Anti-Choice: Voice in the Wilderness

Further to my most recent post, there are more indications that the fetus fetishists are increasingly nervous, especially over renewed resolve and activism in New Brunswick.

From the recent NB Liberal policy meeting:

The most significant shift from the weekend came on abortion rights as two resolutions were overwhelmingly approved by grassroots members. The resolutions broke from the policy first established by former Liberal premier Frank McKenna.

The two policies refer to family planning services and reproductive health but the meaning was clear: with the pending closure of the Morgentaler clinic, Liberals now support greater access to abortion in hospitals.

Wendy Robbins, a Liberal member, helped draft the wording of the resolutions.

"This is a clear signal that the party's moving beyond the position it's held in the past,” she said.

Even more interesting -- and encouraging to us sane people -- is this from a Telegraph-Journal story (behind paywall).

Geneviève Gagné, president of the New Brunswick Young Liberal Association, called for “access to a full-range of publicly funded family planning information and services.”

“I think every woman should have access to abortions or any information she needs to provide adequate family planning information to her,” the 20-year old Gagné said.

Gagné’s amendment came right after another delegate could not find a second person to support an amendment she had proposed to restrict abortion to medically necessary cases and to promote a culture of life.

Fredericton delegate Nancy MacAfee said she was surprised no one else in the room was willing to support her motion for right to life.

“I was flabbergasted. I know the mentality of people has changed a lot. … I felt like a voice in the wilderness,” she said.

Voice in the wilderness. Ayup.

Canada Health Act: Then and Now, Nfld and NB

I have a question.

In this piece about what soon may be the only abortion clinic east of Montreal, the Athena Health Centre in St John's, there's this bit of history (emphasis mine).

According to a 1998 article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, from the time the St. John’s Morgentaler clinic opened until 1993 the out-of-pocket cost for a woman having an abortion ranged from $400-$750, despite the fact abortion was covered by the Canada Health Act as a medically necessary procedure. In ’93, however, the province began paying the salaries of physicians at the Morgentaler clinic, enabling the clinic to reduce its fees. Then, in 1995, the federal government began forcing the provinces to cover the full cost of abortions for those eligible for provincial health care, and by 1998 the Government of Newfoundland was fully funding the medical service. The cost to the province today is about $1,000 per procedure.

The federal government began forcing provinces to fund abortion in 1995, yet somehow the memo to New Brunswick got lost in a time warp?

Now, nearly 20 years later, New Brunswick STILL hasn't got the message?

Alternatively, why did the 1995 feds force Newfoundland but somehow overlook New Brunswick?

Students of inequality and misogyny in Canada would like to know.

More on the Canadian Sexual Two-Step

First, the step back:

DJ! fave (^NOT) Stephen Woodworth is at it again.

Meanwhile, Conservative MP Stephen Woodworth hits the stage at the National Press Theatre for "an important announcement" on his backbench bid to have the Commons "affirm that every Canadian law must be interpreted in a manner that recognizes in law the equal worth and dignity of everyone who is in fact a human being" -- which is, of course, a not terribly veiled attempt to restart the 'conversation' that he had hoped to trigger with his original, more obviously abortion-targeted motion in 2012.

As he has already used up his slot on the private members' priority list, Woodworth will almost certainly not get the opportunity to see his motion go to the House floor under his name, but he may have successfully persuaded a colleague to carry on the campaign.

That was from National Treasure Kady O'Malley, who when asked which MPs might give up his or her spot for this quixotic ploy, responded with this link and the additional information that the first 15 names have priority.

Those names are:

122. Chong, Michael
123. Brosseau, Ruth Ellen
124. Ayala, Paulina
125. Mayes, Colin
126. Chisu, Corneliu
127. Péclet, Ève
128. Hoback, Randy
129. Leef, Ryan
130. Hayes, Bryan
131. Van Kesteren, Dave
132. Choquette, François
133. Valeriote, Frank
134. Patry, Claude
135. Stanton, Bruce
136. Morin, Isabelle

From Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada's list of anti-choice MPs, there are three possibles: Mayes, Hoback, and Van Kesteren.

