Fully Funded, Any Time, Any Reason

Well, this isn't working very well.

Virulent anti-choice Jeff Watson, MP for Essex, Ontario, had an notion for a poll at his website.

Recently, as parliament debated M-312 to establish a committee to re-examine Canada's 400 year-old law defining a human being, the founder and Executive Director of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada called fully taxpayer-funded abortion, at any time, for any reason - including for sex-selection or as birth control - a basic woman's right.

Which best describes your position:

3464 total votes

I support fully taxpayer-funded abortion, at any time in the pregnancy, for any reason at all: 76%

I support some legal restrictions on access to abortion, for example restricting full access to abortion to the first trimester of pregnancy: 9%

I support abortion for any reason but it shouldn't be taxpayer-funded: 1%

I support creative policy options and supports that help women with unexpected pregnancies keep the baby: 2%

I support a complete ban on abortion: 10%

When our pal Alison at Creekside alerted us to this about 12 hours ago, there were just over 2716 votes, but the proportions were essentially the same: one point less then for some restrictions and one point more for total ban.

Let's repeat that, shall we?

Over three-quarters of Canadians support fully taxpayer-funded abortion, at any time in the pregnancy, for any reason at all.


UPDATE: The poll is still open and the fetus fetishists must be freeping. Total ban is up a point and totally lawless is down a point. Votey-vote-vote.

FURTHER UPDATE: Aha. PZ Myers linked to the poll. Alison says: 'It's PZ Myers vs the foeterz! My money's on PZ.' Mine too.

And here's the proof of the freeping.

UPDATE at 7:00 p.m.: Now 5148 votes. Fully funded, any time, any reason down to 58%. Total ban up to 29%. Proof that fetus fetishists are better freepers. Sane people get bored.

Hidden Agenda Watch

To keep up with DJ!'s mission of eternal vigiliance, aka 'Fuck the Debate', here's the latest addition to the Contempt Party abortion recriminalization crew: Jeff Watson*. That's four: Trost, Woodworth, Ambrose, and now Watson chimes in on the effort to 'reopen the debate'.

“My layman’s read of the public mood, if you will, around life issues [is] I think most people mistakenly believe that there’s already restrictions on abortion, and so this issue is already settled,” he explained.

Watson said that when he informs people that there are, in fact, no restrictions, “they’re quite alarmed and feel something should be done about it.”

Waaaah. Something should be done about it!!!

But, despite the 'strong, stable majority' -- hey! the abbreviation would be SSM, let's use that! -- LifeShite gripes:

Since winning a majority in the May election, Stephen Harper’s Conservative government has remained adamant that they will support the status quo on abortion, and has re-emphasized the point in the media whenever one of its caucus members raises the issue.

Under Harper in recent years, pro-life MPs have struggled to bring forward any discussion on abortion, even around broadly supported initiatives such as a ban on abortion coercion and or protections for unborn victims of crime, in part because abortion supporters frame them as backdoor efforts to re-criminalize abortion.

Um. Yeah. Because that's what they fucking are.

Oh, but look. We sane people are 'old-fashioned'.

“My gut feeling is that groups who support free access to the procedure of abortion won’t have the broader discussion. They’re content to frame every discussion as being about the re-criminalization of abortion,” Watson observed. “They want to frame it in old terms. … I expect a very strong resistance by groups that favour full access to the procedure of abortion. I expect them to be full-out name-calling and everything else that characterizes groups like that.”

“I think we’re mature enough as a society, I think we need to be mature enough as a Parliament, to deal with these questions head on,” he added.

Again with the characterization of prochoice being insensitive and immature name-callers.

See what they're doing here? The Fetus Lobby® is trying to paint itself as the serious ones, the mature ones, the *gag* 'modern' ones.

And they are absolutely wrong. Read the comments on two recent stories about the lack of abortion services in PEI, here and here.

The overwhelming majority of Canadians DO think this is a settled matter and do NOT want the so-called debate reopened.

The overwhelming majority of Canadians are sane, modern, mature, and sensitive. They, unlike the Fetus Lobby®, understand and respect a woman's right to autonomy. And do NOT want to go backwards as a society.


* We checked out Watson's rating at Campaign Lie . Yup. Anti-choice all the way, babeeee.

Rating Comments: Has not responded to CLC's 2011 questionnaire, but in 2006 he said he would support measures to introduce and pass a law to protect every unborn child from the time of conception (fertilization) onward.

No hidden agenda there. It's right out in the open.

ADDED: Dave at the Galloping Beaver is paying attention. He says the LifeShite story is older, from the December 26 Windsor Star, playing now to keep the faux 'debate' current. He also points out that the religious, anti-science Contempt Party members have been sitting on their hands in quest of the Strong Stable Majority (aka SSM). Now they have it and they're going to call in their markers. The Hidden Agenda decloaks.