We Are Legion

Do you remember MP Ken Epp's private member's bill C-484, Unborn Victims of Crime Act from 2007? Joyce Arthur and I do. (We met for the first time in real life yesterday, appropriately, at Apiecalypse Now, the restaurant owned by pro-choice hero, Jen Bundock.)

We talked about how lonely we felt at the time, as two of a very few voices shrieeeeking about the danger it posed to abortion rights. Hardly anyone took notice. Certainly not the MPs. The bill passed second reading, only to die on the order paper when the 2008 election was called. Thank the goddess.

Now, things are very different. There is the ongoing and intensifying madness about abortion in the US that wafts northward. And social media is proving to be a powerful force used by individuals and groups to gain attention and amplify messages.

But it's more than that.

Joyce and I do not feel lonely anymore as dozens (hundreds?) of people have taken on the task of watching the Big Fetus Lobby and alerting others when they get out of line.

The media and other mainstream organizations are far more open to hearing these messages and acting.

For example, a screening of an anti-choice film at King's University College at Western University has drawn an amazing amount of attention. This morning I counted six media stories at Google News, including this pretty surprising demand from faculty for an apology for misrepresenting the school's values.

In a letter sent to Principal David Malloy Wednesday, professors from across disciplines, signed their names to a three page letter describing the "furor and fear" expressed by the school community when the movie was screened last Thursday.

Also recently, anti-choice MP Garnett Genuis's "survey" for constituents that included a question on abortion also drew online hell-fire.

Twitter user Ann Bibby (@anniegirl1138) expressed her anger in the tweet; “This is the bulls**t (Christmas) crap we get from our MP. Separatism and reopening the access to abortion issue. Ffs.”

Nearly 200 people retweeted the message and also tweeted their concern about the abortion questions. Others called the separation question divisive.

This is in Alberta, mind.

Other individuals are calling for buffer zones: around hospitals and clinics and around schools.

People are sick of seeing the enormous gory images of miscarried fetuses and demanding that towns and cites take steps to shut these displays down.

People are also sick of misleading or outright lying messages about abortion on their transit shelters and vehicles. Some cities are acting and having them removed.

Elsewhere, residents are fed up with their public spaces used to promote fringe values. Many cities and towns have (mostly) harmless flag- and banner-raisings. But they're realizing these minor events are more trouble than they're worth: in Nelson, BC and Saskatoon.

Also really encouraging is the Handmaids movement. There are more than a dozen chapters using the title Handmaids Local and the area code. Here is Handmaids Local 905 in their red finery.



And then, the entire country weighed in with the convincing defeat of anti-choice and anti-LGBTQ+ Conservative Andrew ("Yankee Doodle Andy") Scheer in the recent federal election.

Here is Peter MacKay's immortal quote.

"And yet that was thrust onto the agenda and hung around Andrew Scheer's neck like a stinking albatross, quite frankly, and he wasn't able to deftly deal with those issues when opportunities arose."

So, that's where we seem to be at. In Canada, social conservatives are stinking anathema. The majority doesn't even want to hear their voices, let alone look at their manipulative images or listen to their lies.

As a country, we seem to be saying collectively -- and politely of course -- "Shut the fuck up."

No more shrieeeeking in the wilderness for pro-choice activists. We are legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us.

Why They March: Because We're Winning

Fetus fetishists are marching again today on Parliament Hill.

This year's theme is #RU4Life, a play on the abortion drug RU486's name, which is now up for approval by Health Canada.

I find this choice perplexing.

Last year's theme was gendercide. It was in the news at the time, largely thanks to Warawa's Wank, a private member's motion condemning gender-selective abortion (as if anything could be done about it). And the issue was garnering some media attention as many "conditional pro-choicers" needed to express their ambivalence -- "I'm pro-choice but. . . "

Warawa's motion blew up real good, providing the necessary victim-fuel for last year's efforts.

But why RU486 this year?

It is but one method of abortion and not well known. It is used very early -- up to 9 weeks' gestation only -- avoiding the fetishists' beloved gore of late abortion.

While the zygote zealots try to characterize it as particularly nasty, calling it "human pesticide", and dangerous, it is safe, effective, and has been widely used around the world for nearly 30 years.

Of course antis really really hate all medical abortion. It's quick and relatively cheap. Any physician can prescribe it, making it especially useful for rural and remote access.

But what they really hate is that it's private. Women don't need to run the gauntlet of clinic harassers to get and use it.

No invigorating slut-shaming opportunities for them.

Perhaps they expected RU486 to be in the news as gendercide was last year. Last fall there were reports that Health Canada was, then wasn't, then was too considering its approval. (Now we hear that there will be no decision until 2015.)

So a miscalculation on their part?

Even so, it's hardly the barn-burner that gendercide can be in a skilful spinmeister's hands.

