Tough on Crime. Oh. Wait. Not "That" Crime

The Conservative Party of Canada, aka The Party That Never Met a Victim of Crime It Wouldn't Bust a Gut to Stand Beside for a Photo-Op, must be gnashing its teeth.

It has brought forward a Victims' Bill of Rights raising the role of victims to USian levels of consideration in the justice system, but is missing out on a HUGE opportunity.

Sadly, pregnant women are often targets of violence.

Does it happen in pregnancy?
Tragically, yes. Domestic violence during pregnancy sometimes puts both the mom-to-be and her baby’s life at risk. Here's some of the evidence:
• Statistics Canada reports that 40 per cent of the Canadian women who were abused during pregnancy reported that the abuse began during pregnancy.
• Women abused during pregnancy were four times as likely as other abused women to report having experienced very serious violence, including being beaten up, choked,
• Of the women who were abused during pregnancy, approximately 18% reported that they had suffered a miscarriage or other internal injuries as a result of the abuse.

And there's been a recent, particularly horrible case that resulted in the deaths of both woman and fetus.

Friends and family of Cassandra Kaake are outraged that the accused will not face a separate charge of murder for the death of the fetus. They are clamouring for the return of "unborn victims" legislation, complete with petition, website, and heart-tugging moniker, "Molly Matters."

While the good people behind this effort seem not to understand the hornet's nest such legislation would kick open, opportunists from Big Fetus® like the Dominionist astroturf gang, We Need a Law Like a Hole in the Head, certainly do, and are exploiting the hell out of the family's grief.

All sad.

Except. . .

The Boys in Short Pants who must be tearing their hair that they are under an interdict from Herr Harper NOT to reopen the abortion debate.

Which any governmental backing of "unborn victims" legislation would certainly accomplish.

So, there's that.

And the insults just keep coming

Gimme a freepin' freakin' break.

Canadian Blog Awards hits another one out of the park. Not only did they screw the pooch on the feminist category, they've just poked us wimmins in the collective eye again by naming ProWomanProLife Best New Blog.

Yeah, 'new' as in astroturfed newly minted right around the time Ken Epp decided fetuses needed rights. See PWPL's category on C-484. Lotta support there for it.

And it got 596 votes? The second-place winner got 161. Total votes: 1009. I smell freeping. . .

Back to the Barricades!

Remember this guy? Mr. Kicking Abortion's Ass Bill, in whose honour we nicknamed Ken Epp's private member's Bill C-484, the bill that was Totally Not About Abortion, until the Cons threw it under the bus because it 'might' reopen the abortion 'debate'.

Well, it seems the FFs at the recent Conservatard Convention may have learned something.

They passed a resolution verrrry much like the Kicking Abortion's Ass Bill but looky here:

Although the resolution does indicate a pro-life sentiment among Canadian Conservatives, in an interview with LifeSiteNews.com, John Hoff, President of Campaign Life Coalition B.C., reminded pro-life activists to take this resolution for what it really is – one seeking to protect pregnant women and not unborn babies.

"As the President of Campaign Life Coalition of B.C., P-207 is not a resolution I would propose to protect unborn children. As much as I stand up for the lives of pregnant women, this resolution doesn't do anything for unborn children," said Hoff.

Hoff said the resolution is one which he wholeheartedly supports and that it is a great step forward in protecting pregnant women. However, he indicated that pro-life supporters should keep their mouths shut about it being about recriminalizing abortion feet on the ground.

However, someone's whose feet were actually on the ground at ConCon, liveblogging as much as they'd let him, Dr. Dawg, put it like this:

It became pretty obvious that the "protecting pregnant women" resolution (P-207) was all fetuses all the time.

Yup. That's pretty much what we expected.

Bookmark this page again. *sigh* We're going back to the barricades.

ETA: Check out Danielle Takacs who was also there liveblogging. She has the down-and-dirty details.

When everything old is New™ again!

