For those of you who haven’t seen the 2005 CBC Documentary Sex Slaves, it was on last night and I highly recommend taking the time to watch it. It’s not at all like Pretty Woman, which is all show and no reality, yet Pretty Woman seems to have become our argument for legalizing prostitution.

There is a myth that women become prostitutes by choice, that every woman has an abortion by choice (many of the women in this film are forced to do both), and this film illustrates just exactly why and how that is not the case.

An estimated half million women are trafficked annually for the purpose of sexual slavery. They are “exported” to over 50 countries including Britain, Italy, Japan, Germany, Israel, Turkey, China, Kosovo, Canada and the United States. Misunderstood and widely tolerated, sex trafficking has become a multi- billion dollar underground industry.

[…]

“Eva”; thought she was getting a job as a nanny in Toronto until her handlers took her from the airport to a strip club and forced her to work off her “debt”;, i.e., her purchase price, before she could be set free.

I don’t remember Julia Roberts having a pimp.

Courtesy of Rondi Adamson’s blog. I can just imagine Judy Rebick out there, late at night, making her contribution to the Toronto scene. But people, well, all they really want are pets. Cats, apparently. (Wouldn’t be my choice, so I guess the editing could be improved. I’d choose dogs over cats any day.)

Right. So I had not paid too much attention to Justin Bieber. Until now. Asked for his views on abortion, he had this to say:

I really don’t believe in abortion,” Bieber told the magazine. “It’s like killing a baby?”

Now why the question mark at the end of that, I don’t know, and he went on to express reservations about rape. But this is still a positive statement.

I actually think his position on this stuff matters. When it comes to changing the culture, we could use a few more hip Hollywood voices to speak for life. And this guy has millions of adoring fans. I always figured that if you are going to be famous, even if it is only for 15 seconds, you should use that time well. I would anyway. For the record, yes, if I won an Oscar I would speak for life from the podium. You have my word.

Anyhoo. His positioning on sex before marriage strikes me as weak–since “waiting to fall in love” is just a little bit of a sketchy concept for your average teenager.

Nonetheless, I hereby do solemnly swear to stop making fun of Justin Bieber.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zCJigrTb9Q]

An excellent take-down, here.

_____________________

Andrea adds: There’s something wrong with this ad. (Beyond the obvious.) I mean that for what they are trying to do they don’t do it well. The high heels and party dress? Walking down that hallway? It just doesn’t create the atmosphere of fear they are looking for. And that’s not just me saying it’s a big ole’ piece of propaganda, because initially, when I watched it I had no idea what I was in for. (Brigitte, you’ll recall, also posted the Old Spice commercials) so I’d like to think that at least for a few short seconds I had an open mind.

BPAS, a UK abortion provider, just petitioned the government to allow women to induce abortion at home. They lost.

But the point is, they want women to have less contact with a doctor, not more, less medical care, not more. When in fact these self-induced early abortions don’t always go quite according to plan.

I’m not sure what motivates them to push for this. Is it normalization? You can brush your teeth, make a cup of tea and now, have an abortion–all at home? Is it money?

I can’t step into the mind of a pro-abortion person and comment, but I will say this: I can’t see how it’s for women’s health.

________________________

Jennifer adds: What really gets me is this little tidbit, “Ann Furedi, chief executive of BPAS, said: “It cannot be morally right to compel a woman to physically take tablets in a clinic and to subject her to the anxiety that symptoms will start on the journey back when her doctor knows it is safe and indeed preferable for her to take these at home. ” Furedi seems to assume that every woman is going back to her country estate for bed rest and foot rubs after taking the second dose! In reality, many are going back to a council estate, other children, daily chores, grocery shopping, possibly even their jobs. If symptoms “will start on the journey back”, maybe women need to stay under the doctors’ supervision even longer to ensure their safety.

I know we’ve already commented on the Philadelphia Kermit Gosnell case (the abortion “doctor” who killed babies after birth by plunging scissors into their necks among other macabre things) but I’m sorry, I’m going to return to it.

Here we have a piece grappling with the idea that everyone knew about his “work”–if this post is correct, Gosnell received referrals from the National Abortion Federation. And it strikes me, once again, that the media is not as horrified by what happened as they should be. Perhaps Mark Steyn is, so let’s give him credit, shall we? But for the rest of them–it passed them by. When Tiller was killed we heard about it endlessly, on repeat, in blogs, in the news, everywhere. I’m not sure why this is, but can only conclude that the media turns thinking off when they think the abortion debate might be on.

The disturbing thing to me is that with Gosnell I think I did that too. I was not as shocked as I should have been. I’ve always said I can’t afford to be shocked and sad every single day of the year and abortion happens all the time. But I should not grow so “used to things” that there is never a flash of anger.

When the Gosnell story broke, I seem to remember thinking “here we go again” or something to that effect. Way to go, Andrea, there’s moral clarity for you.

I think the takeaway is that it’s hard to be pro-life in our big ole’ pro-abortion world without losing your marbles, your good nature, your hope in humanity and/or your moral compass.

The writing of others calls me back, whether it’s Mark Steyn or this Real Choice blog. We forge on.

When you look at the picture above do you feel a deep sense of happiness? Peace? Love? The desire to become a surrogate mom? If you checked “all of the above” you are not alone. 

