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New IKEA ad. Creative, yet annoying

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A new ad has women doing a pregnancy test by peeing on an ad for an IKEA crib. If you’re pregnant the discount code for said crib shows up.

What I like: When you are pregnant, however early, you need a crib because the baby, though you can’t see him or her, is already there. Get a crib, people–whether you parent or someone else does. There’s no “undoing” your pregnancy. (Just waiting for Planned Parenthood in the USA to offer abortion discounts based on this same ad technology.)

What I don’t like: spending so much money and time on advertising that commercializes your family, starting with conception. I hate gimmicks–and that’s what this is. Plus, do you have to show IKEA the ad or do they take your word for it? Who wants to do that?

Creative and yet, annoying.

Clearly, any baby can just sleep in a cute basket lined with something fuzzy. And a comforting arm to reach in, now and again.

Ideological purity test to receive funding for interns

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Discussed the government’s requirement of an ideological purity test (I support “reproductive rights”) in order for small business and not-for-profits to receive funding for summer interns with John Oakley on AM 640 yesterday. Very pleased he took the issue on. Less pleased with my meandering replies here but the gist is this: The Charter is intended to protect conscience rights, not transgress them. And while the Liberals want to stick it to anti-abortion groups, they are in effect creating a chill for all charities who will not check that nebulous box saying they support “reproductive rights.” Many a church or NGO hired interns to help with basic stuff for low-income Canadians–things like summer camps for kids who couldn’t otherwise go, etc. Also, just as a side note, “reproductive rights” needs to be very much challenged as a term, something the media rarely does.

Lobbyists pushing for commercialization of assisted reproduction

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There’s a lobbying push on right now to repeal the criminal sanctions of our already stripped down Assisted Human Reproduction Act. Years ago, Canada was declared as having the gold standard of legislation on reproductive technologies. Our Act was stripped down in 2010 with the Reference to the Assisted Human Reproduction Act at the Supreme Court. No more bragging rights.

There are many ethical considerations involved with assisted reproduction that deserve careful consideration. When I see private corporations lobbying for the purpose of commercialization, I get nervous. Even an ethicist at Dalhousie is clarifying that the lobbying campaign may be misleading in its advocacy efforts:

 

Françoise Baylis, a bioethicist at Dalhousie University, agrees that the lack of clarity is a huge concern. But she argues the law can be clarified without getting rid of the criminal sanctions, and Health Canada is conducting consultations to do exactly that. Baylis thinks the real issue for the protesters, despite what they say, is that there is a prohibition on payment, which they want overturned. “They use catchy phrases, but if you unpack them, they are not based in reality,” she says. She is referring to one of the campaign’s slogans — “surrogacy is not a crime” —  pointing out that it isn’t.

And the MP  spearheading these efforts leaves us with this quote:

Anthony Housefather, Liberal MP for the riding of Mount Royal, who supports the lobbying, has made no secret of his desire to see assisted reproduction decriminalized and even commercialized. […] And he isn’t troubled by the prospect of the law being lost altogether. “The abortion law was struck down and not replaced,” he says. “It was no tragedy.”

He should conceded that our status quo has in fact led to tragedy. Due our lack of legislation, in Canada, we know that coerced abortions, sex-selection abortions, and late term abortions, have taken place.  These occurrences should make even the most ardent pro-choicer pause and consider whether being the only Western nation in the world without abortion legislation is “no tragedy.” We aren’t exactly skipping, carefree, through sunny fields on this topic. There are real and life-ending consequences as a result of our legislative void.

Marigold

I hope Housefather’s position for supporting the decriminalization of AHRA sanctions is more carefully considered.

All that to say, if a private members bill is introduced to address the AHRA, as Housefather suggests, I hope we seize that opportunity to have a careful and nuanced discussion about the ethical considerations engaged.

On Trent Franks resignation and surrogacy

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This article explains why Congressman Trent Franks’ resignation makes sense. I had only heard little pieces of information about this case, but this article tells more of the story:

Solicitation for surrogacy offends the dignity of the female person just as much as solicitation for sex. Indeed, solicitation for surrogacy derives from solicitation for sex and is made possible only by the pharmaceutical separation of sex and conception and the medical innovation and sale of in vitro fertilization. Gestational surrogacy provides a clinical method for transferring ejaculated sperm from Trent Franks’ body, for example, into an egg and onto the body of a female contracted, typically for money, to the implantation, gestation and hand-delivery of a living, human baby. The surrogate’s body becomes the object of a legal agreement by which the contracting parties regulate and restrict the daily behavior and the maternal rights of the female and sever the human child’s legal and actual connection to its birth mother.

