Lawless Abortion: No, We Do Not Need a Law

We Need a Law, the astroturf wing of Dominionist group Association for Reformed Political Action*, has put up its first billboard in Dartmouth, NS.

No doubt to the group's delight, it is causing controversy.

Pattison Outdoor, which rents the space, says it has received complaints, but will not take it down unless instructed to by Ad Standards.

So, friends of truth and choice, we need to complain. Ad Standards has made this relatively easy.

Go here and read the instructions. There is a handy online form.

For this ad, I think the section of The Code that applies is 1(a) under "Accuracy and Clarity."

In assessing the truthfulness and accuracy of a message, advertising claim or representation under Clause 1 of the Code the concern is not with the intent of the sender or precise legality of the presentation. Rather the focus is on the message, claim or representation as received or perceived, i.e. the general impression conveyed by the advertisement.

(a) Advertisements must not contain, or directly or by implication make, inaccurate, deceptive or otherwise misleading claims, statements, illustrations or representations.

Section 14 "Unacceptable Depictions and Portrayals may also apply and has been successfully used against anti-choice advertising in the past.

Getting back to "Accuracy and Clarity," while technically accurate, the ad has two misleading implications:

1. That there is no regulation of abortion. This is not true. Like all other medical procedures, abortion is regulated by the practitioners, in this case the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada. Here are the guidelines.

2. That patients and providers are doing something wrong or illegal. Also not true. Abortion was decriminalized in 1988. It is a common medical procedure, fully covered by Canada's universal health insurance.

On the second point, Section 14(c) and (d) may apply.

(c) demean, denigrate or disparage one or more identifiable persons, group of persons, firms, organizations, industrial or commercial activities, professions, entities, products or services, or attempt to bring it or them into public contempt or ridicule;
(d) undermine human dignity; or display obvious indifference to, or encourage, gratuitously and without merit, conduct or attitudes that offend the standards of public decency prevailing among a significant segment of the population.

Let's do this. We Need a Law (Like a Hole in the Head) plans to put up 70 of these billboards across Canada.

Complain. Complaining works.

(Note: The online form takes a while to load. It's not loading for me at all, so I'm going to email. info @ adstandards.com)

ADDED: ARCC also has a guide to lodging complaints with Ad Standards.


*I've written about ARPA a lot. It is a political action group devoted to imposing Christian theocracy.

The mission of ARPA Canada is to educate, equip, and encourage Reformed Christians to political action and to bring a biblical perspective to our civil authorities.

They lobby the hell out of government, meddling in abortion matters, assisted dying, freedom of religion, and other shit that is none of its business.

It is not a benign influence on civic debate.

WARNING! Underground Fetuses! Call Before You Dig!

Flags warning of possible underground fetuses are popping up all over.

If you drive along Springfield Road today, you may notice a swath of blue and pink flags along the side of the road.

The 10,000 flags are a silent protest by the Kelowna Right to Life Society, to ask for an abortion law in Canada.

Each one of the pink and blue flags is meant to represent 10 unborn children, matching the group's estimate of 100,000 abortions each year in Canada.

This amused me. I googled and found that underground fetus flags can be had for as little as 29¢ each, which means that the Dominionist astroturf gang, We Need a Law, deems each tragically lost blob of tissue to be worth 2.9¢ as a publicity stunt.

Because, really, fluorescent pink and blue plastic underground gasline markers are just so evocative of abortion, aren't they?

A spokesperson eloquently explains the subtle symbolism of it all.

“We are doing this to show to our community just how massive the numbers [though we were too cheap to show the much larger number we pulled out of our asses] really are,” says event organizer Marietta Egan.

“Although our political leaders claim that abortion should be safe, legal and rare, these flags show that it is happening an astonishing 100,000 times every year in Canada.”

(Fetus freaks really need to work on assembling words in an order that resembles logic. Actually, all those flags show is that a bunch of people in Kelowna really need a hobby.)

On Twitter, I asked what this image makes people think of.

And soon we got a winner!

@fernhilldammit Memorial for all morans who refused to "call before they dig"/blew selves up real good http://t.co/CpyuSm1Usd

— k'in (@k_in_) May 21, 2015

So, all is not a stupid waste of time lost. The field of underground fetus flags reminds us to Call Before You Dig!

Or, who knows what might happen, eh?

Previous reports on dangerous underground fetuses.

Charter Challenge on Abortion Statistics

I'm kind of surprised there hasn't been a single mainstream media story on this.

So, here goes with my version of an interesting looming conflict over reproductive rights in Ontario.

First, the players. One is amateur statistician and serial shrieeeeker, Pat Maloney. Another is the Dominionist (reluctant) revealer of Conservative leadership candidates' abortion stances, Association for Reformed Political Action with its astroturf stalking horse, We Need a Law Like a Hole in the Head.

