They're Just Out of Touch With Canadians

Joyce Arthur perplexed by rejection of abortion-centred controversy-mongering

Writing on the arch-leftist website Straight Goods, Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada director Joyce Arthur just doesn't seem to understand why so many Canadians would object to Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff's attempt to stir up abortion-centred controversy in the face of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's call for a global maternal health care strategy.

"A bewildering firestorm of media controversy has erupted over Michael Ignatieff's strong and principled statements about women's reproductive rights overseas," Arthur complains. "The Liberal Opposition Leader has been urging Prime Minister Stephen Harper not to exclude abortion and contraception from his surprising plan to become a champion of maternal and child health in developing countries."

Arthur does go so far as to admit that Ignatieff is simply playing dirty politics, but then goes on the demonstrate that she doesn't understand even the idea of "maternal and child health".

"Ignatieff is a politician, and bringing up abortion is no doubt a political strategy in part — but it's also the absolutely right thing for him to do," Arthur insists. "It is impossible to tackle maternal health without addressing unsafe abortion, which is a leading cause of maternal death in most developing countries."

Harper recently called for the wealthy countries of the world to impliment a maternal and child health strategy, aimed at reducing the infant mortality rate in developing countries. (For the record, criticisms that the Canadian government isn't doing enough to reduce the infant mortality rates in aboriginal communities is entirely legitimate.)

A maternal health strategy implies that the women involved are mothers. A child health strategy suggests that those involved are children.

Therein lies the rub for Canada's pro-abortion lobby, of which Arthur is a central leader. After all, it's the disinformation tactic of the pro-abortion lobby that a woman is not a mother until after she has given birth, and that a child is not a child until after it has been born.

If Arthur wants to insist that abortion should be part of Harper's maternal and child health strategy, then perhaps it's time for her and her cohorts to admit that pregnant women are mothers even before giving birth, and that unborn children are more than simply "a clump of cells".

Moreover, Harper and company are only doing what Arthur and her cohorts have long suggested that they do -- focusing on the already born.

Take, for example, the woman pictured left. From the look on her face, one can tell that she thinks she's being quite clever.

But it's simply astounding how quickly the pro-abortion movement's talking points can shift once they think that government policy isn't doing enough to impliment their ideological agenda, then suddenly the government is not supposed to focus on those who have already been born.

Suddenly, they're supposed to focus on those who have not been born, and impliment a global health strategy that would make it easier for their mothers to abort them.

Moreover, Arthur doesn't seem to understand one basic truth about Canadians: their preference that their government pursue foreign policies that are constructive rather than destructive.

Canadians would much prefer that their government impliment a strategy that will care for human life, rather than aid in the termination of it.

Most of the talking points that Arthur covers in her article don't in any way apply to a maternal and child health program. But Arthur is precisely right about one thing: the destructive influence of illegal abortions -- often referred to as back-alley abortions. This would be much more welcome within a more general women's health care strategy -- something that the Canadian government should pursue if they can impliment a successful maternal and child health strategy.

But Joyce Arthur's obsession with the topic of abortion seems to demand that the government impliment her pro-abortion agenda in all quarters, and at all costs.

While the majority of Canadians continue to favour legalized abortion, only Arthur and her cronies truly believe that abortion should be outright promoted.

That is what demonstrates that they're out of touch with Canadians.