Shouldn't there be some abortion controls?
National Affairs
Claire Hoy
Renowned American scientist Henry J. Tillman once quipped that, "Life is something that everyone should try at least once." Unfortunately, thanks to the fact that Canada is the only country in the free world without any abortion laws whatsoever, life is something that more than 100,000 unborn babies don't have the chance to try at least once.

Indeed, as this country acknowledges 20 years since the Supreme Court elevated abortionist Henry Morgentaler to the status of folk hero by tossing out the existing abortion laws, about two million unborn babies have been deprived of the chance to try life at least once.

Even so, most of the radical proabortion crowd have chosen to mark the occasion, not by celebrating what for them was a great victory, but by complaining that there aren't enough abortions.

Think I'm kidding? Well, in a weekend article in the National Post, former Status of Women head Judy Rebick - Morgentaler's former spokesperson and my sparring partner for six years on Newsworld's Face-Off debate show - not only offered the usual demonization of those who disagree with her - the ingrates - but lamented that just 16 percent of hospitals in Canada provide accessible abortions.

Worse, from her point of view, New Brunswick has the audacity to put restrictions on the public payment for abortions and Prince Edward Island doesn't offer any abortion services at all. None of this, alas, seems to be having an impact on the number of abortions, but in the world of the radical feminists - who claim to be "pro choice," (oh, please) - the battle must continue because there are those crazy anti-abortionists out there who - as difficult as it may be to believe - actually think that an unborn baby should have some rights to, just as it does in every other civilized country except Canada.

"So even while we celebrate the Supreme Court decision, we must rededicate ourselves to ensuring access to women who live outside of Canada's major cities," wrote Rebick. "A new generation of women is now organizing to make sure these rights are protected and extended."

Apparently, one dead unborn baby every seven minutes or so just isn't enough. Never mind that a recent public opinion poll - and several similar polls over the years - found that a clear majority of those asked, some 60 per cent, think there should be some controls on abortion.

Very few Canadians believe that abortion should be illegal, period, although the pro-abortion side loves to claim that anybody who questions their take on the issue wants to go back to the days when women were forced to have back alley abortions. (Even here, the claim is more myth than reality. There certainly were some back alley abortions, but very few. And part of the reason for that was that people had more respect for life then, a respect which the Supreme Court, particularly Bertha Wilson, seriously undercut by wiping out any protections for the innocent unborn.)

In the United States, of course, the infamous Roe vs. Wade decision that permitted abortion on the questionable grounds of a woman's "right to privacy" - as if the unborn baby is not a separate entity but is a part of the woman, much like a hangnail or infected toe, to be chopped up and disposed of at will.

But in the U.S., there has been a wholesome debate on abortion - and that debate continues - while here in Canada, the forces of "tolerance" and "choice" have virtually shut down any public discussion of the topic.

Even the universities won't touch it. Just this month, for example, the student government at Lakehead University became the latest in a long line of university student governments to ban an anti-abortion group from campus. One would hope that in a university setting, of all places, there would be room for debate. But not, it seems, when it comes to abortion, where the anti-abortionists seem to believe that there is no middle ground between our existing unregulated system and those who would make all abortions illegal. The fact that the majority of Canadians hold to that middle ground has become irrelevant, thanks largely to the strength of the anti-abortion movement and the weakness of our political leadership.

As columnist Barbara Kay wrote recently in the National Post, "Abortion is like medicare: Both need a policy change, but for no logical reason an old template has evolved into such a sacred national cow that their respective ideological guardians are able to drown out reasonable voices."

Sad, but true. In the meantime, the slaughter continues.