A woman acts as her daughter’s surrogate while chasing after that ever elusive goal, the subject of so many quests from ancient times. Yes, it’s the desire to achieve the Happiness of an Ostrich:

During a visit to Chicago — she lives in Virginia — Casey participated in a workshop led by Connell, a life coach, writer and lecturer on women’s empowerment. In one class exercise, she used pictures cut from a magazine to create a collage depicting a life’s goal. One picture grabbed her attention: an ostrich with an expression of wonder and joy.

Casey wanted to experience the exuberance captured in the picture.

“I found something that would make me feel like that ostrich,” she later wrote to the Connells offering to be Sara’s surrogate.

If I ever decide I need to do something different, something off the beaten path, I sure do hope I am never so vapid as to actually tell people it’s because I saw a picture of an ostrich looking euphoric and I hoped I could achieve that same nirvana.

You might like to track with this web site to see if the new pro-life documentary called Ten Fingers is coming your way. One of the people interviewed is Bruxy Cavey, whose church I used to attend in Toronto. Abortion never came up in that church (just as it rarely comes up in any of the many churches I’ve gone to) so I’m pleased to see he was happy to contribute to a pro-life documentary. (Bruxy also happens to be super smart and has a unique way of looking at the world. I think he would have interesting things to say.)

This is an interesting story:

A Chicago medical center has found itself in a controversial position, as the first Roman Catholic hospital in the country to help women halt an abortion midway through the process.

Resurrection Medical Center began the new practice after pro-life activists started bringing in women who, in the second trimester of their pregnancy, had gone to a clinic for an abortion and then changed their minds. The process used by the clinic for a second trimester pregnancy takes 2-3 days to complete, so by stopping the process early on, Resurrection doctors are hoping to preserve the pregnancy.

[…]

A procedure for late-term abortions, which uses a dried seaweed called laminaria, is new and still unknown by many medical personnel. “They put in this so-called laminaria, which is made from seaweed, and they insert it into the cervix…and the concept is that, this seaweed will soften the cervix… and then after a period of time, 12 to 24 hours, sometimes longer, they take the woman back and they look in her cervix again to see if she’s ready to have that abortion” said Doctor Shu Boung Chan, the chairman of quality at Resurrection Hospital.

Laminaria, he explains, is like a thin rod made of dried kelp that is inserted like a tampon. The laminaria is supposed to expand and dilate the cervix. Once brought to Resurrection, the laminaria is removed, with the hope the cervix will return to its normal state, saving the fetus.

Critics worry the hospital’s efforts could actually cause medical problems for the pregnant woman, and may result in a miscarriage.

Two things. First: Seaweed? Ew. Second: People worry that trying to reverse an abortion might result in a miscarriage? Huh?

There’s more:

Resurrection CEO Sister Donna Marie Wolowicki said hospital staff won’t try to persuade or coerce a woman either way.

“We have our staff prepared to walk her into a private area to make sure that she has the opportunity to share what she really wants us to do or how to help her and what she understands. The first thing we want to make sure is that she understands what’s happened to her thus far we want her to understand about her pregnancy … how far she is along with the pregnancy and what we can do to help her if she really wants us to stop this abortive process … We want it to be a free decision by her.”

[…]

Planned Parenthood of Illinois supports the hospital’s way of handling the situation. Vice President for Public Policy, Pamela Sutherland, said that as long as the women weren’t coerced into changing their minds, it seems they were treated well.

“Based on the statements made by Resurrection …regarding women who come to them to interrupt a second-trimester abortion in process, Planned Parenthood of Illinois agrees with the Hospital’s Standard of Care. We are very pleased that they are counseling women to be sure women are comfortable with their decision. And we support what we also consider to be good medical practice.”

That’s nice – we’re now at the point where a Catholic hospital has to be extra careful not to appear to be putting any pressure at all on women who are coming to them hoping their abortion can be reversed. And the journalist has to make sure to get a quote from Planned Parenthood, as though PP was some kind of unbiased authority suitable to making pronouncements on what constituted proper medical treatment at an actual hospital?

Give me a break!

[h/t]

Romania has problems, big problems. Historically it’s always been that way. Invaded by every neighbouring country, Soviet occupation, the Ceausescu dictatorship, all of these things contributed to the country’s economic downturn. Though they have now entered the European Union, Romania still has a history of people doing what they can to earn a living. For women, especially Romani women, options were and still are limited. The country’s new “witch tax” threatens to take away a portion of what little income Romanian women are currently making. It’s a requirement for witches to carry a permit and provide receipts would almost certainly result in further discrimination towards the Romani (as they don’t typically have a physical address let alone identification), possible fines and/or imprisonment.

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — There’s more bad news in the cards for Romania’s beleaguered witches.

A month after Romanian authorities began taxing them for their trade, the country’s soothsayers and fortune tellers are cursing a new bill that threatens fines or even prison if their predictions don’t come true.

Superstition is a serious matter in the land of Dracula, and officials have turned to witches to help the recession-hit country collect more money and crack down on tax evasion.

In January, the government changed labor laws to officially recognize the centuries-old practice of witchcraft as a taxable profession, prompting angry witches to dump poisonous mandrake into the Danube in an attempt to put a hex on them.

[…]

The new bill would also require witches to have a permit, to provide their customers with receipts and bar them from practicing near schools and churches.