Archives for April 2012

I had the opportunity to discuss MP Stephen Woodworth’s motion about the definition of a human being on CTV this morning. Click here to check it out.

Natalie Hudson Sonnen has this in the National Post today about Canada’s shoddy abortion statistics.

One would think that pro-lifers and pro-choicers could band together on this, given that knowing the numbers is a neutral idea. One would think, but one would likely be wrong.

It’s an odd sort of feminist activism that calls on women to crochet, knit or sew in 2012. Yes, pro-choicers want you to engage your sewing talents to create plush uteri (my new plural for uterus). This is the response of pro-choicers to the suggestion that a committee discuss when life begins. Quaintly traditional, that. Not that I have a problem with tradition. Heck, I wish I could knit, crochet or sew. It’s a lost art. But if I had that gift, I would not be making female organs.

The debate on Parliament Hill happens tomorrow. Read about that, here.

Be there or be square. Pick your workshops and register, here.

I’m going–what other kind of incentive could you possibly need? (insert the “I’m joking” emoticon here. Not about going, for that is entirely true. However, about me being a reason for you to go. That part is a joke.)

Oh, “women’s rights.” Pretty soon those two words will have no meaning at all. Just a wee note to let Ms. Boivin know her concept of “women’s rights” doesn’t match up with mine:

Mr. Speaker, I rise here today to denounce certain government MPs’ attempts to criminalize abortion. Of course, they know that their approach is extremely unpopular with women, who hate it when men try to tell them what to do with their bodies. That is why these members are drawing inspiration from the Republican Party and using roundabout ways and bogus motions that are based on pseudo-science. Let us be clear: this will not work. Canadian women have a right to access abortion and this backwards-thinking government cannot take that away from them. Our party has always defended women’s rights and we will continue to do so.

I am particularly bemused by her reference to “pseudo-science,” I might add. Pseudo-science like this?

Walking through the pregnancy test and everything baby aisle, I looked up and saw these words. It made me smile, and I hope it does the same for you.

"Choose Me"

Chuck Colson was obviously an influential man. But he has been influential in my own life as I have thoroughly enjoyed his books and podcasts. I remember seeing his book Born Again in a church library somewhere and rolling my eyes because I thought the title was such a cliché. Who knows why, but I ended up bringing that book home and reading it. I subsequently bought copies of it to give to anyone who was interested, which is something I’ve never done before or since.

Obviously he is best known for his Prison Fellowship Ministries, but he was also a stalwart of the pro-life movement.

Here’s an article about him at the time of his passing away:

I shudder to think of what I’d been if I had not gone to prison,” Colson said in 1993. “Lying on the rotten floor of a cell, you know it’s not prosperity or pleasure that’s important, but the maturing of the soul.”

Well put.

Nigeria is making significant progress in reducing their maternal death rate, and not surprisingly, it’s a back-to-basics approach that is making the difference.

Nigeria had the second highest burden of maternal mortality and was in the top five countries reporting a high number of child deaths.

“Ondo State reduced under-five mortality by 25 per cent and maternal mortality by 15 per cent in 2010, it stands to reason that if by 2010, it was 15 per cent, by 2015 it will reach 75 per cent.” […]

“We realised that only 16 per cent of the women who come for ante-natal return for delivery, meaning that 84 per cent of these women are giving birth elsewhere.”

Adeyanju said there was no way to ascertain the level of skills of the people that attended to such women or the safety of the equipment used.

He said that the first initiative of the programme was to keep track of the women by creating a register for pregnant women and assigning them to individual community health workers.

The commissioner said that the women were given prepaid mobile phones, with access to tricycle motorbikes, to help them to access their health care providers.

“The women were also directed to the nearest health care provider so that they would know the shortest distance to go when they need help.” […]

“…we are now looking at every pregnant Nigerian woman as flesh and blood and not statistics.”

Adeyanju called for aggressive sensitisation campaign on maternal issues and a clamp-down on hospital facilities that fall short of standards.

“The Ondo State’s mantra is that pregnancy will no longer be a death sentence and we won’t stop there.

“Looking beyond pregnancy, we realised that poverty also leads to the death of those who make it out of the hospital and that too should be addressed.”

Tomorrow I fly home from my Holocaust course at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. I’m feeling just a little bit melancholy as this was a meaningful time filled with learning of all kinds. Tomorrow I return to “real life”. (Before I left I posted a photo of tulips; now I hear snow is in store. Sigh.)

Anyway, humour me just before I return to the ins and outs of Canadian life/social policy/work etc. etc. etc. A quote from my course when we examined the resistance to the Nazis:

I would call it a ‘positivistic approach to life’…a kind of belief that under any circumstances you are a human being and it is up to you to react as a human being. They can break your body; they can’t break your spirit without your cooperation. This is what we used to tell them. After all, the logical way to fight death is to live, isn’t it?”

–Joza Karas

There’s something meaningful there for me. Perhaps for you too.

Don’t let the latest stats fool you.  When CIHI reports that there were 64, 641 abortions in 2010, (a 40% drop in numbers since 2004) you know that something is up. Sure enough, we see that Quebec no longer reports abortions at all (hospital or clinic), BC has “incomplete” data, meaning that the majority of clinic abortions have not been reported, and Manitoba and New Brunswick have “unreported” clinic abortions.  How’s that for shoddy statistics?  I don’t suspect that any other surgical procedure in Canada would be so poorly reported.

When Quebec last reported in 2008, they had 27, 319 abortions.

If the numbers aren’t being reported, what does that mean for medical billing?  At the very least, taxpayers deserve to know how their money is being spent.

This is an issue that needs to be seriously addressed – we need a public outcry that will get politicians moving.  Really, if abortion is such a great, liberating thing, what are they trying to hide?