The issue: The exemption of abortion statistics from Ontario's Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA).

Background. In January 2012, FIPPA was extended to hospitals with the following exemptions (scroll down to Sec. 65).

(5.7)  This Act does not apply to records relating to the provision of abortion services. 2010, c. 25, s. 24 (17).

Among its many other exemptions, there's also this:

(5.3)  This Act does not apply to the ecclesiastical records of a church or religious organization that is affiliated with an educational institution or a hospital. 2010, c. 25, s. 24 (17).

You know, just to forestall any accusation that the government is PROABORTION and ANTICHRISTIAN!!!

Here's a news story about the abortion exemption from August 2012.

The Ontario government says it recently restricted public access to records of abortion services because the data is “highly sensitive.” The change has prompted criticism from some anti-abortion groups, saying the public’s ability to request abortion data was important because statistics currently released by government entities are “shoddy.”

Asked to explain the decision, the provincial Ministry of Health said in a statement to the National Post: “Records relating to abortion services are highly sensitive and that is why a decision was made to exempt these records.”

B.C. has had a similar clause in its Freedom of Information act since 2001, restricting the disclosure of information relating to abortion services. The change came after several clinics and hospitals in the province were targeted by anti-abortion groups, as well as violence against North American abortion providers, and was intended to protect the providers, said Wendy Norman, an associate professor of family medicine at the University of British Columbia.

At the time, beyond the "highly sensitive" characterization, the purpose of exemption was never made explicit though concerns for the safety of providers and for the non-entirely neutral use of the information were assumed.

The fetus freaks naturally claimed censorship and scurrilous skulduggery.

Pat Maloney, in particular, seemed to be itching for the martyr mantle.

Anti-abortion blogger Patricia Maloney, however, says her latest request was denied.

“Before this change occurred, a citizen of Ontario could ask for and receive information on abortion statistics. I have done several of these Freedom of Information requests,” she wrote on her blog, Run with Life. “In fact it was my latest FOI, which was refused, that alerted me to the change.”

And now she has a partner, ARPA, in her martyr quest. Here is their factum asking that Section 65(5.7) of FIPPA be declared unconstitutional.

First, the spin claim voiced by the usual suspects that this is aaallll about facts and statistics is just too hilarious. Here's the Focus on the Family astroturf gang:

This is not about being pro-life. We need good statistics to see trends in our society and to know whether education programs are working.

Yeah, sure. Pat Maloney, who used aggregated abortion statistics to call for homicide investigations, is aaaalll about stats.

Also, we do not remember any anti-choice organizations among the 488 groups clamouring to keep the mandatory census for the sake of "good stats," though among those eleven in favour of scrapping it was "gendercide hero" Mark Warawa.

And now there's another wrinkle. The Ontario Civil Liberties Association (OCLA) is backing the call for the release of information.

“The exclusion effectively prohibits expression on the excluded records, and thereby violates the Charter right to free expression of the requesters of the information,” said the OCLA position paper. “The OCLA seeks to raise the concern that there is palpable institutional bias against pro-life advocates in Ontario and that this is harmful to society and substantively unjust towards members of the community.”

Bias against "pro-life advocates" seems an odd tack to take, though. (Not to mention the very odd use of the phrase "pro-life" by what one would like to think of as unbiased intervenors.

It seems to us that there is a simple solution. There are grounds for refusal to disclose information under Section 10(1)(b) of FIPPA.

10. (1)   Subject to subsection 69 (2), every person has a right of access to a record or a part of a record in the custody or under the control of an institution unless, (b) the head is of the opinion on reasonable grounds that the request for access is frivolous or vexatious.

Judging from the uses to which fetus freaks have put this kind of information previously, "frivolous" and "vexatious" would both apply.

Finally, if the antis had their way, abortion would be criminalized or at least defunded and then what kind of stats would be available?

None.

Except for skyrocketing death and disability stats from self- or amateur-administered abortion.

As a fan of facts and evidence, DJ! generally supports the release of information, provided the safety of patients and providers is guaranteed.

Like the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada (ARCC), we're not convinced that can achieved by this means.

ARCC supports the release of general statistics on abortion, because that's needed for research purposes and health planning to improve services etc., while posing no risk of identifying individual providers or facilities. The amendment apparently does not prevent that.

BONUS: Most recent Canadian abortion stats (Feb. 2015) from ARCC.



h/t to Joyce Arthur for some help in clarifying my thoughts and for law links

Carafem: Just Another Day at the Abortion-Spa

Big props to the new abortion clinic Carafem in Washington, DC.

It's got ALL the fetus freaks' knickers knotted.

