Friday 16 March 2012

We Will NOT Go Back

We have a date, April 26, 2012, for a one-hour debate on Stephen Woodwank's Motion 312 on the ever-popular topic of 'When Do Women Lose Their Right to Autonomy'?

The Fetus Fetishists are stoked. More on that in a bit, but first some history, or 'just how long has this been in the works?'

Woodwank, who represents Kitchener-Waterloo, put out a media release on his little notion on December, 21, 2011.

But way back on May 22, 2011 (just after the federal election), the Ontario Knights of Columbus vowed to find and work with an MP to 'introduce a Parliamentary Bill seeking the restoration of full legal protection for the lives of the unborn.' Woodwank is a Knight of Columbus.

On October 23, CTV had a story about an Ontario anti-choice group -- located in Guelph(!) -- launching a campaign called 'We Want the Debate'. It was to be a four-month campaign. Website here.

Four months would take them to mid-February, just around Woodwank's press conference. (I don't know what came of the campaign; I've seen no coverage of it.)

Coincidences? Sure, why not?




Woodwank is now promoting a site called Not Yet Born where you can download and print and harass your neighbours and co-workers with glurge like this.




Nope. No loaded language there, is there?

More reactions from the Fetus Lobby. Faytene of 4 My Canada, a fundy nutbar group, is pumped.

Campaign Lie's got a special-edition website called I Am a Human Being which demonstrates yet again their staunch but mistaken faith that images of miraculous fetal development will change hearts and minds.
When Canada de-criminalized abortion in 1969, technology did not exist to let the world see inside the womb. To a certain extent, abortion advocates in that era of scientific ignorance who honestly believed the unborn was merely a “blob of tissue” might be excused. But thanks to modern microscopic imaging and video technology, we can now see the newly created human being inside the womb.

Pro-tip: Such images have little effect.

In addition to cheerleading and waving around the same old pix, some fetus fanciers are doing happy dances to thoughts of the pro-choicers driven insane by finally having to debate their AWESOME science and logic.

Here's Mrozek.
Should be good–I’m sure a number of pro-choicers will be lighting their hair on fire with the contrived sort of fake anguish that only MPs in the House of Commons can muster.


And sob-brother Kelly McParland.
It’s diabolical. An arrow straight at the deliberate self-deceptions used to justify abortion. Abortion supporters will be up in arms.

In fact, even PMSHithead acknowledges that the debate is 'not the priority of the Canadian people'. (There he goes again, telling us what we think, but twice a day even a broken government clock. . . )

As we've argued countless times here at DJ!, there are a bunch of excellent reasons NOT to reopen the debate.

First, of course, is that the state has no business in the uteri of the nation.

Also. The Fetus Lobby lies, moves goalposts, and just generally argues in bad faith.

And. Most people are sick to death of hearing about it.

But mainly, because WE WON.

The game's afoot nonetheless and here's what could happen. One hour of debate in April, with a bunch of self-selected MPs flapping their gums. Then another hour sometime later and a vote. Simple majority wins and Woodwank gets his loaded committee to hear testimony from a bunch of fetus fetishists and whichever sane people think this is worth their time. Then a report to the House.

After that? Dunno.

First line of resistance is the MPs' debate in April. I'd like pro-choice MPs to stand up and say: 'I refuse to waste the House's time on a settled matter,' and sit down, leaving the floor to a parade of pious, prattling Attack Parrots®. Let Canadians get a load of that.

Ditto for the future debate. Then I want this sucker defeated.

Here's where we have a bit of work to do. Do you know if your MP is anti- or pro-choice? Find out here. Whichever way they roll, let them know you are NOT pleased with time and energy wasted on a settled matter.

Yesterday on Twitter, a few pundits (Kady O'Malley for one) deigned to admonish us pro-choicers as alarmist, over-reacting, yadayada. We were told to consult the numbers. This motion will never pass, they said. Don't worry your purty little heads.

Right. Remember Epp's fetal rights PMB? That passed second fucking reading because we weren't bothering our purdy little heads soon enough and hard enough. Only an election call stopped it. Not us. Nor the MPs.

Not the fucking pundits.

We will NOT get caught with our panties down again.