Transparency. Who would have imagined, in their wildest dreams, that Stevie and his Harpocrites would succeed in changing the meaning of that word to its complete opposite?

“The way we can protect our democracy is through openness and transparency, and when the important political debates take place in public. To close access completely to their debates on their policy issues, says that they are not proponents of democracy, and have no interest in being open and transparent, that their concern is controlling the message to the point of stifling democracy, even it is from within their party,” said Jennings.

Indeed, they have. After a day of in-camera workshops that excluded all accredited media (those were the ones allowed inside the Winnipeg Convention Centre and permitted to remain corralled inside one room) from access to the delegates, a number of resolutions have made it to the plenary for open debate and voting. No surprises there. Two propositions that betray their anti-feminist agenda will be debated; P207, and P213. From here:

Protecting Pregnant Women / The Conservative Party supports legislation to ensure that individuals who commit violence against a pregnant woman would face additional charges if her unborn child was killed or injured during the commission of a crime against the mother.

Women / The Conservative Party supports gender equality through all policy and legislative considerations the full participation of women in the social, economic, and cultural life of Canada. i) The Canadian workforce has evolved to include more women than ever before. The Conservative Party believes all Canadians have the right to freedom from discrimination in the workplace and equality of opportunity.ii) Individuals should be judged on skills, qualifications and merits. Women must be entitled to equal pay for work of equal value equal work.

Note what has been removed and what has replaced it. We await news of the debate, via the conventional (Kady O’Malley and her colleagues) and the blogging media.
First posted at Birth Pangs.

The Conservative Conspiracy

We at Birth Pangs had not read this blogger before. He's a card-carrying Conservative, he says. This week he took a look at Ken Epp's now defunct private member's bill, C-484, or The Kicking Abortion's Ass Bill.

And by gadfry, he gets it.

Keep Talking

We at Birth Pangs are laffing our asses off at Ken Epp, the Reforma-Tories, the so-conned, etc etc on the demise of Bill C-484, aka The Kicking Abortion's Ass Bill.

But this, as they say, is gonna leave a mark.

The freakin' Editorial Board of the National Pest, main MSM stirrer of the C-484 pot, has also made a screeching 180. Under the title 'Conservatives choose clarity over compromise on Epps' Bill', it opines:

(Quick, swallow anything you have in your mouth.)

As Mr. Epp explains here, the bill is careful to define lawful abortions by willing women as non-criminal acts, and in explicitly taking away the possibility of the defence that a fetus is not a human being, it even acknowledges, in a sense, that it is not necessarily founded upon any unstated notion of fetal rights. The Conservative government could probably have defended and passed this bill on that basis, without making the public uncomfortable or in any way reviving the abortion debate. But it rightly prefers not to take chances conveying nuance to the Canadian public through the generally cockeyed instrument of the media.

Nuance . . . generally cockeyed instrument of the media . . .

Be sure to kiss him, Ken

Holy moly. Rob Nicholson just screwed Ken Epp.

OTTAWA — Justice Minister Rob Nicholson says his Conservative government will not reopen the abortion debate, but it will penalize offenders who endanger the lives of unborn babies.

Nicholson says he will introduce new legislation that will include a victim's pregnancy as an aggravating factor when judges consider sentencing violent offenders.

But the justice minister says the new law will be written in such a way that it cannot influence the abortion debate and legal interpretations of the rights of the unborn.

BWAHAHAHA!

Say buh-byeeee to The Kicking Abortion's Ass Bill.

We can't wait to hear what the fetus fetishists have to say about this.

UPPITY-DATE: The Globe:

Tories abandon 'unborn victims' bill

The Harper government cut loose a contentious private member's bill that would have made it a crime to take the life of a fetus just as election speculation hits fever pitch.
. . .

"We've heard criticism from across the country, including representatives of the medical community, that Mr. Epp's bill as presently drafted could be interpreted as instilling fetal rights. Let me be clear. Our government will not reopen the debate on abortion," Mr. Nicholson said.