With its natural wood floors and plush upholstery, Carafem aims to feel more like a spa than a medical clinic. But the slick ads set to go up in Metro stations across the Washington region leave nothing to doubt: “Abortion. Yeah, we do that.”

The Maryland clinic, opening this week in Montgomery County’s tony Friendship Heights area, specializes in the abortion pill. The advertising reflects its unabashed approach — and a new push to de-stigmatize the nation’s most controversial medical procedure by talking about it openly and unapologetically.

Website.

It's hard to say what has the freaks most outraged -- that women could be treated decently, that abortion could be treated like any other medical procedure, or that a business, yes, a business, could aim to help destigmatize a common life event.

The Dominionist Astroturf Gang, We Need a Law (Like a Hole in the Head), is appalled that the furniture is comfy.

SUZY ALL-CAPS is SHRIEEKING that abortion will be destigmatized OVER HER DEAD BODY!!!!!!!!

http://www.bigbluewave.ca/2015/03/abortion-will-never-be-de-stigmatized.html

Kay Mère, as befits her very limited cognitive processing ability, is all over the map in her objections.

She cites a "left-leaning think tank" that points out that destigmatization worked for the LBGT community by sharing stories and coming out to friends and families.

But this is an untenable comparison. Gays are human beings with a minority sexual orientation.

As opposed to people who have abortions who are not human beings but amoral, irresponsible baby-killing sluts.

Ultimately, what bugs her the most is that Carafem is a business and this new and humane approach to a common procedure may make them money!!!!

The Focus on the Family Astroturf Gang, as usual, takes its cue from Kay, considered to be among the more "reasonable" of anti-choicers, and squeals about the profit.

Well, shut my mouth. I thought all these right-wing nut-jobs worshipped at the altar of the Free Market.

These are the same people eager to label any efforts by government to regulate contraception and abortion services as Communist! Fascist! Maoist! (You get the idea.)

Yet, these are also the people who revelled in the gore and filth of Kermit Gosnell's totally unregulated predatory racket.

But who insisted that there must be Gosnells in Canada. We just haven't caught them yet.

This Carafem development has them shoved back in that terrible pickle again.

HORRORS! People needing abortions are being treated decently.

HORRORS! People needing abortions (in the US) must pay for them and so will prompt entrepreneurs to cater to them.

HORRORS! If people needing abortions are treated decently, there will be no more Gosnells, no more stigma, no more needless suffering.

Ha. I say again -- props to Carafem.

By the way, the cost of a medical abortion at Carafem is below average.

The average pharmaceutical abortion cost about $500 in the United States in 2011, Guttmacher figures show; [Carafem President Christopher] Purdy plans to charge around $400.

Rules, Shmules: CONs Flout 'Em Again for Religious Pals

We know this: the Contempt Party of Canada breaks rules. Actually, more often they don't even acknowledge that there might be rules that apply to them or their pals.

The examples are legion, but here at DAMMIT JANET! we pay particular attention to transgressions relating to reproductive rights and/or religion (and it's drearily often "and," isn't it?).

Back in December, we reported that the Dominionist Association for Reformed Political Action got "special permission" to stage their garish little gasline flag stunt on Parliament Hill. (This MASSIVE event was intended to call attention to underground gaslines -- both male and female -- cruelly bunched together on a side lawn of Parliament Hill. Or something.)

Here's another more recent flouting of the rules, this time involving Jason Kenney, Patrick Brown, and Pakistani Christians, a key voter demographic, we assume.

A religious conference held earlier this month on Parliament Hill that featured Defence and Citizenship Minister Jason Kenney as a speaker appears to have breached the rules governing House of Commons facilities.

The Conference on Religious Freedom, organized by International Christian Voice, was held March 11 at 1 Wellington Street, a building with committee rooms that is part of the Parliamentary precinct.

Link to conference. Link to organization.

According to the rules, events may not include conferences, tickets may not be sold, and the sponsoring MP must be in attendance throughout the entire event.

The sponsoring MP was Patrick Brown, multitasking his job as MP with his campaign to lead the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario.

This was clearly a conference, tickets were sold, but it's uncertain whether Brown took time out of his busy schedule to sit through the whole thing.

Because he was busy. Four tweets from March 11 informed followers of four events he attended that day, including the Pakistani Christian one.

And gee, guess what! Patrick Brown is also a double-plus-good fetus fetishist endorsed for PCPO leader by Campaign Lie, which is hedging its bet by also endorsing Monte McNaughton (Rob Ford's choice).

Here's another odd twist to the story.

According to the bylaws, applications for room use must be approved by the Sergeant-at-Arms in consultation with the party. The Sergeant-at-Arms position, however, has been vacant since Kevin Vickers left to become ambassador to Ireland.