This is what I think. Consciously or unconsciously, the fetus fetishists recognize that they've lost the war.

Canada is a staunchly pro-choice country with 90% of us supporting abortion in all or some cases.

There is no way that abortion will be recriminalized and they know it.

So they've fallen back on fighting rear-guard skirmishes like this one on RU486 -- "this far, no further."

As more and more Canadians support abortion rights and a new generation rises up to take on the battle for equal access, the choice of this year's theme is an outright admission of defeat.

We'll continue to oppose their every effort of course, but we may be closer to total victory than we realize.



Public Service Announcement Section
First, links to counter claims that RU486 is dangerous. Some fact sheets on its safety: here, here (pdf), and my favourite, pointing out that it's safer than Tylenol.

Here's Campaign Lie's fact sheet. Note that there are five sub-heads, one given over to its "macabre lineage" to Nazi Germany -- yep, they went there -- and that one is placed higher than safety concerns. That's how little they've got in the way of actual "facts."

I like this comparison on safety. In its first year of use, Viagra was linked to 522 deaths, while fetus fetishists themselves can link RU486 to 15 deaths over nearly 30 years of use. There are risks associated with anything of course, but it's telling, isn't it, that antis show such cavalier disregard for owners of wayward willies compared to their solicitous protection for owners of vagrant vaginas.

They're planning a Tweet-fest today using the hashtag #WhyWeMarch. I'm planning on doing a little geurrilla co-option with offerings like: "Because it's mandatory at my Catholic school" and "Because my Ontario tax-payer funded Catholic school pays for a day-trip to the Hill. Day off! Yay!"

I will also be reporting, as usual, on their inflated attendance claims.

So, whether you're going to the Hill, participating in a local event (there's a rally in PEI today), snarking from your keyboard, or just watching the fun, take heart.

The good gals and guys are winning.

deBeauxOs chirping in: I'm investigating if the obnoxious gotcha that the StunTV moppet tried to spring upon the Radical Handmaids at the March4Lies made it onto their network. Will blog that tomorrow.

Lawless Abortion Still Safe

More as satisfying dénouement than as surprising development, here is the end of Maurice Vellacott's doomed last kick at the abortion can.

If you listen carefully, you may be able to hear a quiet collective sigh of relief emanating from Langevin Block this week, as the prime minister's House strategists go through the fine print of the next batch of private members' business set to hit the Commons floor over the next few weeks.

Despite constant rumours of continued, if muted, muttering from the government backbench, it doesn't look like any of the 5 Conservative MPs set to join the queue is particularly interested in setting the stage for a potential split within caucus.

Rather than champion one of the two abortion-related motions he added to the Order Paper just before the House rose in December, or even last week's eleventh-hour pitch to abolish a subcommittee currently charged with deciding which items of private members' business can be put to a House vote, retiring Saskatchewan MP Maurice Vellacott has chosen to champion his comparatively non-contentious bid to rework the current divorce laws to focus on shared parenting instead of custody.

Maurice obviously got the message: Canadians are fine with the status quo on abortion and will not tolerate any panty-sniffing, gord-bothering attempt to mess with it.

As Kady mentions, Maurice is retiring. One more dinosaur gone from the national scene. Only about 100 left.

Juxtapose: Morgentaler and Tiller

Nothing could be starker in a comparison between the US and Canada.

Yesterday, Dr Henry Morgentaler died at home at the age of 90. (The best profile I've read is by Sandra Martin.)

Four years ago tomorrow, Dr George Tiller was gunned down in the vestibule of his church.

In coverage of Dr Morgentaler, Canadian media seem to want to stir things up, giving equal time to fetus fetishists to sanctimoniously offer condolences while lying their asses off about the growing strength of their movement.

Here's CBC's Power and Politics interviewing Carolyn Egan and Alyssa Golob.

Really? @pnpcbc had a fetus fetishist on? OK then, when Nelson Mandela dies, they'll have have a KKKer, right? #WhatFuckingYearIsIt #cdnpoli

— Fern Hill (@fernhilldammit) May 29, 2013

But here is the thing. Despite anti-choice lies and sneaky back-door attempts to reopen the debate, abortion is a totally dead issue in Canada.

In fact, support for unrestricted abortion is actually 'skyrocketing'. From October 2012:

A Forum Research poll for the National Post recently asked 1,735 randomly selected Canadians 18 years of age or older when abortion should be legal.

A full 60% of Canadians said always.

That’s surprisingly high. Even more surprising: That number’s skyrocketed in recent months. In a similar Forum poll conducted last February, only 51% of Canadians took that position.

Yes, we have more work to do on access. And yes, we will remain eternally vigilant because the fetus fetishists will NEVER give up.

But Canada is undoubtedly pro-choice. And we have Dr Morgentaler and countless others to thank for that.