We live and see.

From the step-forward file: New Brunswick students call for an end to the shameful and illegal refusal of NB to fund abortions.

A group of students at St. Thomas University has launched an online petition asking the New Brunswick government to fund abortions at a private clinic.

The aspiring social workers say they know women who have had difficulty accessing abortions and they want the province to fund abortions at Fredericton’s private Morgentaler Clinic.

Here's their petition, now with more than 3,000 signatures.

Support the students' efforts and women's rights in New Brunswick.

UPDATE to Woodworth bit: Kady reports that she missed the beginning of his presser, but noted that he seemed to be giving the speech he always gives.

OKAY! Finally! News! Oh, for heaven's sake: Woodworth is going to stand up and ask for unanimous consent for his motion. #Hw

— kady o'malley (@kady) April 8, 2014

If every MP who was going to make a doomed attempt to seek unanimous consent held a press conference, we'd never get anything else done. #hw

— kady o'malley (@kady) April 8, 2014

Woodworth claims it will be 'a dark and dangerous day for Canada' if even one MP says nay. #hw

— kady o'malley (@kady) April 8, 2014

I thought he'd persuaded one of his colleagues to put it forward in the next batch of private members' biz. That would have been news! #hw

— kady o'malley (@kady) April 8, 2014

Upshot: Same old bullshit.

We Got Rallies, Mini-Rallies, MASSIVE Rallies, All Kindsa Rallies

Fall is a busy time for fetus fetishists and this year even more so.

First up, the second hour of debate and vote on Woody's Wank tomorrow (Sept. 21) and Wednesday (Sept. 26) respectively. (Note Kady O'Malley will be live blogging/tweeting the debate starting at 1:30.)

Also on September 26, the annual 40 Days of Harassment begins.

And in Ontario there will be a repeat of last year's Defund Abortion Rally that was sadly marred by the absence of Premier Tim ('I Will Defund Abortion') Hudak.

This year's Defund Rally, sponsored again by Campaign Lie, will be bigger and better. Of course.

They've done more preparation.

Since CLC Youth’s major Defund Abortion Campaign kicking-off last fall with a rally at Queens Park, we have been busy at work setting the framework for success. Since then, over 40,000 pamphlets have been delivered by constituents in ridings across the province, over 23,000 signatures have been collected for our petition in every riding across the province, and various members of provincial parliament have been visited by their constituents. Various MPPs are becoming increasingly sympathetic to our cause, with some even interested in taking this initiative further in Queens Park.

They've also added mini (ha) rallies at MPPs' constituency offices.

“This year we are kicking it up a notch. In addition to holding a massive rally at Queens Park like we did in 2011, we have also added a local element for 2012 with ‘mini-rallies’ across Ontario. These rallies will all happen on the same day, at the same time, to maximize the sheer awesomeness of this event,” said organizer Alissa Golob, coordinator for Campaign Life Coalition Youth.

Awesomeness? Sheer awesomeness? OK, then.

(Aside: How MASSIVE was last year's rally? Jim Hughes, Campaign Lie prez, personally counted each ff and came up with 2,300. Mind, this is the same guy who personally counted each ff at last May's March of the Feti and came up with 20,000 participants, when the highest any reputable source would go is 15,000, with most of the others citing numbers around 10,000. So, doing the lyingliar math, I'd guess there were maybe a thousand last year.)

I'm eagerly anticipating the annual push-poll they put out just before the shindig, for which they deploy more lyingliar math to assert that EVERYBODY, except Feminazis of course, supports defunding abortion.

This is the poll question that works best for fetus fetishists. While Canadians are stoutly prochoice, opinions on abortion funding split better for them. This poll from August 2010 finds that 39% support funding only in emergencies, while 44% support funding whenever.