We remember Kevin Vickers, don't we? The hero of the October Parliament Hill shooting -- part of the ostensible urgent need for the fascist Jihadi Terrorists Under Every Bed bill -- whisked off to his reward in the Emerald Isle before he could add any useful details to what actually happened that fateful -- for civil liberties in Canada -- day.

Patrick Brown did not deign to return the Ottawa Citizen's call for clarification but International Christian Voice's chairman said he was unaware that ticketed conferences were not allowed.

Who approved the event? Will anyone take responsibility for or try to explain the irregularity?

It's unclear whether any further investigation is underway.

In case you were wondering, besides Jason (The Virgin) Kenney, attendees included Andrew Bennet, Ambassador for Religious (Only If Christian) Pandering and former headmaster of a finishing school for home-skuled precious little souls, Don Meredith, ordained minister with some dodgy credentials and Conservative Senator, and Raymond de Souza, ubiquitous fetus fetishist who needs no introduction here. Bal Gosal, cited by Brown as co-sponsor, did not tweet that day aside from retweeting Brown's.

The (ongoing) lesson?

To paraphrase Leona Helmsley: "We CONservatives don't follow rules. Only the little people without important Christian and/or anti-choice connections follow rules."

Fetus Freaks Get "Special" Permission at Parliament Hill

Like almost nobody else, DJ! reported on the MASSIVE display of anti-choice underground gas-line markers on Parliament Hill in October.

MASSIVE fizzle though it was, it now appears that it was against the rules to boot.

But, when you have friends in high places [bold mine]. . .

A visually striking anti-abortion protest on Parliament Hill technically broke several rules on the use of the public space, but federal officials made special exceptions to allow the event to proceed anyway.
...
NDP Leader Tom Mulcair stopped to speak briefly with a volunteer that day, and five days later told a Planned Parenthood meeting that the person indicated the group had received "special" permission.

Schutten, who bought the flags wholesale, said there are no immediate plans to reprise the event in 2015, saying the 100,000 flags were later distributed in lots of 10,000 and given to affiliate groups in Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia for smaller installations.

And now watch the CONs scurry away.

Marisa Monnin, spokeswoman for Heritage Minister Shelly Glover, said, "We'd like to reiterate that all individuals serving on the committee are public servants and that this decision was made independently."

Yah, sure.

In my original post, I called the little doohickeys "underground gas-line markers." The CBC articles calls them "irrigation flags". They're also know as stake flags and can be bought wholesale for the thrifty price of $7.70 per bundle of 100.

And, as promised, the Fetus Freaks are RECYCLING them!

Look where they turned up recently:

This morning, the students at Providence Reformed Collegiate, a private Christian school in Komoka, Ontario, set up the pro-life flag display on their school front lawn.

Yep. A MASSIVE movement. Brought to you by, don't forget, Dominionists.

Their stunts don't get media coverage, but their "special treatment" does. Well, hell, when you're losing the war this badly, I guess it's better to be known as cheaters than losers.

h/t for CBC story to Chris Kirouac

"Without Going into Details" *snerk*

We had been wondering why Fetus Freak Media and its running blog lackeys hadn't done its usual shrieky foot-stompy hissy fit routine over the partial rescinding of an Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) grant to a fake pregnancy centre.

The fake clinic itself responded on its blog in a rather tight-lipped manner citing "philosophical differences" with OTF while accusing an unnamed blogger (ahem).

One particular blog has been making false allegations regarding our Centre and is taking credit for the rescinding of the OTF grant.  This same group has been making allegations against other Pregnancy Centre’s [sic] in Canada.

And that seemed to be it for reaction from the zygote zealots.

Well, silly us, we were googling terms like "Lambton Crisis Pregnancy Centre" (the defunded Sarnia racket), "Ontario Trillium Foundation," "crisis pregnancy centres" and, we admit, "Dammit Janet!" and even "fern hill."

Crickets.

It appears that Fetus Freak Central has decreed that we are to remain "anonymous evil blogger" and the clinic itself is not to be named either. "Crisis Pregnancy Centres" seems now to have fully morphed into pregnancy options centres.

Quite by accident, we ran across this yesterday by our old pal Mike Schouten, aka Creepy Dominionist Guy. It's a reprise of a blog post at his site, We Need a Law [Like a Hole in the Head].

Here it is in its full goddy glory (my bold).

Christians who strive to live by the Scriptures will know that the two greatest commandments are to love the Lord with heart, soul and mind, and to love their neighbours as themselves (Mark 12:30-31). 

Follows of Jesus desire to live selfless lives and this is characterized by putting others [sic] needs ahead of their own. I bring this up in connection with the work of faith-based pregnancy care centres. These centres are for the most part staffed by volunteers who give up much to come to the aid of those in need. 