"For this reason ... I'm announcing that the government will introduce legislation that will punish criminals who commit violence against pregnant women but do so in a way that leaves no room for the introduction of fetal rights."

MORE: CBC's take:

The new law will be written in such a way that it cannot influence the abortion debate and legal interpretations of the rights of fetuses, Nicholson told reporters at a news conference in Ottawa on Monday.

First published at Birth Pangs.

No-choice Vulture Culture: let women die or go to prison

The vituperative backlash of no-choicers, following the announcement that Dr Henry Morgentaler would be awarded the Order of Canada, was informative. Like maggots suddenly exposed to the light, the no-choicers scurried about, firing off letters to the editor, freeping online opinion polls, shoving the usual suspects - Margaret Somerville et al - into public view to spout the fetus fetishizing party line. CanWest obliged them, in great numbers.

It was thus no surprise that middle-of-the road Canadians, that ’silent majority’ that abortion criminalizers claim as supporters, recoiled from the hateful propaganda and deliberate lies and declared themselves to favour the decision to honour Morgentaler.

There is history behind all of this brouhaha, and a Montreal Gazette reporter writes about it:

When Sharon Hager finally got a abortion in 1964, she feared it would kill her. “It was hell, terrible. I thought I was going to die,” recalled Hager, then 20 and living in Vancouver.“It was illegal to have an abortion and it almost impossible to find someone to do it. A man who called himself a doctor - and you didn’t know for sure he was - came to my home and on the kitchen table put gauze in my womb and broke my water. … That’s what it was like before Dr. Morgentaler,” said Hager, later a member of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada. “People forget how terrible it was for women.”

Many of us remember. The Royal Victoria Hospital, mentioned in the Gazette article, is where my friend O trained.
There is also a compelling background to the booklet that was produced by a group of students at McGill University in the 1960’s. In her 2006 essay, Christabelle Sethna traces the evolution and the context of the Birth Control Handbook. This list (quoted in The Gazette article) from the 1971 BCH - as it was known - details the fatal dangers of illegal abortion techniques, self-induced or assisted.

… These methods involve extreme pain and can lead to permanent disability, infection or death.

Oral means: Nothing that is swallowed can cause abortion without also causing death or severe disability to the mother.
• Ergot compounds- overdose is poison.
• Quinine sulphate - can cause deformities in fetus or death to mother.

Solids inserted into uterus: Common danger of perforation of womb and
bladder - death from infection or hemorrhage.
• Knitting needles
• Coat hangers
• Slippery Elm bark
• Ballpoint pen
• Pastes
• Catheters
• Gauze (packing)
• Curtain rods
• Telephone wire

Fluids inserted into the uterus: Severe burning of tissues, hemorrhage,
shock and possible death.
• Soap suds
• Alcohol
• Potassium permanganate
• Lye
• Lysol
• Pine oil

Air pumped into uterus: gas emboli in the blood stream. Immediately
fatal.

Injections into uterine wall: Overdose is toxic.
• Ergot
• Pytocin
• Sodium pentothal

Vacuum cleaner: Connected to uterus - not to be confused with vacuum
aspiration - is fatal almost immediately. Rips uterus from pelvic area.

Even though they claim to be ‘the culture of life’, no-choicers have declared their intent to criminalize abortion and, in effect, to return to the days of illegal abortions. As Antonia Zerbasias notes and quotes in this article, no-choicers propose that women who attempt to terminate an abortion be charged and prosecuted.

Mary Ellen Douglas, National Organizer, Campaign Life Coalition: Our society has denied justice for unborn children who are killed daily in their mothers’ wombs at the request of the mother. We need
to correct this and return that protection to the unborn. It then follows that jail time for those who commit the crime of abortion is not only just, but absolutely necessary.

This is the future that women dealing with unintended pregnancies will face, if the no-choice Vulture Culture re-criminalizes abortion.

