Wow, I’m grumpy this morning… tired of 12-year-olds on the Hill pushing for an agenda they won’t say out loud (see said G8 maternal health resolution that must not be like that nasty George W. Bush but does not include the word abortion).

Then there’s this article, whereby a lack of a spot at a government table is somehow being called censorship. No one is saying Action Canada can’t lobby, write press releases, hold a protest. No one is saying they shouldn’t exist, least of all me. I’m saying that any party and/or government should not support groups that are hostile to their vision. And in final assessment, the government should not choose an abortion-rights group to do a maternal health initiative. Government funding does not equal freedom of speech.

Let it be noted, once again, Action Canada for Population Development does not do work like World Vision does. They work to expand abortion rights. You will never have an Action Canada child pinned up on your wall, because they are too busy trying to decrease the surplus population of the earth. (That’s a quote from A Christmas Carol, if you must know, the 1951 version.)

World Vision says abortion is not part of maternal health. Who are you going to trust? Them or Bob Rae?

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Véronique adds: Oh my. When I am in a good mood, this kind of stuff ruins it. Badly written, badly argued. Yet published. I mean, 12-year-olds on the Hill have been known to ruin my day on occasion but 12-year-olds I can deal with. When they behave like 4-year-olds, it’s tougher. What really turns my crank in the article, having listened to the interview on the Current, is that Andrea never suggested censorship. The comment was made by the following guest, who obviously didn’t dig the ProWomanProLife ideal. The writer whould do her homework before using big words like censorship.

From Ottawa Students for Life:

Michael Ignatieff and the Liberal Party are scheming to force the Conservative Government to promote abortion as part of Canada’s push to fight maternal and infant mortality at the G8. The G8 is an annual summit for the governments of the United States, United Kingdom, Russia, Japan, Italy, Germany, France, and Canada as well as the European Union (I know that makes 9). Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently announced:

“As president of the G8 in 2010, Canada will champion a major initiative to improve the health of women and children in the world’s poorest regions. Members of the G8 can make a tangible difference in maternal and child health and Canada will be making this the top priority in June. Far too many lives and unexplored futures have already been lost for want of relatively simple health-care solutions.”

But the Liberals are introducing a motion in Parliament on Tuesday, March 23, 2010 that would force the Government to include abortion and contraception in this effort to help mothers and infants among the world’s poor.

Please email your Member of Parliament, as well as other Members of Parliament, letting them know that you oppose this move by the Liberals that would take a great initiative and turn it into an opportunity to force abortion on the world’s poor. There isn’t time to mail letters via snail mail, so I suggest sending a brief email. For information on finding out who your MP is and how to contact her or him see:http://4mycanada.ca/ParliamentaryContacts.html

We’d like to thanks 4MyCanada for informing us of this issue. You can read more about it and they’re call to action here: http://4mycanada.ca/Emails/20100320.html

Please contact all interested friends and family regarding this issue and encourage them to make their voice heard ASAP!

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Andrea adds: Having seen the resolution, I take back this call to action. Here’s what the resolution says:

That, in the opinion of the House, the government’s G8 maternal and child health initiative for the world’s poorest regions must include the full range of family planning, sexual and reproductive health options, including contraception, consistent with the policy of previous Liberal and Conservative governments, and all other G8 governments last year in L’Aquila, Italy; that the approach of the Government of Canada must be based on scientific evidence, which proves that education and family planning can prevent as many as one in every three maternal deaths; and that the Canadian government should refrain from advancing the failed right-wing ideologies previously imposed by the George W. Bush administration in the United States, which made humanitarian assistance conditional upon a “global gag rule” that required all non-governmental organizations receiving federal funding to refrain from promoting medically-sound family planning.

Everything I stand for is based on sound medical science. I stand for the full range of family planning, which does not include abortion because abortion is not family planning. Until the opposition parties replace the word “contraception” above with “abortion”–I’d say this is all a big game.

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Brigitte isn’t too sure she understand this game, but would like to add anyway: I, for one, am not against family planning and contraception in principle. But here’s what I really don’t get: Whenever I’m in a debate with pro-choicers and the subject of “abortion used as birth control method” comes up, they deny it vehemently. Abortion is NOT used as a birth control method, they insist. It is NOT back-up contraception. So why am I getting the impression now that “the full range of family planning, etc” does indeed include abortion even though the word abortion does not appear anywhere in the resolution? Just exactly what kind of game is this?