The volunteers provide compassionate help to women experiencing unplanned pregnancies, post abortion grief, domestic violence, and sexual assault. They are on the frontlines of assisting some of the most vulnerable people in society and regularly help women make informed choices that set them on the path to a better life. The care they offer extends well beyond the moment of birth or abortion. In very practical ways they come alongside people in need and so enable them to continue living productive and joy-filled lives as they transition into motherhood. And right now, pregnancy options centres need our support. 

As we documented* just over a year ago, pregnancy options centres are increasingly under attack by abortion advocates. Yes, there are Canadians who are so excited about the fact that a woman ought to be able to kill her own child that they simply cannot fathom the thought that some women choose life for their pre-born child. 

Without going into details we want you to know that these attacks have intensified in recent weeks. We ask that you do what you can to support a pregnancy options centre near you. This can be done through donations (see here for a list of centres across Canada). You can also help them by offering words of encouragement and prayer for those on the front lines. They are daily engaged in the culture seeking to show love to those in need. 

We can do better and we can certainly show those who oppose helping pregnant women that they have a skewed sense of social justice. Let us not be characterized as a country that let's [sic] its citizens flounder in depths of despair.

(*That "documentation" goes to a previous protracted hissy fit over Joyce Arthur's exposure of fake clinics in BC, published in 2009 for hevvinsake. [And what is it with these people and apostrophes?])

Onto their game, we looked some more and found amateur statistician Patricia Maloney's foot-stomper and its follow-up. And while she refers to me as a "fake person," she has at least the good bloggy manners to link to my offensive "potty mouthed" blogposts.

Things have since escalated. I tweeted at Creepy Dominionist Guy on twitter and got this.

Hey, genius, @mike_schouten did you actually read my blogposts? No bullying involved. I asked @ONTrillium questions. They reassessed. OOPS.

— Fern Hill (@fernhilldammit) November 24, 2014

They're playing the martyr card again and I'm now a bully. In addition to being fake and potty-mouthed.

Note though they have NOTHING narsty to say about the organization that actually yanked the funding when asked (nicely) to justify the grant. The nice rich foundation that might yet be bullied convinced of the error of its ways.

Nope. They're attacking a wee blogger.

In other words, without going into details, they got nuthin'.

We, on the other hand, have MASSIVE giggles.

UPDATE: DJ! hits the (fetus fetishizing) Big Time! LifeShite weighs in.

MORE UPDATE: Over here our personal stalker one-man fan-club seems, like most of his tribe, unable to distinguish between politics and rights.

In Beleaguered Calgary, a Tireless Multi-Tasker Toils

Poor Calgary. While home to many good and decent people, it is also headquarters for PetroState Canada as well as the country's most disgusting and self-righteous gang of fetus freaks, the Canadian Centre for Bioethical *ptui* Reform (CCBR), whose gory website you can look up yourself if you've a mind to.

They've plagued various parts of our fair land with their crap, but Calgary is their home base and special target.

When they're not dropping traffic-accident-causing gore banners over highway overpasses, they're stuffing residential mailboxes with their faked-up abortion porn.

The citizens of Calgary have fought back in various ways over the years. But after the last assault, when yet another appeal to the city to do SOMETHING resulted in arms flung up in helplessness, a group of parents (kinda ironic, eh?) decided to start a petition.

Oct 8, 2014 — We are now past 200 signatures which is a great feat in only 84 hours. Calgary City Council has put it forward for discussion but a city lawyer has stated there is little they can do. We disagree. Denver, Colorado has banned these images already. Hamilton, Ontario is in the midst of restricting them too. We have the bylaw already written for them. All they have to do is pass it. Please keep sharing, post on your social media and telling your friends and family. We need to keep the pressure on to make sure this can be passed as a bylaw here too. Please start using #protectyyckids and #yyccc when posting on twitter and facebook.

Please sign it and help stop the shameless misinformation and egregious shock.

Out of this kerfuffle though came an interesting tidbit, from the investigations of one pissed-off recipient of the anti-choice propaganda.

The Calgary teacher said he was just as shocked, however, when he started looking into the CCBR and found a staffer for Health Minister Rona Ambrose supporting the group’s more controversial actions online.

Daniel Gilman, who is listed in the federal government’s employee directory as an assistant to Ambrose, said in a tweet last year he’s “thankful” for the CCBR “project” that involves hanging graphic banners from overpasses above major roadways, including Deerfoot Trail in Calgary, where earlier this year a minor car crash occurred below one of the banners.

[The image has been digitally blurred by Metro.]

And here's young Daniel waxing all poetical-like about the recent moronic display of underground gasline markers on Parliament Hill. Link.

The gasline markers were the work of We Need a Law, an astroturf front for the Dominionist Association for Reformed Political Action, so it appears that Mr Gilman, like all good political assistants, is a multi-tasker, able to serve many masters and mistresses.