The dates are interesting too, aren't they? Saturday for mini-rallies but Tuesday for the MASSIVE rally. Busses for Catlick school (funded by all Ontarians) kids are being chartered as we speak.

The irony of using tax-payer funding, a practice that 53% of Ontarians oppose, to protest tax-payer funding for something that 83% of Ontarians support -- at least in some circumstances -- doesn't seem to impinge on them.

One of the yuckiest features of this effort is the logo. A heart with toes? TOES? Are they promoting birth defects?

(Rats. I tried to enlarge it and Blogger wouldn't upload. I need to get better at this bloggery stuff.)

Anyway, I'm thinking I'll mosey over to my MPP's office to see for myself how 'mini' the mini-rally will be. If you have a mind to do the same, you can find addresses here.

The fun just never stops in FetusFetishistLand, does it?

Canada Backs Maternal Health Only in Countries Where Abortion Is Illegal

The screwed-up communications on abortion funding as part of Motherhood Steve's maternal health initiative continue.

Canada will fund an organization that provides family planning services around the world — but only in countries where abortion is illegal in most cases, CBC News has learned.
. . .
Planned Parenthood, which provides an array of sexual and reproductive health services, including abortions, abortion counselling and training for providers, is getting the federal funding after Oda let the agency's previous request sit on her desk for a year without a response, and after a Conservative MP told an anti-abortion group that the government wouldn’t be giving the organization any money.

Oda's decision to approve Planned Parenthood's proposal comes more than a year after Canada was embroiled in controversy over whether to fund abortions as part of a G8 commitment to improve maternal health in developing countries.

The proposal gets around the thorny issue of abortion by asking for money for sex education and contraception services, and does not include abortion services.

The funding is worth $6 million over three years for Planned Parenthood to work in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Mali, Sudan and Tanzania, where abortions are illegal except in cases where the mother's life is at risk.

Ain't that grand? Or would be when Bev Odious gets around to informing IPP.

A spokesman for International Planned Parenthood said Thursday that he was excited to hear about the funding, but that the group hasn't heard "a whisper" about it from the Canadian International Development Agency, Oda's department.

The funding proposal was resubmitted after the 2011 election, Paul Bell said. It had been revised one more time and the organization was waiting for a response.
. . .
In an email Thursday night, Oda's spokesman said CIDA told the group their proposal was approved.

"Today, International Planned Parenthood Federation has been informed that its application for funding has been approved under the Maternal, Newborns and Child Health commitment," Justin Broekema said in a statement.

The CBC link provides a good backgrounder to the whole idiotic story. In short, Canada, where there is NO law on abortion, gets all squishy squeamish about funding abortion in other countries where it is also LEGAL.

Big Daddy Steve and his misogynist minions can try to spin this as standing up for women and children. But Canadian women should be in no doubt. This government does ^NOT see women's issues as any kind of priority. See here for a list of Canadian women's groups gleefully defunded by the patriarchal Contempt Party.

ADDED: Fetus fetishists not happy. Big-mouth Brad Trost to issue statement this week.

Pure Viciousness

In a burst of misplaced optimism, this piece at RH Reality Check is titled Sanity Prevails in Oklahoma.

In a sign that--perhaps, maybe--the extreme right's extremist attacks on the rights and health of women and children may have some limits, the Oklahoma legislature today allowed a bill to die in committee which, if passed, would have denied food vouchers and nutrition services to prenatal and pediatric clients served by Planned Parenthood of Tulsa County.

Huh? Food vouchers and nutrition services? How do they figure?

Read the story. It absolutely nauseating. In their orgy of defunding anything that has to do with abortion and/or Planned Parenthood, Tea Baggers fixed on a program called Women Infants and Children that provides dough for food for at-risk, i.e. poor families. The Baggers then discovered it would have defunded ALL organizations that participate in it.

They wrastled around with language to cut PP out while keeping the rest in.

