I feel compelled to comment on this article in the Ottawa Citizen.
"By the time a woman knows she's pregnant, makes a decision on what she wants to do, and finds out where to go to get an abortion, sometimes it's too late," she says, explaining that some women have to carry their unwanted pregnancies to term as a result.
I would like to meet these women and ask them how they feel about carrying their pregnancy to term and giving birth. That would be an interesting interview.
I wonder how they treat their children? Do all these women turn into child abusers, as many proponent of legalized abortion claim, or do they develop love for their child? Now that they have their child, are they glad they didn't abort?
Ms. Larue says at The Ottawa Hospital, the time limit to have an abortion is 18 weeks gestation; 17 at the Morgentaler Clinic. And, she says, most doctors in Canada won't perform abortions beyond 22 weeks.
That's not absolutely accurate. While it's true the abortionists in the clinics won't chop up the baby past 22 weeks, you can get late-term abortions done by OB/GYN's through prostaglandins when a genetic condition is involved. But they are not counted as "abortions" for statistical purposes. It's not quite the same clientele and problématique as the single 20-something girl who wants an abortion, but they are not uncommon in this country.
"Abortion law in Canada is unique," says Ms. Larue. "Here, abortion is a decision that's made between a woman and her doctor. There are no restrictions whatsoever. It's up to the clinic or hospital to say at what point they won't give them anymore, and at what point the doctor feels it's unethical for them."
You mean there are people who do abortions who think some abortions aren't ethical?
So let's re-cap the abortion situation in Canada. We have no laws whatsoever, and the feminist minority, a small radical fringe, manages to keep it that way, but the people who do abortions have moral qualms about killing after a certain period of time.
And people say that restricting late-term abortions is a no-win issue?
One Ottawa abortion doctor, who asked to remain anonymous to prevent harassment and threats, explained some of the dynamics of having an abortion at The Ottawa Hospital's Women's Health Centre. Women who opt to go there, she said, are sent to the hospital's birthing ward for a pre-abortion ultrasound, where they sit with expectant mothers and posters that read "Congratulations on Your Baby."
Now why would that be a problem? Perhaps the problem is that the cognitive dissonance about abortion cannot be maintained.
Overall, abortion actually appears to be on the decline in Canada, although only slightly. In 2003, the most recent year for which statistics are available, 103,768 abortions were performed in Canada, down almost 1,500 from 2002 and down 2,500 from 2001.
Actually, the 2004 stats are out, and abortion was down a couple of thousand.
In the case of the Morgentaler Clinic, it's up to the Ontario government to decide how many abortions it can perform -- based on the funds it's willing to give the clinic.
Your tax dollars at work. People are dying from lack of doctors and services, and they're asking for taxpayer money for abortions, for pregnancy which is totally self-inflicted and completely avoidable.
But while additional funding for an existing abortion clinic has been turned down for the Morgentaler Clinic, the ministry says there's another reason behind why there are so few clinics in the Ottawa area.
"There have been no other applications to the ministry from interested groups wanting to obtain an abortion clinic licence in Ottawa," says Mr. Klei.
Ms. Hodson says she can't understand why the ministry would consider funding new abortion clinics, but not increase funds for an existing one to deal with the shortage of abortion services in the city.
He didn't say he'd fund the clinic, he said that no clinics applied. What that tells me is that there are few doctors interested in doing the procedure.
_________________________
Visit Opinions Canada
a political blogs aggregator
_________________________
