National Review, a conservative magazine founded by the late great William F. Buckley (a Roman Catholic) is not known for taking socially liberal positions. Salon, on the other hand, the online magazine, might be. If for example, you were looking for one magazine to support and condone sexual teenage relationships, you wouldn’t go to National Review as a first choice. 

So what happens when National Review runs a story about Steve Tyler (of Aerosmith fame), and his former (much younger) girlfriend having an abortion? Salon slams them for not condemning the relationship that led to the abortion.

The National Review piece is by the co-founder of Rachel’s Vineyard, a post-abortion counselling group. So it seems natural to focus on post-abortion effects, not the societal disarray that is the root cause of so many abortions.

Certainly, Tyler’s relationship with his “girlfriend” sounds horrifying–he convinced her parents that he should be her legal guardian so they could live together. She was 14.

But when the Salon writer reads it, she’s horrified that the piece is about the after-effects of abortion and not the relationship itself or how the girl suffered. Those would be worthwhile articles to write, but they are different articles. I’m sure they’ve been written before, and I’m sure they’ve been written by pro-lifers, too, a group of people who are much more often concerned about the sort of sexual relationships that lead to abortions in the first place.

The Salon piece is here and the National Review piece is here, should you be interested in taking a look at both.

A letter I received yesterday. It’s certainly a “view from the other side.” I grew up with this view, to a certain extent and even had an old teacher of mine tell me how she can’t understand it when “women [like you] fail to support women’s hard fought rights.” That was at a wedding reception. I smiled and nodded.

To be certain, this is not my target audience…someone this doctrinaire is certainly not the person I aim to encourage. But I thought it’s good to know this view is alive and well. I’d say a comment of “no comment” is perhaps most appropriate…if you choose to comment, be nice.

You are not “pro-woman” and as a woman it is deeply disturbing that you would attempt to call yourself that. It makes me sick that women band together to unempower themselves after years of fighting and winning their rights. What you are, plain and simple, is ignorant religous nuts. After all, religion is the only reason you all seem to cling to this idea that a fetus is a baby or a human. Perhaps your thinking will go back another century and you will inform us all that sperm are sacred and the use of condoms is a sin. I hope you all come to your sences and remove this website before you actually cause any harm to the women’s rights movement.

You should be ashamed of what you are doing to your own people. Abortions are never forced, and no woman commenting on here would ever have an abortion if she did not want one. Why do you want to remove that right from others? It does not affect you. It does not involve you. It is none of your buisness. And yet you are so passionate about it.

Women spent so long fighting for their place and say in this man’s world and here you are, a group of women, commited to unempowering the women of this country.

If you could all focus your attention and energy on something that is actually important perhaps you could make a positive change in this wourld. But you don’t want that. You just want to ignorantly bitch and complain. Nice. I hope your proud. I’m not proud to be a woman today, and I truely wish I never found this disgraceful website.

Canada does not have any systemic problem with gender discrimination against women. Not so in other parts of the world. Read here about how girls and women are treated in India. Tragic.

Mariah Carey had twins! And this gives an opportunity to link to the pro-life rap her husband did a couple years back. And then what I’ll also do is link to the other pro-life rap that Brigitte and I wrote about once upon a time in the Ottawa Citizen. The first one has a happy outcome, since Nick Cannon is rapping about his own near death but obviously lived to tell the tale. The second one is by a father who regrets the loss of his child.

Enjoy.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdOCwd9EttE”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdOCwd9EttE]

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5f9-b-Zfnw”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5f9-b-Zfnw]

(h/t)

Pro-abortion folks are today wringing their hands and weeping because they truly do believe that electing a majority Conservative government means an end to abortion in this country. Honestly, I’ve never before and probably never will again wish that pro-abortion folks were right.

For the rest of us living in Canada in 2011, having heard Prime Minister Harper say over and over that he will not introduce or support abortion legislation, well, it seems reasonable to believe it.

ProWomanProLife has never been motivated by legislative matters. The idea was to motivate the grassroots, those quiet Canadians cross country who believe abortion is wrong and wish it would end; those who understand that abortion is not a “woman’s right,” not a “man’s right” because it is simply not a right at all.

That said, there was an election and so I will muse about what I’d do if I had just been elected and wanted to see our House of Commons move on abortion legislation.

I think I’d try for a bill that outlaws late-term abortion. As such it would be an upfront, in-your-face pro-life bill and would be branded as such. Accusations of a hidden agenda would be met with “Yes, we are working to eradicate abortion in Canada by starting with an area that all Canadians know is wrong and morally reprehensible.”

I like it anytime a bill comes up that allows us to debate abortion, for, unlike Harper and so many other politicians on the Hill, I am not allergic to discussing this matter. And while I am not all that interested in the latest in pro-life legislation, every time this comes up on Parliament Hill it creates the opportunity for Canadians to reconsider the matter.

I believe the ramifications of allowing abortion to continue  in Canada mean we are a weaker, less just society. Abortion is not a settled matter and never will be, until we give up on this barbaric practice altogether.

On a related note, congratulations to superstar MP Rod Bruinooge, head of the parliamentary pro-life caucus, who was re-elected in Winnipeg South.

People! I’ve inspired a hostile web site! What a thrill! It’s by two feminists in Toronto. I’m not going to try and conceal my delight. Check it out.

________________________

Jenn happily adds: “NeoCon”? Wow, I didn’t even know Canada had NeoCons, let alone that I was one of them. I digress…I find the idea of a political group (or in this case, a pair) refusing to debate anything particularly amusing and incredibly irrational. How does one expect to make the collective decisions necessary without discussing them?

I like this one. The pro-life message in a Pampers ad. Enjoy.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxbRdxbBROI”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxbRdxbBROI]

______________________

Jenn adds: I saw this ad yesterday and thought the same thing. I also found the Pampers facebook campaign called ‘Little Miracle Missions’, encouraging people to support mothers and mothers-to-be. “Little Miracle Missions is a program that encourages people to help one another in fun, unexpected ways. From time to time we’ll suggest a way for you to support a little miracle. Gather some friends to join the cause and Pampers will complete their own larger mission reaching families across the country. Think of it as a chain of good started by you.” I’m in!

OK folks, a wee post from the train to Ottawa. Why am I on the train? Because all flights to Ottawa were cancelled. They were also cancelled last night. Traveling this short distance was starting to feel like it would never be done. In any event, here I sit, meetings cancelled and plans on hold.

I don’t like endless waiting… Nor do I like the number of times I’ve taken the ferry to Toronto’s island airport in the past 24 hours. But what I do like are these short moments in our wealthy land when we learn we cannot control everything. We like to think we can, but we can’t, and how we react to uncontrollable (and annoying) moments matter. (For example, in other annoying and uncontrollable news, I ran like a race horse to catch the 9:25 train and now 20 minutes later, we sit in the station. Bygones.)

I heard through this or that blog that someone over at Wonkette had written a piece making fun of Sarah Palin’s son, Trig, because he has Down Syndrome. I didn’t want to even link to it and was later pleased to see all kinds of advertisers pulling away from Wonkette. What I will link to is a smackdown of anyone who thinks it’s OK to make fun of a Down Syndrome child because you don’t like his mother’s politics. Enjoy.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U83fHHkHLS0]

(h/t)

I’m privileged to work with good folks. Here’s my boss, Dave Quist, talking abortion politics on David Akin’s new Sun Media show.