An editorial in Tulsa World explains (bold mine).

Here's the crux of the matter: In kicking Planned Parenthood out of the WIC program, lawmakers won't be punishing Planned Parenthood. They'll be punishing poor women who chose to have their babies and are trying to take care of them. What kind of sense does that make?

If Planned Parenthood is banned from providing WIC services, then the 9,300 clients of that program currently served by Planned Parenthood will have to try to obtain the nutrition services elsewhere. For a mother of limited means, that could prove an extreme hardship and could mean some will have to drop out of the program.

In Tulsa, Planned Parenthood last year also provided about 5,600 pediatric care appointments and about 3,000 prenatal visits, among other primary health services it provides. Some of those contacts were with the same women and children currently receiving WIC through Planned Parenthood. Why not make their lives a little easier by letting them continue to receive all those services in one place?

Here's why: Because the foes of Planned Parenthood can win political points by saying, "We kicked Planned Parenthood out of WIC." The fact poor mothers and babies would be made to suffer as a result is an inconsequential by-product that doesn't matter to them.

I wouldn't call letting that bill die 'sanity'. I'd call it a step back from gratuitous cruelty.

The Real Majority vs. Harper Majority

From Joyce Arthur of ARCC, 19 items we sane people can expect from the Harper Regime on Steroids (HROS) on the reproductive rights agenda. Plus her assessment of how likely they are to arise.

Private Member's Bills! Lots of PMBs! One as early as this fall, according to fetus fetishists. She lists the ones they've already tried -- and will try again. Then adds the innovations from the Excited States as possibilities: mandatory ultrasound, parental consent, mandatory counselling from religious Fake Clinics etc.

Next, defunding abortion. There are four gambits, all of which she rates as 'highly likely'.

Four ventures under defunding of reproductive health and rights, some of which -- like the inaction on the Planned Parenthood funding request are already being carried out.

Under Parliament, Senate, Supreme Court, and Legal Measures, there are five 'likely' moves and one unlikely one. Remember, SHithead's appointments could have a huge impact on the Supreme Court for years to come.

Finally, under public policy, she cites funding of research into abortion drugs or technologies, injecting anti-choice restrictions into all kinds of policy areas, and the influence of the as-yet mysterious Office of Religious Freedom.

As we know, the Fucking Useless Opposition® will be of no help to us. We'll have to remain vigilant, make alliances with other groups, pressure MPs who may be Con but not anti-choice.

Here's an interesting analysis of the 2011 vote, exploring where votes moved from and to.

CES [Canadian Election Study] data doesn’t show much evidence of widening and deepening of Conservative support over 2008; for example though they were hoping to improve their standing amongst women, there was still negative gender gap for the Conservative Party in 2011 though not quite as severe as before. In fact it was the NDP which improved its performance with men. The Conservatives also had a significant age gap, falling very behind amongst young people.

We need to let them know that women -- especially young women -- will NOT tolerate even minor infringements of our rights.

Abortion Funding Push-Back

As we sane people recover from the annual March for Feti bunfest, let's look south where fetus fetishists are revelling in a frenzied war on women. In April alone, 33 anti-abortion bills were enacted in various states.

Thirty-three. In one month. More than one per day.

Of course, the biggest (so far) battle lost to the zygote zealots was the Democrats' shameful abandonment of women in what they straightfacedly call healthcare reform in 2009. Abortion would not be funded. No way, no how, not in any shape or form. (Not that the virulent nutjobs actually believe that.)

See, that's the Wedge. Funding.

The terrific facty-sciency organization, Guttmacher Institute, is tracking the progress of various reproductive rights bills in the US on a monthly and state-by-state basis. It makes for dreary reading.

Again, in April alone, there were 23 pending or passed bills on abortion funding in state legislatures.

And while Stephen the Bald-Faced Liar (income trusts, anyone?) swears he will not open the abortion so-called debate, the same tactic can be deployed here. A fetish fetishist said so right out loud.

