Archives for 2010

Talk about vulnerable women:

It has become a grim Christmas ritual: hundreds of innocent civilians massacred in remote corners of Africa by the Lord’s Resistance Army, one of the world’s cruellest and bloodiest guerrilla forces.

Now, fearing a Christmas attack for the third consecutive year, the United Nations is mobilizing 900 peacekeepers to protect villages in Congo, and the United States has promised its own action against the LRA.

[…]

Women from the Great Lakes region on Wednesday held a peaceful walk in the Democratic Republic of Congo condemning the increase in mass rapes in the country.

The women drawn from Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda and Sierra Leone joined their female counterparts in Congo to urge the government to criminalise the culture of impunity and end the sexual violence.

Women in the region are mustering what little resources they have to draw attention to the continued threat of violence in the DRC. Without supplies, without the support of their government or judicial system, they stage marches abundant in courage.

1. Don’t show up at the office Christmas party with a Marie Stopes “party purse”.

A total of 5,992 abortions were carried out at Marie Stopes International’s nine UK clinics in January – a rise of 13% on the 5,304 in January 2005.

“We may be seeing the consequences of the festive season, when partying excess and alcohol consumption combine to increase libido and lower inhibition, with the inevitable consequences of unprotected sex resulting in unplanned pregnancies.”

[…]

Last Christmas the charity offered festive “party purses” stocked with condoms and the morning after pill.

Liz Davies, MSI director of UK operations, said: “Despite our efforts we have still seen the biggest rise ever in abortion figures in the month after Christmas.

2. Do NOT use an unexpected pregnancy to exhibit your awesome powers of fertility.

Abortions usually peak at the end of long school holidays, according to newspaper reports in South China’s Guangdong Province. The past month – after the end of the school summer vacation – has seen more students having abortions, according to the Guangzhou-based Yangcheng Evening News.

A similar increase was reported a few months ago after the week-long May Day holidays when at least 1,000 students, most under age 20, visited hospitals in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, for abortions, according to the Xinkuai Bao newspaper.

And, the weeks after the Spring Festival – the Chinese Lunar New Year – and the week-long October 1 National Day holidays have also become peak seasons for student abortions, according to Doctor Yang Jin of the Gynecology and Obstetrics Department of Zhujiang Hospital in Guangzhou.

[…]

Many high school girls adopted a light attitude towards abortion and even considered it’s a way to show their ability to bear a child. Some even arrived at the hospital as a group in a festive mood.

3. Lastly, whatever you do, even if you put off shopping until midnight on Christmas Eve, do NOT, I repeat… DO NOT resort to buying your partner a Planned Parenthood gift card.

Indiana residents in need of a quick stocking stuffer this holiday season have an unusual option: Planned Parenthood gift certificates.

The group’s Hoosier State chapter on Wednesday began selling gift certificates redeemable at any of its 35 facilities for any service provided — from basic health screenings to birth control to abortions.

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Andrea adds: Too late on the Marie Stopes Party Purse, Jennifer! Our office Christmas party was weeks ago. Seriously, however, I’m trying to think of what my family would do if I gave a “Planned Parenthood gift card.” It would probably result in an immediate psychiatric assessment of some kind, hurried consultations and an intervention. That, or just lots of yelling.

A nice “video note” from Ms. Faye Sonier of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada highlighting how support for Roxanne’s Law did make a difference. I like her last line: “We will continue to raise our voices in support of Canada’s most vulnerable citizens.” Hear, hear.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JB91EzBFvM&feature=player_embedded”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JB91EzBFvM&feature=player_embedded]

A quick follow-up on the woman who killed her boyfriend claiming he was threatening her life. She got pregnant and he wanted her to get an abortion. (We commented on this here.) She was convicted of manslaughter:

It’s that season for reviewing the year. This photo came across my desk and stands out to me, for so many reasons. (Looking good is not one of them.) Fortunately, most everyone seemed to be in agreement:

Venus Williams made headlines at the French Open this year when she apparently forgot to change from her lace nightie into her tennis outfit.