His boss, THE FUCKING FEDERAL HEALTH MINISTER, should be proud.




h/t for the YouTube to Alison in the comments here.

EPIC DISPLAY of Underground Gas-Line Markers: Huh? -- UPDATED

I dithered over whether to give this lame-ass demonstration any attention, then my early-Saturday-morning craving for snark kicked in.

First, the only MSM coverage of this EPIC DISPLAY I could find is here (this is the entire story; emphasis mine).

Volunteers set up 100,000 blue and pink flags on Parliament Hill Thursday morning.

Pro-life group "WeNeedALaw" says they represent the number of abortions in Canada each year.

They say they want to pressure the Canadian government to introduce a national abortion law, as the country hasn't had one since 1988.

Mike Schouten, director of the group, says the group isn't advocating for an outright ban on abortion in Canada, but for tougher restrictions.

"We see the law as a tool to not only protect the pre-born humans but to show Canadians that abortion does need to be restrained," Schouten said, adding that many Canadians disagree with things like late-term abortion and sex-selective abortions.

Just over two dozen supporters turned up for the demonstration.

Natch, that's not quite how the Fetus Freak Media (FFM) reported it.

Pro-life activists planted 100,000 tiny wire-stocked flags, half of them pink for girls, and half blue for boys, in the grass for 400 metres along Wellington Street in front of Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Thursday.

Expect to see them soon in provincial capitals across Canada.

The flags were planted by 80-plus volunteers and staff associated with the pro-life group WeNeedaLAW.ca in the early morning, and retrieved in the late afternoon.

Typically, the FFM tripled the number of attendees. And note, the wee flags were carefully packed up again to magically reappear elsewhere.

And here's a piece by creepy goatee-no-moustache Dominionist front-man, Mike Schouten himself, in which he coins a new phrase.

The groundswell for laws protecting our preborn neighbhours has taken another leap forward today. Right now the front boulevard along Parliament Hill is covered with 100,000 pink and blue flags, as a testimony to the approximately 100,000 girls and boys that are denied their right to life every year in Canada. This nation has never seen anything like this before!

Yes, I dare say, he's correct. This nation has never seen a field of pink and blue underground gas-line markers before.

Well, the poor dears are getting desperate. They're losing and they know it.

Here's an encouraging round-up of the inevitable international march towards reproductive justice.

Human rights campaigners are getting stronger and more numerous and more optimistic about the future. The tide is inexorably turning in their favour -- and in women's favour. The clock will not be turned back. Welcome to our brave new pro-choice world.

Even Canada's Number One Fetus Fetishist, the delusional SUZY ALLCAPS, recognizes the MASSIVE looming ass-kicking.

For more sad pix, have a look at the photo gallery at the Facebook page of Dominionist mob Association for Reformed Political Action.


UPDATED (Dec. 10/14): The fetus freaks are a little slow. (I know, you're gobsmacked.) It seems this blogpost has just come to their attention via a FB posting. (They need clear directions, the poor dears.) So, I've published a couple of comments. There were (and probably will be) more. I'm not publishing any more of them. They are unedifying. (I know, you're gobsmacked.)

Of course, on the wild off-chance that a comment is fun, I might publish.

AFTERTHOUGHT: If fetus freaks want to engage me, I can be found on twitter, @fernhilldammit. More fun that way. All the sane people can point and laugh.

FURTHER UPDATE (Dec. 12/14): It seems the display was against the rules but Dominionists get special permission.

Incrementalism: Admission of Futility?

Some time ago, I discovered the Wingnut Wedgie that divides fetus fetishists into abolitionists and incrementalists.

It has never gone away as an issue among them, with some demanding nothing less than absolute forced pregnancy for all and others, perhaps recognizing the futility of their cause, willing to settle for any kind of law at all.

As a first step, note, to a complete ban.

Here we go again with our pal, astroturfer and dominionist Mike Schouten, raising the question and seeming to invite discussion.

Here's a stunning admission. He acknowledges that defunding abortion -- the only remotely possible abortion restriction in Canada -- would affect only poor women. Or, in their preferred parlance, poor baybees.

All pro-lifers support efforts to defund abortion. By doing so, they support a process that would protect some children, but not others. Under defunding, abortion remains legal as long as the mother or the father pays for the abortion. Someone could argue, "I won't support that defunding law because it only saves poor babies while all the babies of rich mothers who can afford the abortion will still be terminated." That may be so, but defunding abortion is a step in the right direction.

Discriminatory as this is -- not to mention a rank violation of human rights -- he's okey-dokey with fucking over poor women and families, as a "step in the right direction."

Incrementalists and abolitionists seem often to line up in the Protestant fundy gang and the Vatican Taliban gang respectively, but that's not quite true.

Over at ProWomanProLie, a few people are discussing Schouten's gambit.