And Georges Buscemi, president of Campagne Québec-Vie, said abortion services can be scaled back without a new law making the procedure illegal.

For instance, federal funding to family-planning organizations "can be diverted to other groups that are more open to life."

"There could be some behind-the-scenes work done," Buscemi said at news conference.

"Different things, subsidies to different organizations, policies on health, policies on education. There are a lot of things that can be done behind the scenes to prepare for the future."

Here's why the Wedge can work here too.

When Canadian fetus fetishists do their polling, they consistently get results that must depress the hell out of them. Canada remains stoutly pro-choice.

But the answer that comes closest to what they want to hear is on the funding issue. In a 2008 poll, responders were most closely split on taxpayer funding: 49% in favour, 47% opposed.

I went looking for more recent polls and found three from Angus Reid summed up here.

Polls from July 2009 to July 2010 showed a stable level of support for funding for all abortions no matter the reason (43-44%).

Similarly, support for funding only in the event of medical emergencies has slipped from 44% in 2009 to 39% in 2010.

But here's a potentially worrying trend. Those who believe the healthcare system should fund NO abortions has grown from 4% in 2009, to 7% in January 2010, to 10% in July 1010.

So, when the Austerity Boogeyman is rolled out in all its horrifying opportunism menace, who's going to be 'behind the scenes' whispering about a good place to start in healthcare cost-control?

Yes, yes, I know. As was repeatedly pointed out to me on Twitter during the bunfest, healthcare is PROVINCIAL, not federal. But transfer payments come from the feds.

We need to start pushing back on this one.

Here's an interesting idea.

A group in BC, Options for Sexual Health (Opt), is lobbying the province to provide free contraception. It is making the usual arguments about sex ed, STDs, responsibility, yadayada, but what I find potentially useful is the economic argument.

According to Opt medical director Dr. Unjalli Malhotra, Opt’s proposal would save the Province $95 million in health and social expenditures, freeing up health-care resources and services for other needs. Figures are based on international experience and Health Canada data on the impact of sexual health programming collected over 20 years.

“The economic aspects are probably one of the most important as there is an up-front cost to a program like this,” said Malhotra, who is also a clinical associate professor at University of British Columbia.

“But when we look at other programs globally such as the U.K., Sweden, in fact most Scandinavian countries and many European nations, we’ve actually found that for every dollar spent on contraception, anywhere from $2 to $11 has actually been saved to the system.”

Malhotra explained the costs of having 300,000 unplanned pregnancies per year across the country.

“When we look at the number of unplanned pregnancies in a country like Canada, we find that there are approximately 300,000 or more per year and approximately 100,000 of those lead to abortion,” she said.

“Contraception is about $100 a year per woman, which is $3,000 for 30 years.”

She said that for one unplanned pregnancy, the cost of a spontaneous vaginal delivery with no complications is actually the same as giving someone contraception for 33 years.

“The cost of one abortion is equivalent to the cost of two years of contraception and the cost of one no-complications delivery is equivalent to 33 years of contraception,” she said.

Of course, free contraception for all is not going to eliminate the need for abortion services. But stated like that -- 1 abortion = 2 years of contraception -- it could be an important talking point.

Here's our reasonable response to 'reopening the debate' on the funding issue: 'Fine, we'll talk about funding only if free contraception for all is also on the table.'

Imagine the SHRIEEEEKING.

Fun, innit?

^NOT Reopen, Just ^NOT Fund

Well, big mouth fetus fetishist Brad Trost has unleashed a shitstorm.

Lying POS Dimitri Soudas summoned journalists in the middle of the night to dismiss Trost as a mere backbencher without access to government policy.

But as cathie reminds us, he's a backbencher with a source on matters dear to the Canadian Christian Taliban.

The odious lying Oda hustled out a statement.

International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda issued a statement insisting Planned Parenthood would get funding if its application "falls within the government's parameters."