First posted at Birth Pangs.

No-choice/No-brainer divide at Con Convention

It may come as a surprise to those unfamiliar with the history of Québec, but within the ranks of the Conservative Party of Canada, there is steadfast support for choice from that province’s party members. And it may lead to a confrontation in November at the CPC convention, if the delegates representing the old Reform party constituency, aka Western fundamentalist interests, present a motion in favour of changing the legal status of a fetus.
Sovereignty en Anglais wrote about this:

Some party members from the West have inserted a proposition to integrate Bill C-484 into the Conservative platform. C-484 is a law that would recognise the fetus in a case where a pregnant mother is murdered. In such a case, the murderer would be charged with two murders instead of one. This is, in fact and despite what the bill itself says, a backdoor way to outlaw abortion because it
recognises the fetus as a legal person. It isn’t a far step to go from that to claiming the termination of the fetus in an abortion to be murder as well. And this isn’t just an over-reaction, similar laws in the United States have led to the outlawing of abortion in certain jurisdictions.

This is the first national CPC convention since March 2005. Over 3000 party members are expected to attend. A meeting of Québec Conservative party members - MPs, senators and riding presidents - was held in Sherbrooke in June. According to Le Devoir’s source, the 300 participants voted against any resolution that would change the legal status of a fetus, as it currently stands in Canada. Some even bluntly stated that Bill C-484 was “insensé”, which in other words, means it goes against common sense.

Remember, 3 Québec Conservative MPs voted against C-484: Josée Verner, Lawrence Cannon (both ministers) and Sylvie Boucher. Also, there are a great number of professional, political, educational, labour and women’s organizations in Québec that are opposed to C-484.

Antonia Zerbisias at Broadsides also comments on Le Devoir’s news item, and takes the opportunity to mention that two polls (one in The Toronto Star and the other in The National Post) demonstrate that most Canadians approve of Morgentaler being awarded the Order of Canada.

First posted at Birth Pangs.

Stéphane Replies

Well. It seems like Stéphane Dion finally got around to his inbox. Back in February, we at Birth Pangs wrote to him demanding that he whip the Liberal vote on the second reading of the Kicking Abortion's Ass Bill. As we all know, he did not. In fact, he did not even show up to vote against it himself.

Later, though, he made a statement at a press conference that the Liberals would not let C-484 pass.

And today, we got a reply to our email of February restating that position.

Dear Sir/Madame,

We would like to thank you for your recent letter regarding the Private Member’s Bill C-484 presented by Conservative member Ken Epp.

Members of Parliament have the right to put forward a Private Member’s Bill in the House of Commons. However, our concern with Mr. Epp’s bill, a concern shared by many lawyers, health professionals and women’s rights organizations, is that it would undermine a woman’s right to choose and could ultimately be a threat to a woman’s ability to access safe abortion services. We are committed to the Liberal Party of Canada, under Stéphane Dion's leadership, standing firm against the idea of reopening the debate surrounding a woman’s right to choose. Passage of this bill will reopen the debate and threaten the rights of women – we will not allow that to happen.

Mr. Epp’s bill has been sent to the Justice committee and would only become law after receiving a majority vote in favour on its third reading in the House of Commons. Mr. Dion intends to work to ensure the bill is defeated at that time.

Thank you for taking the time to share your views on this important issue.

Sincerely,

The Office of Honourable Stéphane Dion, P.C., M.P.
Leader of the Opposition
Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada

Good. The women of Canada are going to hold you to that, M. Dion.

(First published at Birth Pangs.)

Abortion Is All About Men

Another glimpse into the misogynist, fetus-fetishizing so-called mind. Abortion is all about men".

Linking to a LifeShite story about a young Welsh woman who died after a chemical abortion at six weeks, Mr. Kicking Abortion's Ass writes:

Pro-aborts read. Nod. Eyes Glaze Over. Ask, “What’s the problem? She’s gotta die so I may have my freedom of choice.”