I found a comment by Melissa fascinating (bold mine).

Thank you, thank you, thank you for talking about this issue!! I was starting to think that incrementalism was the elephant in the room that we just were never going to talk about.

I’m an incrementalist myself, (and Catholic too, as if that matters). Truth of the matter is, though, I would bow out of this fight if we got to a certain incremental point (right now, I think that would be if abortion were limited to the embryonic stage of pregnancy, or the 1st trimester at the latest, although I could quite conceivably become so tired of the fight that I would bow out if we were to achieve a considerably less significant victory). I sometimes wonder if that is why the people who are opposed to incrementalism are so adamant–they know that they will consistently lose support as smaller gains are made.

DING-DING-DING! Give that woman a cupie doll!

This is precisely what the totalitarians fear. That if the tiniest restriction is placed on abortion, many if not most of the less fanatic opponents will say "There. Mission accomplished."

Given that legitimate fear, Campaign Lie's intent to focus on RU-486, or medical abortion, for this year's bunfest is a bit perplexing.

Say, for argument's sake, RU-486 is banned in Canada. (Unaccountably, it has still not been approved by Health Canada and sources suggest that the issue won't be decided until 2015.)

Would many fetus fetishists then declare victory and take up sane people's pursuits?

Seems possible at least.

But then the anti-abortion industry would lose a ton of money and political influence (such as it is).

My take: Schouten's raising of incrementalism now and CampaignLie's focus on RU-486 demonstrate that they've (nearly) given up.

The times they are a' changing. (See next blog post.)

Of course, we'll keep an eye on them, but it may be that the end is nearer than we think.

Redefinitions

In case you missed it, here's the Tea Party gaffe du jour (video at link).

Senate Candidate and Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) told a local television station on Sunday that “legitimate rape” rarely produces pregnancy because “the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.” Akin cited conversations with unnamed doctors for the bizarre claim.

Twitter went batzoid. In my opinion, Kaili Joy Gray won the Intertoobz with:

Pregnancy is just a woman's way of consenting retroactively.

(By the way, here's a real sciencey paper on rape related pregnancy, a brief history of politicians' use of this canard, and a history of the BAD (biased, agenda-driven) science behind it.)

While Akin issued a statement later saying he'd 'misspoken', he did not retract the claim.

Why would he? He believes it. He was also co-sponsor -- with VP candidate Paul Ryan -- of the attempt to redefine 'forcible rape'.

Akin belongs to a church called the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) and hold a Masters in Divinity from its college.

A 2001 PCA report on the prospect of women serving in combat positions in the military, titled "Man's Duty to Protect Woman," states, "woman is the weaker sex and part of her weakness is the vulnerability attendant to her greatest privilege-that God has made her the 'Mother of all the living.' Men are to guard and protect her as she carries in her womb, gives birth to, and nurses her children." 

Yes, that was written in 2001, not 1001.

In its lengthy position papers on abortion, the PCA has made clear that what it claims are biblical prohibitions on abortion should take precedence over any other law, because of its views on the separation of church and state.

But there's more. Not only is he a proud Dominionist, he's linked to a batshitcrazier branch of it -- Christian Supremacists.

So what? you're thinking. The US is full of religious nuts.

Thing is, we got 'em here too. Maybe not as many, but in prominent and influential positions.

Look what Dave at the Galloping Beaver wrote in 2008.

And they're still at it. In fact, one of the Astroturf groups backing Woodworth's Wank is a project of one of these gangs.

Here's their avowed mission:

The mission of ARPA Canada is to educate, equip, and encourage Reformed Christians to political action and to shine the light of God’s Word to Canada’s municipal, provincial, and federal governments.

Think Woodworth's Wank is merely a typical mealy-mouthed Canadian effort to have a civilized 'discussion'?

Think again. Not only is Woody's Wank authored by a member of an older theocracy, it is enthusiastically supported by exactly the same kind of nutters as Todd Akin.

In the US, Dominionists want to redefine 'rape'. In Canada, Dominionists just want to redefine 'person'.

BONUS: Amy Davidson at the New Yorker. Excellent deconstruction.

Spurgies Unite!

I find the 'beard-no-mustache' look very creepy. And I just found a word for it -- spurgy*.

So, this guy definitely is creepy.




But then again so is this guy.

You remember him? Dominionist Mike Schouten, vocal backer of Woodworth's Wank, based on the Bible, of course.

The mission of WeNeedaLAW.ca is to build support for federal legislation that restricts abortion to the greatest extent possible. This mission is based on the Biblical understanding regarding the role of government to promote order and restrain evil.

Bad shit happens when spurgies follow what they think is a 'higher' calling.

*Do you suppose that's a soft or hard g? I kinda like soft.