UPDATE: More Strategery. Like the idea of adopting an anti-choice MP.

4 comments:

Beijing York said...

I wouldn't be surprised if Front Porch Strategies was behind that Guelph campaign that has been disappeared.

Niles said...

I don't want the MPs saying they won't debate a 'settled matter'. I want them to say they won't debate taking away the settled human right of Canadian women to control their own bodies and lives.

'Settled matter' is too vague. The anti-women crowd leads with the 'will no one think of the *Sciense*? (which isn't science - rather, scientificish, feel-good, confirmation biased, cherry picked, quote mined, jargonesed 'common' sense) If all those poor 'low-information' (see, the regressives use that excuse too) people could only be shown what we didn't know then, the 'matter' wouldn't be 'settled.'(because it's been a conspiracy during the reign of the demmed Liberals to withhold the information, you see)'.

The anti-women crowd has been plastering this country with manipulated photos on vehicles, billboards, hand signs, and poscards since abortion was legalized.

They've been using religiously-approved 'public' schools as their captive audiences for more of the same, and adding in 'morality' visits to public-public schools, attempting to write upon the blank slates their theologically-justifying lies about birth control, women's sexual health and abortion.

Not to mention, bribing kids with school credits so they can bus the kids to public, political anti-women events as crowd fill for the cameras.

And then there are the theological community pulpits, used as yet another captive venue to rally the Tribe with the same demonizing haint destroying all that is good and virtuous in the world.

Despite all that, their effect has been steadily and increasingly bouncing like 'raisins off an oldsmobile'. They realize, that if they don't get State authority to dictate a ban on women's rights to sexual health and bodily autonomy,they will get absolutely NOWHERE, and negative integers with the younger generations.

Because Science, the real stuff, whose observations and conclusions, including sonograms, including all the other in-depth investigation into biological development of life in the wombs of all mammalian females, is what has brought people in this country around to improved information and decisions based on reality, not theological shame, which led to the legal decisions that Women-Should-Control-Their-Own-Bodies-and-Fetal Existence-Does-Not-Trump-That.

We already know what goes on in a human body. Shown to us in living colour by PBS(that Communist station), "Nature of Things" on CBC(that Satanic program *and* channel), The National Geographic cable channel now; the list goes on and on. We learn more and more every day.

Reality does not support the anti-women crowd. The only thing that has *ever* supported the anti-women crowd is State Control, damn the facts.

So that's what they're after. Theocracy/misogyny disguised as ethics(I won't say morality because I find morals subjective to a culture and by that people end up thinking the best solution to a rape/pregnancy is the victim marrying the rapist).

It plays out in subterfuge that knows it can't win in a fair fight truly reflecting the desires of the society. Lack of access provincially where they can't get it federally. Defunding domestically and abroad by autocratic fiat. Backdoor committee stacking and 'private' bills and sophistic parsing of statements that would make rpg 'rules lawyers' swell with smug pride.

No offense to Ms O'Malley et al, but I'd rather 'over react' than under. Look South. Look very, very hard. Now look at the clone moves up here, funded by the same reactionary religious groups.

Niles said...

sorry. running long. you can throw shoes.

Call me over-reactive, but a governmental standing committee is Legitimacy.

Dean Delmastro just tried to use a committee's legitimacy to forcefully haul in someone to rake them over the coals for something that is reported to not be in the committee's pervue.

The Harper government is fighting tooth and nail to avoid any sort of serious investigation/inquiry/'committee' into voter suppression, but it's shrugging its shoulders and going meh over something Harper has said he won't re-open but is helpless, helpless to refuse a private member's bill from his own party to start a Committee weighted by Conservatives that would gain funding from the budget in these hard economic times we're constantly told we must accept sacrifices in.

You know, even if this is slop thrown to the pro-forced pregnancy hogs to keep them quiet and nothing more; even if it results in no more gain than bigger income for the Committee members, because I believe they do get paid extra, a lot extra for committee work, this pisses me off. It's more pork barreling.

deBeauxOs said...

Niles, JJ agrees with your take on how much it costs taxpayers to keep paying for the CPC religious zealots to annually trot out their initiative to criminalize abortion, here.

Post a Comment