Nothing "progressive" about Canada's 27 year abortion era

27 years later. And still no legal protection for pre-born children.

Mike Schouten reminds us of what Supreme Court Justice Bertha Wilson said after the 1988 Morgentaler decision:

"A developmental view of the foetus… supports a permissive approach to abortion in the early stages of pregnancy and a restrictive approach in the later stages…The precise point in the development of the foetus at which the state’s interest in its protection becomes “compelling” I leave to the informed judgment of the legislature… It seems to me, however, that it might fall somewhere in the second trimester.”

"Justice Wilson, arguably the most iconic feminist judge in the history of our country, would be labeled an “anti-choice extremist” by the more adamant of today’s pro-choice movement. Justice Wilson was abundantly clear - abortion should not be legal throughout all the stages of fetal development as it is today. In fact, she was comfortably open to a gestational ban between 12 and 18 weeks, similar to most European countries. And as the informative morgentalerdecision.ca website points out, Wilson also stated that it should be the Legislature, not the courts, to decide at precisely which stage abortion should be restricted."

So here we are in 2015. And unborn children continue to be ripped out of their mother's wombs.

Some think this is what a civilized society does: fully funded, any time, any reason, abortion on demand. Some call this "progressive." I call it regressive. I call it shameful.

Protecting the innocent - why man invented criminal law

In December in the National Post, Mike Schouten commented on Maurice Vellacott's motions M-482 and M-483.

Schouten said:

"The Supreme Court justices of 1988 would never have anticipated a 25 year legal vacuum surrounding the rights of children before birth. They struck down Canada’s abortion law on constitutional grounds, but were very clear that it was the mandate of Parliament to enact new laws protecting pre-born children. In fact, even Justice Bertha Wilson opined as to where protections should be placed when she said, “The precise point in the development of the fetus at which the state’s interest in its protection becomes compelling I leave to the informed judgment of the legislature which is in a position to receive guidance on the subject from all the relevant disciplines. It seem to me, however, that it might fall somewhere in the second trimester.” In light of this judgement, as well as more recent jurisprudence in this area, it is entirely appropriate for Parliament to study the impact of the status quo in our law."

A letter writer didn't agree that an abortion law was needed. The letter writer said:

"Any law that is designed to deal with emotional issues and issues linked to biology is inherently flawed. Laws cannot impose compassion and understanding. I feel that any woman who is contemplating aborting her fetus is in acute need of support or treatment. It follows that any action that addresses her mental, emotional or physical health is to be decided as an individual case. The law is not the instrument of choice to handle such a situation."

I responded with this letter:

Letter-writer Ruedi Mueller feels that a law is unnecessary to protect the unborn, as “any law that is designed to deal with emotional issues and issues linked to biology is inherently flawed.” Since crimes against humans always involve emotions (like rape or murder), his reasoning makes no sense. We create laws to protect the innocent; it is exactly why man invented criminal law. Preborn children are the prime victims in abortion and they are incapable of protecting themselves. As a civilized society, it is up to the rest of us to make sure that we provide that legal protection. 

Patricia Maloney, Ottawa.

"Anti-abortion laws are unjust, harmful, and useless"

Joyce Arthur is advising the United Kingdom on abortion law. She recently wrote Why the UK doesn’t need an abortion law at all for the "Abortion Review", a UK group that is an "educational service by bpas". bpas are the UK's "premier abortion provider" and stands for British Pregnancy Advisory Service. (Not sure I'd want an abortion provider advising me on my pregnancy though.)

She says:
"For 25 years, Canada has had no legal restrictions on abortion whatsoever – not even any gestational limits. From my perspective as a Canadian, the UK’s current debate over the proposed reduction in its legal time limit for an abortion is way off-base.

Politicians and the media seem trapped by the assumption that some kind of abortion law is necessary and they just need to decide what the limits are. In reality, the best solution is full decriminalization, because all anti-abortion laws are unjust, harmful, and useless – including the UK’s 1967 Abortion Act."

Pretty much what we'd expect from Canada's premier abortion advocate.

But it's when she starts describing Canada's situation and rates of abortions, that my alarm bells go off. Her "information" has gone international:
"Despite the lack of a gestational limit law in Canada, 90 per cent of abortions occur during the first trimester, and less than half a percent after 20 weeks. The latter are all for compelling reasons, such as fetal abnormalities incompatible with life or a serious threat to the woman’s health or life."

Since Canada's abortion statistics are so woefully under-reported, it is impossible to draw such conclusions from them.

Once again, let me explain what we do know about Canadian abortion statistics based on the last year for which abortion data was published in Canada, 2010.

Here I did it for Canada's 2009 CIHI stats, and I'll now do it again for CIHI's 2010 stats.

That year CIHI reported 64,641 abortions, a number we know is grossly under-reported Why? Frist, because Quebec did not report any statistics in 2010; second, it is not mandatory for clinics to report data so clinic data is under-reported; and third, abortions performed in private physician's offices are not published or reported at all.

Of these 64,641 known abortions, the gestational age is only reported for 22,668 of them (8,300 performed on fetuses <=8 weeks, 11,191 on fetuses 9-12 weeks, 1,794 on fetuses 13-16 weeks, 846 on fetuses 17-20 weeks, 537 on fetuses 21+ weeks). These known gestational age abortions are reported for hospital abortions only--we have no gestational ages for those done in clinics or physician's offices.

Therefore there were at least 41,973 abortions performed in 2010 with an unknown gestational age. This means all of those 41,973 abortions, or most of them, or some of them, or none of them, could be late term abortions--we don't know. And we don’t know these gestational ages because most abortion providers don't report them.

If all of the unknown gestational age abortions were in fact late term, then the percentage could be as high as 65%. But we don't know. You must understand that the definition of "unknown" is--we don't know. To say that only .5% of abortions are late term is completely unknowable. It is also grossly misleading.

Next, Ms. Arthur says that 90% of all abortions are first trimester abortions. Again, this information is also unknowable. See explanation above.

In Canada there is no requirement to report or publish the reasons for late-term abortions, so Ms. Arthur can't know the reasons for them. She has no basis or knowledge to state that they:
"are all for compelling reasons, such as fetal abnormalities incompatible with life or a serious threat to the woman’s health or life".

So we don't know how many late-term abortions there are, to go along with not knowing the reasons for them. That's a lot of unknown information to be able to make such conclusions.

Finally, there is one other very disturbing statistic that Ms. Arthur doesn't divulge to the UK pro-abortions.

Statistics Canada reported that from 2000 to 2009 there were 491 late-term, born-alive abortions performed in Canada. These babies were "aborted" but resulted in live births: code name P96.4 or ‘Termination of pregnancy, affecting fetus and newborn’. The aborted child died after it was born.

I'm all for talking about abortion statistics. But let's base the discussion on what we do know, and not on what we don't know.