IPPF has been waiting for over a year to find out if its application falls within the parameters.

Let's help Oda out, shall we?

Here is the Muskoka Declaration on Maternal Health. Note point 8 mentions 'voluntary family planning'. But zip zero nada on abortion.

Now have a look at IPPF's website and note second batch of bullet copy, last point.

There. IPPF, you are shit out of luck.

Today, on the campaign trail in Conception, NL, (would/could I make that up?), SHithead is all 'no we will not bring any legislation on abortion, nonononono'.

He dodged a question on private members' bills.

To which kady responded:

If Stephen Harper intended to say that he will whip his caucus and/or cabinet in any future vote, he should say so, explicitly.

But really, all this is beside the point. He doesn't need to legislate. Just ^NOT fund it.

Visit Alison for a view of the current Canadian Fetus Lobby.

Attention, Socons

Referring to the Citizen article I linked to yesterday, Chris Selley writes:

Well, well, well. As the Ottawa Citizen’s Elizabeth Payne reports, Canada’s Minister for International Co-operation now has no problem with funding abortion infrastructure in Third World countries where abortion is legal. But … but … what about all that vote-courting “no Canadian money for abortions” bluster back in April? Aren’t we now risking a terrible “divide [in] the Canadian population,” as Stephen Harper warned? Well, no. Of course not. It was just a ruse. Attention, social conservatives: You’ve been had. Again. And to borrow a line, it’s not going to stop until you wise up.

While the PMO is insisting that nononono, we are NOT funding abortions, the base is pissed.

LieShite:

In a shocking about-face, pro-abortion activist and Minister of International Cooperation Bev Oda has said that the Canadian government is now open to funding abortion under its G8 maternal health plan.
. . .
"Bev Oda worked closely with Planned Parenthood and other pro-abortion groups during the G-8 discussions and made pro-abortion statements at that time,” commented CLC national organizer Mary Ellen Douglas in a press release today. “She eventually conformed to Party policy regarding maternal health at the last moment. It is now very clear that she was merely biding her time."

The Freaks are discussing it too and my Facebook friend Connie writes:

Can someone please explain this to me because it looks an awful lot like the socons just got screwed again.

So, socons, as mothers used to say to daughters back in the neolithic, why would a man buy a cow if he could get the milk for free? You're being milked. And no doubt sneered at to boot.

More Funding Cuts to Women's Groups and a Poll

A buncha uppity wimmin NOT shutting the fuck up.

Critics are accusing the Harper government of ideologically driven intimidation for cutting funding to women's groups even as it prepares to champion maternal health at next month's G8 Summit.

The Conservatives have axed funding for up to 14 women's groups in the past two weeks. News of the cuts surfaced a day after Tory Senator Nancy Ruth warned aid groups that they risk a backlash from the government if they don't “shut the fuck up” on the government's refusal to include abortion in the G8 plan.

Please, Canadians, make it stop.

And the CBC's Question of the Day:

Do you think that aid organizations risk funding cuts if they disagree with the government?

At the moment, the non-stupid, non-insane, non-indoctrinated are winning -- 85% yes.

If this is friendly advice. . .

I'd hate to be actually threatened by Conservative Senator Nancy Ruth. (Here is the audio if, like me, you can't fucking believe this.)

Aid experts alarmed by Canada’s new anti-abortion stand in foreign policy have been advised to “shut the f--- up” or risk Prime Minister Stephen Harper taking even more harsh measures – abroad, or maybe even at home if abortion becomes an election issue.

“We’ve got five weeks or whatever left until G-8 starts. Shut the f--- up on this issue,” Conservative Senator Nancy Ruth told a group of international-development advocates who gathered on Parliament Hill on Monday to sound the alarm about Canada’s hard-right stand against abortion in foreign aid.

“If you push it, there will be more backlash,” Ruth said. “This is now a political football. This is not about women’s health in this country.”

