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.)

Murhabazi Namegabe has been awarded the World’s Children’s Prize for his work in the DR Congo.

“You’re going to die tonight. Eat your last meal!”
Murhabazi read the short message that beeped on his mobile phone. He was in an important meeting with the UN, discussing children who were being forced to become soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He looked around cautiously. Had someone in the room sent him the death threat?

Murhabazi has made many enemies during his struggle for the thousands of children being exploited and tortured in war-torn DR Congo.
“The fight for children’s rights here is a matter of life and death. And I’m prepared to die in that fight, every day,” says Murhabazi Namegabe.

Murhabazi Namegabe has been nominated for the World’s Children’s Prize 2011 for his 20-year long perilous struggle for children in the war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo. Since 1989, Murhabazi and his organisation BVES has freed 4,000 child soldiers and more than 4,500 girls who have been sexually assaulted by armed groups, and taken care of 4,600 unaccompanied refugee children.

His 35 homes and schools offer some of the world’s most vulnerable children food, clothes, a home, healthcare, therapy, the opportunity to go to school, security and love. Most of the children are reunited with their families. Thanks to Murhabazi, some 60,000 children have passed through the doors of BVES’ various centres and been given a better life.
Murhabazi and BVES represent children in DR Congo by constantly urging the government, all armed groups, organisations and everyone else in society to look after the country’s children.

Not everyone supports Murhabazi’s struggle. He has been imprisoned and assaulted and is constantly receiving death threats. Seven of his colleagues have been killed.

…in the U.S. anyway.

ST. LOUIS, Mo. – There’s a political shift in many states across the country, including Missouri, where lawmakers are trying to pass tougher abortion restrictions. Those watching these bills say the number filed has dramatically increased nationwide, with bills in more than 30 states. They include measures that would require an ultrasound before an abortion, restrict insurance coverage on abortion or ban late-term abortions because of alleged fetal pain.

According to reproductive health advocates, changes in the political composition of state legislatures after last fall’s elections have played a role in the increased number of such bills filed. The Rev. Rebecca Turner with Faith Aloud says the economy and jobs were on the minds of voters last fall, not abortion.

“This is definitely the most extreme swing to the right that we have seen. It has been building for quite a number of years. This happened at this particular time because of a bait-and-switch in the last election.”

Many sponsors of these bills argue they would give women more information before making a decision about an abortion. Turner calls that information misleading and inaccurate.

I vehemently disagree with just about everything Rebecca Turner says, and this article is no exception. Ultrasounds are misleading? Anyhoo, the times are changing, and that’s a good thing.

Well, now I know that if for some reason I had my baby tomorrow, he/she would have a chance of surviving:

German doctors say a baby girl who was born at 21 weeks and five days is spending Easter at home after five months in neonatal care. She is believed to be the most premature baby in Europe to have survived.

That’s pretty awesome.

_________________________

Andrea adds: That is pretty awesome, Deborah. Congratulations! (I also need to add an add here for when this imports automatically into my Facebook page and I start getting empathetic and concerned looks from ladies at church. Andrea is pregnant? Who? How? I was recently asked if I have six kids, after one of Véronique’s blogs “became mine” in Facebook.) So let us be clear, then. This is me, Andrea, reporting for Facebook purposes that I am not Deborah.

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.

Surrogacy carries so many ethical, emotional and biological unknowns that many countries ban it outright, France being one of them. You may have given your French DNA to a surrogate in the U.S., but in a time of dwindling resources, which country takes responsibility for this new life? Apparently not France.

In a ruling that affirmed France’s ban on surrogacy, the country’s top court refused on Wednesday to allow French citizenship for 10-year-old twin girls born to a surrogate mother in the United States who carried the babies for a French couple. The Court of Cassation said that a California county went too far by ruling that a French couple are legally the twins’ parents. The ruling exposes the legal limbo that many would-be parents find themselves in because of inconsistencies on surrogacy between countries like the United States, which legally recognizes it, and those that ban it. While the court ruled that the girls could not be listed in France’s civil registry, it also said that nothing prevented them from living with the couple in France. The couple’s lawyer said they planned to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

They’ve signed a law banning late term abortions:

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin on Wednesday signed into law a prohibition on abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy, making it the fourth state to ban such late-term abortions. She also signed a law preventing health insurers from covering elective abortions.

And way to go, Gov. Mary Fallin. See? Some women do have gumption. Although I can imagine the political pressures in Oklahoma are very different from here.

It hit the news today that a Conservative MP seeking re-election, Brad Trost (SK) said that Planned Parenthood was denied funding because they support abortion.

First of all, we don’t actually know that Planned Parenthood was denied funding.

Secondly, there are pro-life MPs in this country because there are pro-lifers in this country. This is not shocking. Pro-life Canadians look for pro-life candidates to represent them. Brad Trost is one of them.

 Thirdly, too bad Stephen Harper is more concerned with control than free speech. Brad Trost should be allowed to say what he wants, because he represents pro-life constituents, and is pro-life. There are pro-lifers, both Liberal and Conservative (and even NDP! gasp!) and this is, again, not shocking. They should be allowed to speak freely. And they should work to defund pro-abortion agencies of government money. In point of fact, we should not be paying for abortions through state-funded medical care. Talk about controversial politics, but that would be my first move if I were a politician, which I’m not. If you want abortion, don’t make me pay for it. (It’s the pro-life version of “if you don’t like abortion, don’t have one” so often thrust my way by angry pro-choicers.) I digress.

It’s entirely disappointing when abortion becomes so taboo that no one can mention it, period, without the media and some politicos getting their knickers in a knot.

A final thought: This will continue to happen, every single election campaign so long as we continue to pretend that the “issue is settled.”

Here ends the rant.

You know, all it would take is one strong woman. That’s all. For Pete’s sake. I know abortion is the third rail in politics but it really doesn’t have to be and I don’t understand why even women like Elizabeth May who previously have said reasonable things on abortion (“I don’t think a woman has a frivolous right to choose. What I don’t want is a desperate woman to die in an illegal abortion”) feels she has to backpeddle so furiously. As she does, here.

You know, there are those who criticize the American political scene because there are politicians who become pro-life in order to run. Yes, it’s true. They aren’t really pro-life but they say they are, in order to win votes. (Unheard of!) In any event, that is just as bad as the Canadian scene where politicians apparently would rather jam a fork in their eye than say they are pro-life, even if they are.  Simple truths like “abortion is wrong,” or “partial-birth abortion is deplorable” should not be so hard to say. Or how about a simple “I’m pro-life, so deal with it”?