Abortion: what a great invention for selfish men.

“Honey, you’re going to the abortion clinic tonight and you’ll like it, dammit. If you don’t, I’ll kick you in the stomach and kill that clump of cells.”

No law against coercion. No law against harming an unborn child.

Abortion: what a great invention for selfish men.

They really think like that. Abortion was 'invented' for men. Because unless a 'selfish' man coerces and/or threatens her, a woman would just naturally follow her gord-given essence and never ever nohow noway consider terminating a pregnancy.

By the way, expect this story -- here's a link to the BBC on it -- to have legs like a centipede with the fundy crowd.

The inquest on Thursday heard how Miss Jones, a Christian who had an active social life with the church, had decided to terminate her pregnancy because she had concerns for her boyfriend and his family who were Muslims.

The concerns are unspecified -- and there is no mention of any kind of coercion -- but it's enough that she was Christian and he is Muslim.

And, according to the inquest, it was mostly a case of over-stretched medical services that caused Miss Jones's death.

Following the procedure, she went on holiday, despite medical advice not to.

She cut short her break after feeling ill and returned to Bristol, where she was a student, and admitted herself into Southmead Hospital.

Blood tests showed she needed a blood transfusion, however she was left waiting for the blood when another emergency broke out on the ward and her condition deteriorated resulting in her needing life support.

MORE: You think we're pissed? Go read Unrepentant Old Hippie

(First published at Birth Pangs.)

More Support for the Kicking Abortion's Ass Bill!

Woowee! Off to update our Activist Page. Another heavy-hitter has come out in support of Ken Epp's sneaky backdoor attempt at creating fetal rights, Bill C-484, aka The Kicking Abortion's Ass Bill.

What heavy-hitter, you ask?

The Centre for Reproductive Loss. (And no, we didn't forget the linky; the Centre seems not to have a web presence.)

Here's its mouthpiece messenger:

In related news, advocates of private members bill C-484, the Unborn Victims of Crime Bill, received further support in form of the Centre for Reproductive Loss, which, for over fifteen years, has provided grief care support services to bereaved mothers and fathers whose lives have been affected by miscarriages, stillbirths, infertility and other related losses.

The centre released a statement giving their support to the bill,

"The traumatic loss of a woman's unborn child by assault or violence intentionally inflicted upon her child, whom she holds dearer than even her own life, can give rise to serious health complications and consequences," read the statement.

The statement detailed the many sufferings only a mother who has experienced the loss of an unborn child can understand: "The additional traumatic nature of this loss can intensify, compound and prolong her grief. She may suffer from a profound clinical depression or manifest post-traumatic stress disorder. As well, her ability to have other children may be seriously compromised, should she survive the attack, as indeed this may have been the one and only time she would be able to conceive."

Give that guy a really loud microphone

Oh, look. Mr. Kicking Abortion's Ass is at it again. Referring to the sad story deBeauxOs mentioned yesterday, the lying liar uses this headline:

Another Unborn Victim and Mother Die; Pro-Aborts Shrug Shoulders Vow to Press On Approving of Double Homicide

He quotes some of the LifeShite article including this:

Current Canadian law has no legislation regarding the unborn. Hence, White will escape unpunished for the murder of his child.

That's a lie. He has been charged, is in custody, and if found guilty, will serve time. That is not escaping punishment.

But note also -- not even LifeShite claims 'pro-aborts' did any shrugging of shoulders over this story. Nor did it claim 'pro-aborts' approve of double homicide.

We at Birth Pangs usually prefer to giggle at our enemies opponents, but this is a bit much.

Looky here at his conclusion:

I’m sure the cold, heartless butches will be gnashing their teeth about this one and the bad PR this is going to have for their inalienable right to prevent women from giving birth. They’ll be screeching something about the baby not being worthy of protection and how the family is just overreacting to a clump of cells.

