. I’m sure the CBC will be reporting that Canadian women will be lining up at their closets if abortion on demand is ever fiddled with, unless of course they switched to those fancy plastic hangers. The local drycleaner’s dumpster might have a bent hanger or two waiting to spring into pro-choice action for the plastic hanger crowd.
The thing is, times HAVE changed dramatically and irreversibly since the time period portrayed in “Cider”. We’re beginning to understand the miracle of human DNA, Canadian women on a whole are now getting much better educations than men, the social stigma of giving birth to a child outside of marriage is no longer a permanent scarlet letter around a woman’s neck, advancements in medicine now allow life saving procedures for unborn children cursed with previously incurable defects, the largely unquenched huge demand to adopt Canadian children, etc.
The pricelessness of children to our dying Western society and strong evidence supporting high “human” levels of function the unborn possess in early stages of development are pushing the repeal of abortion on demand issue (the unborn can actually be taught in the womb). It’s really about how valuable are unborn rights to Canadian Society. My gut feel is that Canadian Society is much richer with unborn rights. Therefore this issue will continue towards that conclusion…and the clotheshangers will stay in the closets and the dry cleaner’s dumpsters.