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Andrea adds: It’s a game to lower voter turnout.

Here, Margarent Wente writes about how it’s mostly men who blog because it’s mostly men who are happy to spout opinions off without thinking.

Now I am not a man, but still had an immediate opinion that I felt compelled to share with you.

Every time I do a media interview, it is a generally harrowing experience for me involving phonecalls to family, friends, preparation, late night jogs and sleepless nights, both before and after the interview. This has gotten only slightly better over time. Writing and print are now AOK. Radio, I can cope. TV? It helps keep my weight down; I get that nervous.

For some reason I don’t experience this angst with the blogging at all. Anymore, that is. When I started as a journalist we were told we should blog and given passwords and such. I pulled myself together to do two posts in two years. Blogging annually somewhat defeats the purpose.

In short, I’m saying Margaret Wente is on to something.

And I needed to share this opinion right away.

This morning at an hour in which I don’t generally talk to anyone, I joined CBC’s The Current for a discussion on the politics of maternal health. When the segment is up on the CBC web site, I’ll certainly link to it. For now, you can listen to me below. My main point: Compassionate care in the developing world does not include abortion. 

[podcast]https://www.prowomanprolife.org/media/TheCurrent_short.mp3[/podcast]

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Andrea updates: You can listen to the full show, here.

One of the earliest things I remember learning from my very good parents is that life isn’t fair and I should get used to that.

Having learned the lesson well, I’d still like to remind my parents of the dog we never got and give them advance notice that I’ll be getting in touch with Ontario’s Fairness Commissioner, Jean Augustine, some time soon.

I didn’t know about the Fairness Commissioner, but an add for “Women of Influence” in Macleans caught my eye. There it says that Ms. Augustine has a veritable Passion for Fairness.

So I’m confident she will be interested in my story: How badly I wanted a dog, and how we never got one. No we didn’t. It’s still hard for me, as I consider the diary entries written about the dog we didn’t have, the plaintive pleas. The friends who had dogs. You get the picture.

My second thought was: This is totalitarian territory. A Fairness Commission? Really? For what? Accountable to who?

Anyway, Mom and Dad, when the Fairness Commissioner contacts you about this, and you are annoyed, may I take this opportunity to say it’s really never too late to get a Labrador. Or a Newfoundlander. Or a German Shephard. A Spaniel? Really, I was so willing to compromise…It’s just too bad it had to come to this.

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Brigitte is thoroughly devastated: Good grief, I gotta go get me some violins…

Oh dear. What a terrible editorial:

The Harper government has taken an illogical stance by refusing to include contraception in its well received initiative to reduce the death rates of mothers and babies in poor countries. Although studies show mortality rates grow for women who have too many children too close together, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon told a Commons committee that a new program being spearheaded by Canada “does not deal in any way, shape or form with family planning. Indeed the purpose of this is to be able to save lives.”

My two cents: Not including “family planning,” a term which tends to include abortion, in a maternal health initiative is perfectly reasonable.

I’m quite sure we can all see how there would be many facets to maternal health. I’m quite sure we can all see how one government can’t address all aspects. And I’m also quite sure we can all agree that since some people insist on including abortion in “family planning” that’s a mandate a neutral government should stay away from.

Oh wait, though. When it’s anti-abortion, it’s ideological, radical, religious and right wing. When it’s pro-abortion, it’s rational, neutral and scientific.

My fault for forgetting that the debate is “over” and that we’ve achieved “consensus” on this “divisive” topic.

I commented here, earlier, that The Management was working on fixing an ongoing problem with imports from PWPL to Facebook, insofar as every PWPL post was being imported to my Facebook page, making those comments all look like mine.

This has been fixed (thanks, Brigitte). This makes imports to my Facebook page more Authentically Andrea, which come to think of it, could be a great name for a new pro-life perfume?…I tell you, great minds just never rest.  (I expect it to be right up there with Jennifer Aniston’s.)

Meanwhile, to repeat, I am not coming off maternity leave, and have no children hidden in my closet, figuratively or literally.

What was lost in translation? Sympathy, that’s what:

Our current income is just enough to feed four and educate the two,” she said. “Activists and policymakers can debate all they want, but I’m the one sweeping floors to kill my baby.”

That’s where euphemisms really help, don’t they? There’s something quite jarring here. As there should be.