I know it makes us puke to hear them speak, but we must encourage them to keep talking. Everytime they utter a word in opposition to C-484, the more fanatically pro-abort they sound.

So hand them the mic and turn it up real loud.

Actually, this is pretty funny, considering it comes from the guy who coined the cute nickname we have co-opted, The Kicking Abortion's Ass Bill. Ya think it's sweethearts like this that Ken Epp is attempting to distance himself and his bill from?

[T]his Bill, if it becomes law, will enhance the rights of women, and certainly not jeopardize their freedom of choice on the question of abortion. I have had to remind pro-life supporters of this very point. This Bill is not what some of them are thinking, hoping or wishing it would be.

Yeah, well, that's a lie too. This bill is exactly what the no-choicers think, hope, and wish -- a sneaky backdoor attempt to create fetal rights.

We at Birth Pangs will certainly keep talking about this. And we'll happily share our microphone with Mr. Kicking Abortion's Ass. Much as Ken Epp wishes he'd STFU.

(First published at Birth Pangs.)

We *heart* Quebec, Part deux

Again, we get further proof that our sisters and allies in Quebec totally get the danger posed by Bill C-484, aka The Kicking Abortion's Ass Bill. (Our deBeauxOs does a round-up of Quebec organizations and bloggers opposed to the bill here.)

Yesterday, there was a kick-ass demonstration in Montreal. La Presse reports that there were 1,500 protesters.

At babble, poster martin dufresne gives a first-hand account:

The demo was TREMENDOUS!!! Between 1,000 and 1,500 people, bilingual speeches and chants, walking and almost dancing to Aretha's RESPECT and local feminist bands on the sound system, applauded by onlookers. The organizers were a kick-ass group of young feminists and despite the pouring rain it was easily the most empowering demo I have seen in decades. A local sexploitive sect (Raelians) tried to crash the event, insinuating itself in the march, with their website plastered on their garish pink get-up: it was a hoot seeing these fifty-something men, bluetooth in ear, with pink t-shirts proclaiming "FEMININITY is the future of humanity". They were booed and finally pelted with a few chocolate cream pies.

The post also helpfully includes this translation from La Presse story:

Dueling sounds

On the front steps of St-Jean-Baptiste church, organizers used a megaphone to denounce the "Religious Right". The church bells started ringing and went on for more than five minutes. A few of the demonstrators entered the church to play the djembé.

Fun.

(First published at Birth Pangs.)

Why bother asking when you “know” the RIGHT answer.

“What if your mother had aborted you?” is a sham question that fetus fetishists wave on their placards and scream in the faces of Pro-Choice supporters. Recently Frances Kissling gave a thoughtful and complex answer to that rhetorical query:

"As a fetus I would have gladly given up my chance to enter the world and become Frances Kissling to have given my mother a better chance at happiness. Far too much is made of a mother’s obligations to her children and far too little of what a child’s love for her mother means. If fetuses could love, I think they would be as passionate in defense of their mothers as born children become."

Yet Canada’s ubiquitous Blob Blogger, Babbling Bellicose Wingnut dismissed her response since it was not the Right answer. BBBBW “knows” what it is, though. How can she “know”? … Well, her religious dogma TELLS her so.

Religious fanatics who believe that human beings walked with dinosaurs and maintain that every word in the bible is true, cannot envisage any reality that is different from that which is defined by their church clerics.

Of course fetus fetishists would hate the thought of their non-existence because religious doctrine TELLS them that, even when each and every one of them was a mere clump of cells dividing, they were more important than the woman giving them life. Thus, fed by this egocentric perspective, abortion criminalizers will self-righteously label women who choose to terminate a pregnancy ’selfish’.

BBBBW’s inability to understand Kissling’s answer is a product of her knee-jerk obedience to religious ideology. Her thought processes are a literal extension of established Church doctrine. Zygote, embryo, fetus, infant, toddler are all the same, because her religious dogma tells her so.