And it solves a mystery I've been pondering all weekend -- why are aid groups, including my beloved Plan Canada, not only shutting the fuck up but wagging their collective finger at those of us who will not.

A coalition of development leaders including Plan is calling upon leaders to remember that another 8.8 million children and more than 300,000 mothers will die from preventable illnesses if we allow the political debate on abortion to obscure the critical issue of maternal and infant health.

The CEOs of CARE, Plan, RESULTS, Save the Children, UNICEF
and World Vision are taking a stand on this issue and do not want the potential for hope and opportunity to be swallowed up by a political debate that is stifling the potential for progress.

Here is Plan's official statement:

Time to Measure Success in Lives Saved, Not Political Points Scored: Development Leaders Say

Every year nine million women around the world watch as their children die from painful, preventable illnesses that often cost dimes, not dollars, to treat. Hundreds of thousands more women die in childbirth because they lack access to dependable health care close to home.

For groups like ours, who are working to make a difference in the lives of these millions of women and children, the upcoming G8 in Canada provides an historic opportunity to chart a course out of this desperate terrain.

And yet, instead of pushing forward in support of an initiative that could benefit millions, we're allowing the potential for hope and opportunity to be swallowed up by a political debate about abortion that is stifling the potential for progress.

We know from recent polls that abortion is a sensitive issue for Canadians and debating abortion in the context of this initiative will not resolve the domestic debate. Rather, it will stall or table an initiative that has enormous potential to save the lives of millions of mothers and children from some of the major causes of death.

Considering that Plan is the creator of the fabulous Because I Am a Girl project and has an honourable record for standing up for women's rights, I thought this bend-over-backwardsy chiding was a bit rich.

So I posted a link to Rosie DiManno's harrowing story of rape in Africa on Plan's Facebook page, told them I've been a Foster Parent (as it used to be called) for over 20 years, and that I found their cowardice appalling. I was fueled by the extra news that cutesy gift baskets were going to be given to all MPs -- many of whom would delight in casting Canadian women's rights back to Third World status -- on the occasion of Mother's Day.

I got chided too.

Fern, Plan is a rights-based secular development organization and we support the rights of women to choose all legal and safe options when it comes to family planning and other reproductive health services The reality is that abortion is not widely available or legal in many developing countries. Where it is, Plan offers counselling and referral to women so they can make their own decisions. The basic tenet of reproductive rights is about empowering women and girls, and this is Plan’s core service.

When it comes to the current debate in Canada, our position is that we need to put aside our differences and not get sidetracked by a debate on abortion when the majority of the over 500,000 maternal deaths every year result from lack of access to basic health care, nutrition and clean water. We have an opportunity to lead an international initiative that will save millions of women and their children from preventable deaths. The gift baskets we are giving to MPs next week are a joint initiative with seven other NGOs and they include items like home birthing kits and vitamin A and are meant to educate our policy makers about the reality that millions of women face during pregnancy and child birth in the developing world.

I made a rather testy reply to that. Which was deleted. When I yelped over the deletion, I was told in a private message that Plan wants to maintain a 'positive' Facebook presence.

Shorter Plan Canada to fern hill: STFU.

Well, Plan, I think I'll take a page out of the ReformaTories' play-book and defund you. I'll find an international development org with an actual spine and heart to give my $400+ a year to.

By the way, here's a list of groups defunded by the ReformaTories in the last two weeks.

And yet. . .

. . . this wanker has no problem with the rest of us paying for his martyr-gasm.

An anti-abortion crusader in New Brunswick has been sentenced to 66 days in jail for refusing to pay fines stemming from a 2007 conviction for failing to file his tax returns.

David Little said in provincial court Thursday that he will never file another tax return as long as there is tax-funded abortion in Canada, and won't pay the $3,000 in fines for failing to file returns for 2000, 2001, and 2002.

