Women still deserve better
A comment on our society 30 years after the R. vs Morgentaler decision
Recently the Guardian published two articles to which the P.E.I. Right to Life Association must make comment. These are “Thirty Years after Morgentaler ruling, we have a long way to go as a country,” Dec 20, 2017; and “Islander Kate McKenna writes book about P.E.I.’s abortion history,” Jan 5th, 2018. Certainly, we do have a long way to go and the story is not over. For the pro-life movement on P.E.I. this is inspiring. We are motivated to continue educating and fighting for full legal protection for right to life of the pre-born child from conception on.
Ms. McKenna’s work is described as “a great story of perseverance and bravery.” The majority of Canadians would not describe this history as a great story. Sixty per cent of Canadians believe “human life should be protected sometime prior to birth, including one in four who say it should be protected from conception on.” (Canadian’s Attitudes towards Abortion, Life Canada Poll, 2013, Environics Research Group)
It is not brave to end the life of a baby whose heart beats at three weeks gestation and whose brain waves are readable at only two months gestation. If there is any agreement between pro-abortion and pro-life supporters, it is in the agreement that someone’s life is at stake. For the pro-choicers, only the mother is the focus, for prolifers it is both the baby — the most vulnerable one — and the mother.
What this story is not, is one of a woman’s right to abortion. Neither the Canadian Charter of Rights nor the R. vs Morgentaler decision inscribes such a right to Canadian citizens. On Jan. 28, 1988, the R vs Morgentaler decision merely struck down previous restrictions and since then, appallingly so, government has provided no law. A 30-year vacuum, which has brought death for four million pre-born Canadians, is the reality of this story and this decision. It is a dubious honour we hold.
As the article on Morgentaler states: “The Supreme Court’s watershed decision made Canada one of a handful of countries without a law either restricting or ensuring access to abortion.” Canada stands with North Korea, China and Vietnam.
What is more disturbing about 30 years of “celebrating” a story for abortion or a man who boasts responsibility for over 5,000 deaths (cf. Henry Morgentaler, Abortion and Contraception, Toronto: General Publishing, 1982) is the fact that our society is seemingly so devoid of creativity that this is the primary solution of pro-choice advocates for women facing a crisis pregnancy.
Have we nothing better to offer Canadian women and Canadian children than death? Death of the innocent one accepted as a result of an exaggerated understanding of individual freedom or as the answer to sexual assault?
This is the most disturbing fact of these two pieces, that society as it now stands is a society of radical pursuit of self over others. This is not great or brave. It is utmost cowardly to condone this. Women deserve better. Canadians deserve better.