The question: “What if your mother had aborted you?” is a very powerful one to consider. It is one that I pondered, as I grew up with the awareness that my existence was unintended. Quite likely, had reliable birth control or safe abortion been available to my mother, I would have not come into being. That knowledge does not make me feel angry or sad. It is what it is.

However, when I gave life and I gave birth to my daughter, it was a choice that I embraced, because I consciously and whole-heartedly made that decision. And my daughter grew up in the knowledge that she was a wanted child.

Yesterday was Mothers’ Day. The origins of the celebration is attributed to many traditions. In North America, historical research identifies social activist Julia Ward Howe …

[who] wrote the Mother’s Day Proclamation as a call for peace and disarmament. Howe failed in her attempt to get formal recognition of a Mother’s Day for Peace. [She] was influenced by Ann Jarvis, a young Appalachian homemaker who, starting in 1858, had attempted to improve sanitation through what she called Mothers’ Work Days. She organized women throughout the Civil War to work for better sanitary conditions for both sides, and in 1868 she began work to reconcile Union and Confederate neighbors.

Unfortunately, these courageous and one might say, feminist declarations in support of mothers’ concerns have been forgotten with the recent commercialization of Mothers’ Day. Fundamentalist religious organizations also promote and glorify ‘motherhood’, when it advances their goals. But their respect is only awarded to those who exemplify a specific, dogma-sanctioned type of mother.

Which would be irritating but acceptable, if fundamentalist fetus fetishists confined the enforcement of their doctrine to their own brethren. But they are attempting to bully everyone with the force of their religious rules, through proposed legislation such as private members’ Bills: C-484 and C-537.

One sane (rhetorical) response to their political manipulations is the oft-repeated chant:

Keep your rosaries off my ovaries!

First posted at Birth Pangs.

Anti-VAW Expert: 'Pregnant women don't need C-484'

A couple of weeks ago, we at Birth Pangs called out to supporters of Bill C-484, aka The Kicking Abortion's Ass Bill.

OK. So. Here’s the challenge. Find one reputatable, established organization working against violence against women that publicly endorses this bill and we’ll shut up.

Well, they didn't/couldn't.

But today in The Western Star there is an editorial by Vyda Ng, co-ordinator for the Coalition Against Violence — Avalon East, St. John’s, which looks to us like a reputable, established organization.

Ms Ng says pretty much what we at Birth Pangs and everybody else with more than one working neuron has been saying.

It would have been nice if Ken Epp, the MP behind Bill C-484, had consulted women’s and violence prevention groups before trying to push it through Parliament. We would have pointed out that the bill misses the point entirely.

Not only misses the point but adds extra legal jeopardy for pregnant women.

A Response

SHE replies. Well, sorta.

The gals at Birth Pangs are trying to goad me to name one "legitamite" (re:feminist) anti-violence group that supports C-484.

First, we didn't ask for a 'legitamite' group -- though if we had, we would have spelled it correctly -- we asked for a 'reputable, established' organization working against violence against women.

We did not say this:

Because it can only be legitamite if feminists support it. If non-feminists support it, then it's no good.

(Gigi, in the comments there, ponders what a non-feminist anti-violence organization might counsel its clients.)

Then SHE puts more words in our mouth:

If I lose my fetus, the feminist answer is: tough luck! There's only one body! Your beloved unborn child did not exist! Too bad!

We will type this next bit sloooowly.

We are against this bill because it serves no purpose EXCEPT to reopen the abortion 'debate'.

This "dare" by the feminists is ideologically motivated. They're trying to pretend that the feminists who are dominant in among those who combat women's violence are the arbiters of what is and is not in the best interests of women.

Um. No. We ask sincerely: why, if this bill is all about protecting women from abuse, NOT ONE group, legitimate or not, has come out in support?

And we seem to have an answer to that.

(First published at Birth Pangs.)

Yo, SUZY ALL-CAPS and/or Other Fetus Fetishists!

Hello? Hello? Is this thing on?