(snip)

The 66-year-old Roman Catholic, who is married and has eight children, said he is willing to spend the rest of his life behind bars if necessary.

"I don't want to co-operate with an entity that takes my money and pays gynecological assassins to kill my brothers and sisters," he said in an interview prior to sentencing.

"I'm prepared to die in jail, if necessary. I can no longer cope with the hypocrisy of praying for life ... and paying for death."

(snip)

Little had a number of supporters in court, including Bishop Faber MacDonald, the bishop emeritus for Saint John diocese.

MacDonald said outside court that he expects the jail sentence will result in more supporters for Little's cause.

"I think after a few days, after people read this story, it would be very easy to motivate them to action," he said.

When asked if he thought other Catholics should refuse to file their taxes in protest of abortion, MacDonald replied: "Yes."

MacDonald, though, acknowledged he has filed his own return.

Oooo. Colour me gob-smacked. Catlick hypocrisy. Again.

Me, I'm thinking about not paying my taxes to protest wankers like this getting his rox off on my correctional services dime.

The Wedge

I am depressed but not surprised by the healthcare debate in the US.

Again, we're shown that women's rights are ALWAYS negotiable.

Some commenters like Megan McArdle take women to task for making a big deal out of nothing much really.

Most of them seem to come from feminists who blithely assume away concerns about the personhood of the fetus, and the staunch political opposition to subsidized abortion from those who lean towards the "person" side. This allows them to spend 1,000 words or so having a completely irrelevant discussion of the disparate effects of the Stupak amendment on poor women, arguing that women's reproductive health care is too real health care, and similarly unrelated side points.

Talk about irrelevant . . . Dig this:

Last time I looked, there were over 1 million abortions a year in the United States. The most methodologically shoddy, activist-induced statistics on the number who die from lack of health insurance is 44,000, and the real number is much lower. The abortion statistics, on the other hand, are carefully collected numbers from a pro-choice group. Even if you only value a fetus as 1/20th of a person, the fetuses win.

She says that only 13% of abortions are insurance-funded. So, taking her own number of one million (which is too high, by the way), that measly 13% works out to 130,000 women per year having to pony up their own dough.

And for those women too poor? Fuck 'em.

The women who genuinely can't afford $500 bucks for an abortion are the women closest to the poverty line. Those women will be covered by Medicare, and they won't get abortion coverage anyway in most states.

There's much more, but as I said, it depresses me.

McArdle is a business writer. Nancy Folbre, on the other hand, is an actual economics professor. And she gets it.

With sex (as with food and exercise) Americans don’t seem, on average, to be very good at planning. Almost one-half of all pregnancies — and about one-third of births — are described as “unintended.”

We need insurance for a reason.

Nonetheless, despite heroic lobbying and phone-banking by people like Marta Evry and Jane Hamsher, I think the misogynist Christofascists are going to win.

Because paying for other people's (ahem) abortions really really bugs people.

And here's what I find really depressing -- the anti-choice forces here in Canada will get revved by the success of this tactic and push it even harder here.

While a recent poll by Angus-Reid clearly shows that Canadians are much more liberal than Murricans in their views (support for both abortion and same-sex relationships is up significantly -- for same-sex relationships by 7 points -- over the past two years), the question that polls 'best' for the anti-choicers, even here, is 'Should government fund abortion?'

Sorry, I couldn't find another source for this Environics poll:

The disconnect between official policy and the opinions of Canadians is even more stark in the area of abortion funding. Most abortions in Canada, which now total well over 100,000 annually, are paid for by taxpayers through the publicly funded health care system. Yet when asked, 68% of Canadians polled said that abortions should be either privately funded (18%) or only tax-funded in cases of medical emergency "such as a threat to the mother's life or in cases of rape or incest." Only 26% support tax-funding of all abortions, down from 30% last year.

They're spinning of course. An Angus-Reid poll from 2008 found that '43% say the health care system should fund abortions whenever they are requested'.


But still, this is their wedge.