Just like in the UK, anti-choicers in Canada plan to hijack the 20th anniversary of the decriminalization of abortion in Canada (January 28th, 2008) by holding misleading, anti-feminist and borderline hateful events all over the country.
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For instance, a new so-called "pro-life" groupe (as if we needed any more of those) called "ProWomanProLife" has been lauched to mark the 20th anniversary of the 1988 Morgentaler Supreme Court ruling.
This group seeks to convince the public that they're all "pro-choice," in the sense that they want Canadian women to choose to "eradicate abortion" and to "remove abortion from our cultural landscape". Ugh.
They also want to open and operate more "Crisis Pregnancy Centres", i.e. fake clinics where distressed pregnant women are tricked into going through unwanted pregnancies.
Predictably, those folks are liars...:
ProWomanProLife celebrates women, life and freedom, and is being launched to mark the Morgentaler decision of January 28, 1988, which removed all restrictions on abortion in Canada at any stage of a pregnancy.
(They make it sound like before January 28th, 1988, women could freely get legal abortions, under certain conditions. This is not the case, as those folks surely know. Terminating one's pregnancy was a crime before that date.)
... as well as bigots, for they are acquainted with such "pro-women" groups as Focus on the Family Canada and Family Canada.
"Pro-women". Yeah. Right.
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On January 28th, 2008, another anti-abortion group has made an anti-choice short film called "1st Degree Morgentaler" that has been entered in a film competition called "Project Breakout".
The film in question a very doubtful account by a woman who claims to have undergone a forced abortion at the hands Dr. Henry Morgentaler himself.
Puh-lease.
(Well. At lease, they're stupid enough to publicize their acts of clear-cut defamation. I can't wait to see the lawsuits that will follow...Yay!)
The anti-choicers behind this are rejoincing because the results of the competition are to be released on January 28th.
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Now, it's up to us, pro-choicers and feminists to hold our own events to let the public know that we don't accept that anti-choice, anti-women crap.
We need to unite our voices to tell the people of our communities that we support a woman's right to choose if and when she will have children.
We must take action to tell our fellow citizens and our governments that we want abortion in Canada to remain LEGAL, SAFE, ACCESSIBLE and FREE.
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On Sunday, January 27th, there will be a walk in downtown Montréal to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the decriminalization of abortion and to reaffirm our pro-choice values.
I will post more details of this events later on on this blog. You may also contact me by email at womenwithswords@gmail.com, or at 28janvier2008@gmail.com.
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2 comments:
Puh-lease? I actually know Vicky Green personally, she's a teacher at my college.
'Forced' may not be the right word, but certainly countless women weep as they make a choice they don't really want to make. You can't ignore the women whose testimonies of abortion aren't all of positive liberation.
Feminist author Frederica Matthewes-Green accurately stated:
"A woman doesn’t want an abortion like she wants an ice cream cone or a Porsche. She wants an abortion like an animal caught in a trap wants to gnaw off its own leg to escape."
Abortion is often a tragic last-alternative to many women whose circumstances leave them no other choice. This is not cause for celebration but rather, to find ways to truly help boxed-in women - in concrete ways.
I agree that an abortion is not something one wants like an ice cream cone. It's not something one does as a political statement, or because it's cool or fashionable.
It's a medical intervention, not an activity of leisure.
What is certainly a cause of celebration, however, is the fact that Canadian women now have that choice. The fact that we now have that choice is a "positive liberation," not the procedure itself.
Abortion, as a procedure, is not a source of immense feministe joy for those women who actually go through it. But it is most definitely a valid choice for them to make, and the women who opt to terminate an unwanted pregnancy are certainly glad, or at the very least relieved, that this choice was available to them.
That is what being pro-choice is about. Allowing women to choose whether or not they will bring their pregnancy to term. Being a pro-choicer is about supporting this freedom to choose, not about worshipping a medical procedure.
Having such a choice is indeed something to be celebrated. Which is exactly what we, Canadian women, feminists and pro-choicers will do on January 28th.
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