Yesterday I did four media interviews. From my perspective, two were good, one neutral, one terrible. The terrible one I have yet to see (CTV Newsnet)–I can’t find it, plus there’s the fact that I don’t want to. I was too easily annoyed (on air with an abortionist’s wife). I spoke over her. I don’t think (can’t recall) I made any meaningful points. And the moderator was happy to let my opponent blab on, euphemism after euphemism rolling off her tongue. I tried to make myself feel better last night by buying food I like for dinner: sushi and Fudgesicles. But then you try sleeping on a stomach of sushi and Fudgesicles. Not good.

I failed to realize in that discussion that six minutes shared on air with a woman who works in an abortion clinic cannot change world views. She said that women cannot always control their reproductive systems (true enough) so they will always need abortions, or something to that effect. This in essence is “abortion as birth control”–not an argument even pro-choicers tend to support, preferring instead the “safe, legal and rare” thing. Instead of pointing that out–I spoke of personal experience. Again, not good.

Then again, so did she. She told everyone she is an immigrant to this country as if that were a meaningful point. (It’s not, and I’m allowed to say that, given my own family’s immigrant status.)  

Anyway, I’m told “anything worth doing is worth doing badly.” It is worth it to stand up and say life is not disposable. I am still sorry that I did it badly.

This article, incidentally, made me feel better, especially this part:

Future generations may well condemn our society’s countenance of abortion in the same way we look back in wonder and revulsion at those who defended slavery. Men such as William Wilberforce and Abraham Lincoln are rightly revered today for their opposition to that peculiar institution — but we must recall that they were outnumbered and reviled in their time. Indeed, both men were stretched to the limit of their political skills, and their lives, to obtain justice. The nobility of their cause, though clear to us, was nowhere near apparent to their contemporaries. Then, as now, the most dreadful things can become convention if enough folks go along.

Many men and women go to their graves outnumbered and reviled by their contemporaries for any number of causes. I’m just going to have to learn to enjoy revulsion a little bit more. (Hey–maybe that involves more sushi and Fudgesicles. See how I’ve brought this meandering post full circle now.)

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Brigitte really doesn’t get sushi and Fudgesicles (who needs fish when you’ve got chocolate?), and also why Andrea feels so bad about the interview. Remember, Andrea: There are no ways to make abortion sound like a good idea so you’re already way ahead even before you open your mouth.

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Andrea adds: A friendly reader found the link for me. And for those concerned about my dietary choices, it was vegetarian sushi. Just thought I’d add that. 

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Tanya’s analysis: I’m from Quebec, so my definition of speaking over someone is completely different. The demure interruptions you were offering one another were not an issue in my eyes.

This is what I did notice. Ms. Corsillo was speaking in pro-choice catch phrases of old, and they rambled out of her uncontrollably. You, Andrea, spoke in the now. 

But that was the underlying tone of the interview, wasn’t it? Did you notice her scoff when you said, “I remember when I was a young person.” (Check it out, 5:10 into the interview.) Her tone was generally condescending. To her, you still are a young person whose belly button hasn’t quite dried up yet.

Is this how Ms. Corsillo views any woman in her 20’s or 30’s? What does that say about the tone and tactic she likely employs when counseling individual women about abortion? “You poor thing, you have your whole life ahead of you, and you have no idea what a responsibility this is. It would be a shame for you to become a mother now. When you’re older, and you’re ready, that’s when you should have a child.” That’s gentle manipulation, is what that is.

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Andrea again: Folks, there’s been a most egregious error in this exchange. “Fudgsicle” is the proper spelling. Not “Fudgesicle.” I say this as a woman who is truly “in the know” and the “now” as it were. (I’m, er, looking at the box as I type this.)

I was on 580 CFRA with Steve Madely this morning. You can listen here.

PWPL’s official press release on the matter of Morgentaler and the Order of Canada.

The entirety of this post is from a doctor who wrote in:

If Morgentaler gets this Order of Canada, it goes without saying that this is the greatest disgrace for this most prestigious award. However, the main issue at stake is that it makes abortion into something good. Until now, even for extremist pro-abortion people, abortion was seen as a tragedy where women had a choice to ‘terminate’ their offspring with the help of the medical profession. But now, it has been glorified to the point of making evil into good. Its main defender may be made a national hero.

How can I accept this? Impossible. I would share with you four episodes to which I was personal witness during my medical training.

You be the judge if they can be considered a good.

1) During one of my ICU rotations, a woman in her late seventies had just suffered a major medical crisis. She was very agitated, but we did not know why. We suspected it was her medical problem; however, the clinical signs did not fit together. I spent sometime talking to her and what she confided to me was she wanted to talk to a priest before dying. She then volunteered that while teenager she had had an abortion and she was very tormented by this. We managed to get her a priest and she was more at peace after that.

2) While doing outpatient medicine, I saw a single-African-Canadian mother. She was pregnant and she was asking for advice on how to handle her situation. I asked her if she wanted to keep the baby. She said this is what she wanted. I re-assured her that we were going to help her with her choice. I referred to our social worker. One week later when I returned to the clinic, I approached the social worker for follow up with the case. With a smile and beaming with pride, she said: “I convinced her to have an abortion and referred her to the abortion clinic..after all; this is the best choice for her.” I was left speechless.

3) Doing a chronic pain clinic, I saw a single-African-Canadian mother suffering from fibromyalgia. She was involved in a physically abusive relationship and she would not stop crying. The medical team was having hard time managing her pain, and the medical specialist made clear to us it was due to her difficult social situation. The doctor shared with us the story: she was pregnant and had two little girls at home but the boyfriend did not want the baby. So at 24 weeks pregnant she was referred to a tertiary care hospital for a late term abortion. First they killed the baby with medication and then they gave her inducers to deliver the body. She was waiting in her hospital room to start the ‘labor’ and then she needed to go to the bathroom. While in the bathroom, strong labor contractions ensued and the pain specialist then told us: “suddenly, the ‘thing’ felt to the floor and it was a boy”. Needless to say, the poor woman had been traumatized since then.

4) And the last one to illustrate that even pro-abortion people know what is wrong. One of my supervisors, staunchly anti-religious (especially anti-catholic), but otherwise very nice, shared with me the story of his wife aborting their first child who suffered from Down Syndrome. He admitted the experience had been harder for his wife than for him. Later, when his second child, a ‘normal’ daughter, was four months, she got really sick requiring intubation and ICU admission. There was a significant danger that she might be left with cerebral damage after this medical crisis. He told me: “it was as if the Universe was getting back to us for aborting our firstborn.”