Proudly Prochoice

Celebrate 20 years of choiceThe 1988 Supreme Court of Canada’s Decision on R. v. Morgentaler, the decision which struck down Canada’s old abortion law, is a document well worth the time it takes to read. It provides the historical context for there being no new abortion law in Canada and it clarifies why men need to keep their laws off women’s bodies.

Chief Justice Brian Dickson, in the Majority Report, said:

Section 251 clearly interferes with a woman’s physical and bodily integrity. Forcing a woman, by threat of criminal sanction, to carry a fetus to term unless she meets certain criteria unrelated to her own priorities and aspirations, is a profound interference with a woman’s body and thus an infringement of security of the person.Canada Celebrates 20 Years of Choice

I’m celebrating that part today. And I’m celebrating the part by the late Justice Bertha Wilson who wrote a Minority Report which took the decision of the Majority even further. She said:

This decision is one that will have profound psychological, economic and social consequences for the pregnant woman. The circumstances giving rise to it can be complex and varied and there may be, and usually are, powerful considerations militating in opposite directions. It is a decision that deeply reflects the way the woman thinks about herself and her relationship to others and to society at large. It is not just a medical decision; it is a profound social and ethical one as well. Her response to it will be the response of the whole person.

It is probably impossible for a man to respond, even imaginatively, to such a dilemma not just because it is outside the realm of his personal experience … but because he can relate to it only by objectifying it, thereby eliminating the subjective elements of the female psyche which are at the heart of the dilemma.

So there ya have it! A w00t! for Wilson! A w00t! for Morgentaler! And a w00t! for prochoicers everywhere!

Now let’s get this problem of access to the procedure sorted, please.

5 thoughts on “Proudly Prochoice

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  2. fromhttp://blackcatsdomain.com/2008/01/30/murder-number-one-reason-for-death-of-pregnant-women.aspx
    MURDER: number one reason for DEATH of Pregnant Women
    Posted by BlackCat at 1/30/2008 11:59 AM and is filed under Poitical
    Im kind of surprised, but after thinking about it, no Im not. Its all about CONTROL with men after all, and if men feel like they have NO CONTROL, they lash out. Witness the seminal ( excuse me ) success of the so called “jihad”.

    Ill start with this:

    If Men Could Get Pregnant, Abortion Would be a Sacrament

    For centuries, death in childbirth was woman’s lot. In some places, it still is. In mountainous Afghanistan where women can’t get to hospitals or there are none, in war zones, in occupied zones with barriers or curfews, in many parts of Africa, in rural India, and China, in rural America, giving birth is still no joke. Even in big cities, it can be dangerous. There is massive bleeding, the placentas don’t always detach promptly, babies are often transverse or breach, just for starters. Then there is the question of medical care.

    According to The Washington Post, more than 1,300 pregnant women and new mothers have been slain since 1990. And a Maryland study published in 2001 in the Journal of the American Medical Association says a pregnant woman “is more likely to be a victim of homicide than to die of any other cause.”

    I am not a mother…by choice. I have never wanted to be a mother, and I have virtually no “mothering instincts”. This is neither here nor there, it doesnt or shouldnt matter in the grand sceme of things.

    However, I am angered that in lieu of “allowing” the woman the CHOICE to abort her pregnancy or not, men overwhelmingly choose no choice. The CONTROL thing again. But then, once the men realize they dont really have CONTROL, and this baby will probably take away all of THEIR TIME, ( read: penis time ) the resentment grows. Or, if they might have to PAY for the babys care.

    A study published in the March 2005 edition of the American Journal of Public Health found that homicide was a leading cause of death among pregnant women in the United States between 1991 and 1999. Data taken from the Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance System at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the pregnancy-associated homicide ratio was 1.7 per 100,000 live births.

    Just because youre a pretty girl..does NOT mean you asked for it We think the Marines could have done more to protect Maria when she made the report,” Conard said. “We know everything was done to protect the accused — perfectly proper. But they could have transferred her to another base, another unit. As it was, she stayed in the same unit.”

    23-year-old man held in murder of pregnant woman at Lansing mobile home park

    Unkowing mistress???

    Mr. Walker portrayed Mr. Sterling as a man living two very different lives up until the day his lies began to unravel and the alleged plot fell apart. In one, he was a committed husband and father, he said, and in the other, a single man who loved to date. One of the women he dated was Natalia Sinatora, who taught a class at the gym where Mr. Sterling worked – a woman Mr. Walker said was Mr. Sterling’s “unknowing mistress.” “He orchestrated a plot to murder his 37-year-old wife and … unborn child, Mr. Walker said. “He had many reasons for doing so. There was the $404,000 in insurance proceeds. Also, so he could be with his 26-year-old girlfriend.”

    Draw your own conclusions, but the facts dont lie.

  3. Pingback: Well, Canada, what now? « Politics’n'Poetry

  4. Pingback: Hope and Onions: Celebrating 20 years: "I am mine. And that's where it ends"

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