NYT: Causal link between the Pill and breast cancer

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Read about this, in the New York Times. I’m fascinated by this statement:

While a link had been established between birth control pills and breast cancer years ago, this study is the first to examine the risks associated with current formulations of birth control pills and devices in a large population.

They say this link has been established years ago, as if it were old news. It’s true, the link was established long ago, yet most women are unaware. Doesn’t the Pill help diminish the risk of certain cancers, too?

Risk goes up as you age, leading the researchers to advise that older women find a different method of birth control.

The study also found that the risk increased the longer women used contraceptives involving hormones, suggesting the relationship is causal, Dr. Mørch said. “It is a very clear picture for us, very convincing.”

Vindicating for those of us who spoke against the Pill for this very reason. What’s next: the New York Times reporting the Abortion-Breast Cancer (ABC) link? Likely. Give it time and this is precisely what will happen.

 

CBC and abortion

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CBC is taking a look at abortion. Today, as I type, they are listening to men’s experience with abortion. I can’t help but think this is a good thing because the stories are definitely conflicted and you can’t avoid that, unless they were to censor almost every story.

One fellow just now, in Windsor:

There were two abortions and you wonder sometimes. Anybody who has experienced an abortion, anyone who doesn’t at least ponder what that child would have been like, I think it’s insane if you never think what that child would have been like… It’s normal. You’re gonna be curious, you are going to think about it… It’s hard to say if we regret it. Looking back now, having three, looking at that whole time frame, sometimes I think maybe it wasn’t the right choice, but ultimately you can’t change the past.”

All this to say, people “get it” on the human level. What would these children have been like? It’s normal to ask that.

As I finish typing this, I’m listening to a man talk about how he has never gotten over the abortion his girlfriend had.

I would love for women and men to be healed from their abortions. Counselling plays an important role in this. When people are healed and can talk about it, I think we’ll see a less pro-choice culture. To this end, if you are in the Ottawa area there is help for you, free of charge, at First Place Options. Also you can google Project Rachel.

Men and abortion

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Was reminded of this poignant song this morning.

This is where abortion decisions live–in our hearts, years after the fact, when we have other children, or when we don’t, and we wonder what the lives of our aborted children would be like. So many people carry this burden in the quiet of their hearts. They don’t go to the March for Life, they don’t play politics. But how can you not ask questions about what would have been?

Happy birthday, so make a wish

Please accept my apologies, wonder what would have been

Would you’ve been a little angel or an angel of sin?

Tom-boy running around, hanging with all the guys

Or a little tough boy with beautiful brown eyes

I payed for the murder before they determined the sex

Choosing our life over your life meant your death

And you never got a chance to even open your eyes

Sometimes I wonder as a fetus if you fought for your life

Would you have been a little genius in love with math?

Would you have played in your school clothes and made me mad?

Would you have been a little rapper like your poppa The Piper?

Would you have made me quit smokin’ by finding one of my lighters?

I wonder about your skin tone and shape of your nose?

And the way you would have laughed and talked fast or slow?

Think about it every year, so I picked up a pen

Happy birthday, love you whoever you would’ve been

Oh Cecile, you’re breaking my heart

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Don’t be the one to make this mistake. Cecile Richards, President of Planned Parenthood of America, recently betrayed that she thinks natural family planning is “the rhythm method.” It’s not. And it looks really foolish when you publicly make this mistake, especially in her position. I take comfort in seeing that about a thousand people called her out on Twitter. Natural family planning is taking off for many different reasons and in many different ways, not least of which is that it’s empowering for women to learn about and have access to these methods.

 

Draconian new bubble zone law

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Draconian new law, supported by the Opposition. This stands as the moment in which I fully decided that it’s over my cold, dead body that I would vote for Ontario’s “Conservatives,” in spite of how bad the current government is for my home province of Ontario. We are all (pro-life or pro-choice) a little less free now.

Indeed, the act makes illegal any “act of disapproval concerning issues related to abortion services, by any means, including oral, written or graphic means” within 50 metres of a clinic (or other permitted distances, not exceeding 150 metres). As written, having a conversation a few blocks away from an abortion clinic that the state deems insufficiently enthusiastic about abortion could make you liable to prosecution.

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