Note to NatPo Visitors

A couple of days ago I left two comments on Mike Schouten's (the guy behind We Need a Law (Like a Hole in the Head) brain-twister in the National Post, in which he threatens PMSHithead that for abandoning the abortion issue the Mighty Evangelical Bloc will punish him by voting NDP.

One identified Schouten as a Dominionist; the other was in reply to someone asserting that fetus fetishists had nowhere else but the Contempt Party to park their votes.

Um, Mike ran as a Christian Heritage candidate.

In each, I left a link to the May 1 DJ! post about Schouten and his connections.

Since then, I've been deleting a bunch of barely coherent splutterings from various Anonymice.

This one just came through and I thought I'd share. Look for the tells.

I was speeding through a playground zone and told the cops that they had no right to impose their values on me. Strangely though, they didn't buy it. I told them that nobody had the right to tell me what to do with my body, and if I wanted to press hard with foot on they gas pedal, who were they to constrain my freedoms? They still gave me a ticket. And I am a lesbian womyn. Therefore, all police are mysoginistic homophobes, clearly, as are the bigots who make traffic laws. Stupid ignorant people. All law is imposition of values. Stupid silly morons. Every time I hear or read one of your inane slogans I cringe a little bit. I die inside just a little bit more whenever I try to fathom how irrational some presumably mature humans can be. What a sad, sad world, so filled with idiots.

Now I wouldn't wish ill on anyone, but I sure hope this Anon bookmarks DJ! and keeps on reading. ;-)

NOTE to NatPo readers and would-be commenters: DJ! will not provide a venue for your vitriol. DJ! is reserved for our vitriol.

Brought to You by Dominionists: 'We Need a Law'

[ADDED May 27/12: Attention, visitors from NatPo, check this out.]


There's a new player in the UnDebate, or, Woodworth's Wank.

Tada! Unleashed today, We Need a Law (Like a Hole in the Head). Its tagline is 'preborn human rights'.

Here's its glurge-filled media release.

The site was created on January 18, so this has been in the works for a while.

The front man is Mike Schouten of Surrey, BC. An interesting career fetus fetishist/Dominionist.

He ran as a Christian Heritage Party candidate in the last federal election.

I didn't know this. The CHP called for a moratorium on Muslim immigration.

The federal Christian Heritage Party is calling for a national moratorium on immigration from Muslim countries to curb increasing radical Islamist power in Canada.

Mike Schouten, CHP candidate for South Surrey-White Rock-Cloverdale, admits his party's stance on this issue will likely result in charges of racism. But he says it's about protecting Canadian values as outlined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

"This issue, because of the climate of political correctness, is not allowed to be talked about," Schouten noted.

Shocker! He didn't win.

On January 26 this year, it was reported that he parted company with CHP (emphasis mine).

Cloverdale’s Mike Schouten has parted ways with the Christian Heritage Party, handing in his party membership earlier this month.

As the CHP’s candidate for South Surrey - White Rock - Cloverdale in the 2010 federal election, Schouten came in sixth out of nine, with 429 votes.

He told Black Press he did a lot of soul-searching after the campaign, wondering if his “gifts and talents were well used in a political setting.”
. . .
Schouten says his parting with the CHP is amicable. He left because he has another opportunity to concentrate more on the pro-life cause that is his primary concern than he did within the CHP.

His letter to the editor, “Gay lobbyists forcing ideology on youth,” (Cloverdale Reporter, June 3, 2010), which lamented the “hijacking of local anti-bullying campaigns by homosexual advocates,” and referred to homosexuality as a “completely unnatural lifestyle,” drew criticism from other readers.

And he's a fairly regular commenter at ProWoman, ProLie.

More googling. And we find some more stuff.

Schouten (plus, one presumes, relatives Jody and Doug) are aaaallll over the Association for Reformed Political Action.

Regular readers here will remember ARPA, yes? It's where we found that little nugget of info about Tim Hudak pledging to defund abortion.

Here's a sample contribution from Schouten at the ARPA site.

It’s time Canadians stood up to the bullying of the homosexual community. Their militant efforts to force all of us to not only tolerate but to accept and even celebrate their choice to practise a completely unnatural lifestyle needs to be stopped!

Aaaaand now, the REVEAL

Mike Schouten, from Cloverdale BC, was also able to share with the ARPA reps about an exciting new campaign that he plans to lead, under the direction of ARPA Canada, starting May 1st.

So that's who is behind We Need a Law Like a Hole in the head.

ARPA's mission.

The mission of ARPA Canada is to educate, equip, and encourage Reformed Christians to political action and to shine the light of God’s Word to Canada’s municipal, provincial, and federal governments.

A bunch of racist, homophobic, misogynist gord-botherers who want to take over all levels of government.

We clear on that?

Okey-dokey, then.