Four days ago, we called out to supporters of Bill C-484, challenging them to produce one, just one, anti-violence-against-women organization that publicly endorses the Bill That Is Totally All About Protecting Pregant Women and That Has Nothing to Do with Abortion.

Our sister and fellow Vicious Abortion Crusaders, JJ, aka Unrepentant Old Hippie, and matttbastard at Bastard Logic also took up the call. (We at Birth Pangs lurve the photo at mattt's place.)

So, as pogge points out, the most fervent supporters of this bill are anti-choice. But what are we to make of the fact that not one anti-violence group has come out in favour?

Hmmmmmmm?

(First published at Birth Pangs.)

Blogosphere Gob-Smacked!

Well, golly gosh and gee. The progressive blogosphere is all agog. It seems a sneaky little private member's bill, C-484, aka Kicking Abortion's Ass Bill, came RIGHT OUT OF THE BLUE and bit them all on their cute little tushes.

Now, we at Birth Pangs realize we're not really a political blog, seeing as we cover female stuff like justice, equality, and human rights. And we really are very pink, which we understand is the International Female Colour/Color.

But if the boyos had been paying the least bit of attention to us or the dozens of other bloggers who started harping (oooh, can I say that?) on this topic on February 9, they may not have been quite as gob-smacked as they are today.

In fact, the boyos could have had an even earlier heads-up by visiting JJ at Unrepentant Old Hippie or here at BP back on November 23, 2007.

After the Kicking Abortion's Ass Bill -- though it wasn't called that yet; I think it was called 'The Dirty Rotten Sneaky Backdoor Attempt to Recriminalize Abortion Bill' or something like that -- got a bit of debate in December, we blogged again here. (I think JJ did too but I'm too lazy to go look.)

Epp, Caught

All credit to laura at We move to Canada for catching Ken Epp, he of the Sneak Attack on Women's Rights on Court TV this week.

After an exploration of what his private member's bill, C-484, would and wouldn't do as well as alternative legislation that would not threaten abortion rights, host Lorne Honickman asked Epp why his bill is necessary. laura says there was a long pause followed by this:

"Because we want to recognize the humanity of that unborn child. Whether that child was killed three months before birth or three months after birth, it was still a child, there was still a loss of life. The other side might wish to deny the humanity of that unborn child, but we want the law to recognize it."

(laura adds that this is not a direct quote but a very close paraphrase.)

A couple of bloggers have already made sport of this oopsie here and here.

We at Birth Pangs would like to offer our site as the Epp-Caught Centre* to record for all time further and past oopsies by Epp and his fetus-fetishizing supporters.

Go forth, Champions of Truth. Search them out in the benighted bits of the blogosphere and bring them back here to face the giggles wrath of loyal BP readers.

And to get this show rolling, here's one we missed from The Shotgun Blog at Western Standard on January 28.

What are our parliamentarians thinking?
. . . . The best way I know to understand what’s on the minds of our parliamentarians is to take a look at the private members bills before the house. . . . And here’s one for the Conservative base: Ken Epp’s crafty little bill to strengthen the legal rights of the unborn and force a debate on abortion.

Nope. Not about abortion atall atall.

And another one from today:

Kicking Abortion’s Ass Alert

From my good friend SUZANNE (is there any other?)

Subject: Important Pro-Life Alert

Ottawa’s News Talk radio CFRA (www.cfra.com) will be covering the Unborn Victims of Crime bill twice more before the second hour of debate on Monday. You won’t want to miss these! Please call-in and make your views known! (Don’t forget, you can “listen live” from the CFRA website; I believe the number to call is 1-800-580-TALK)

Again. No way is this bill about abortion. Only paranoid feminazis think it is. :roll:

See how easy it is?


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* Not, of course, to be confused with the Epcot Center,
' from the acronym EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow), a utopian city of the future planned by Walt Disney .'

h/t for the notion to loyal BP reader pseudz

(First published at Birth Pangs.)