From The Irish Times:

Some day abortion will be universally recognised as harmful to women, writes BREDA O’BRIEN

None of the women who took a case to the European Court of Human Rights is a particularly wonderful advertisement for abortion. All three suffered medical complications resulting from the procedure.

One bled so much afterwards that an ambulance had to meet the train she was travelling on. Another passed clots for months. The third suffered complications of an incomplete abortion, including prolonged bleeding and infection.

So much for safe, legal and rare. And that is just the physical side of things. The counselling that they received in Britain was obviously lacking, too. One of the women, simply called “A”, wanted an abortion because she already had four children in care, but was getting her life together and recovering from alcoholism.

She was afraid that having the baby would jeopardise her chances of getting custody of her children again, by triggering a relapse into alcoholism and depression.

What kind of an indictment of our society is it that an impoverished, struggling woman thinks that the best possible option available to her is to end the life of her child in the womb? Obviously, no one in the clinic told her that while any woman can suffer from post-abortion depression, the risks are much higher for people with a previous history of depression.

She went on to have another child after the abortion, and while depression has been a factor, she still managed to regain custody of three of the children. How wonderful it would have been if someone had said to her that abortion was not the only way, that supports would be there to help her to cope.

The Irish Government’s position was that “her suggestions that a social worker would have denied or reduced her access to her children and that she did not consult her doctor as he or she might disapprove, were unsubstantiated and, indeed, such alleged acts would have been unlawful.”

However, the woman did not know that, and no one in the clinic seemed to think it worthwhile to explore her options. The clinic had no difficulty, though, in relieving her of the money she borrowed from a moneylender, or indeed, in carrying out an abortion in a way that left her needing an ambulance.

As a woman who still calls herself a feminist, it makes me furious that feminists seem to think that abortion is such a good thing for women, an absolutely necessary “right”, when so often it is a somewhat brutal substitute for what they really need.

[…]

Some day abortion will be universally recognised as harmful to women and lethal to the smallest members of the human race.

Until then, let us not add to the numbers of countries that have hardened their hearts and legislated for it.

You’ll be surprised (perhaps, or perhaps not! This is an abortion-related blog, after all) that this is not a post about the Pill or some other more acceptable form of birth control.

It’s a commentary on the recent “selective reduction” of twins article, which, if this reaction in the National Post today is any indication, was just too jarring for so many:

Another way my twin and I are identical is on the abortion issue,” Ms. Anderson continued. “One of us used to be staunchly ‘pro-choice.’ Now, after coverage of this selective reduction, we’re both staunchly ‘pro-life.’ It seems this sad story has actually made the ‘pro-life’ stance more fashionable. It’s about time.”

I suppose the problem is that abortion itself was never meant to be used as birth control. It was for the extreme circumstances, which today includes “I need to finish school,” or “I wasn’t expecting two.” I hate to be nonchalant about something as painful as this, but we use abortion as birth control every day, so “selective reduction” is but a logical extension. Recall from the earlier article that the mother didn’t feel bad. And I can’t make her, wouldn’t try. The rest of us, with consciences intact, should reject the notion of selective reduction alongside the whole miserable business of abortion for less jarring reasons. And apparently, if the quote above is any indication, that is starting to happen.

Apparently, 33 per cent of women and 18 per cent of men confide in their pets. But wait, there’s more. Canadians are using their dogs as “confidants, matchmakers and possibly even therapists.” Hmmm. I’m not disparaging this, I’m just wondering what kind of commentary these men and women receive in return for unburdening themselves of confidential matters. Woof.

Keeping good statistics is not a pro-life/pro-choice thing. I’m confident the majority of Canadians would be pleased if the number of abortions declined, but as it stands, we really have no sweet clue:

Government statistics on abortion for 2007 and 2008 released on Tuesday appear to indicate there were only 44,416 abortions in 2008, down from the reported 91,377 abortions in 2006.  However, a closer look reveals that this total leaves out abortions committed at private facilities. These are left as “unknown” because facilities in six out of the 13 provinces/territories failed to report.

What is the point of keeping abortion-related statistics if they are going to be this shoddy?