Archives for June 2008

Those who like to think of themselves as “pro-life”, “pro-family”, “pro-values” are in fact far from it. The governments and policies these people support has done more to hurt families than perhaps any government before it. Save for the injustices done to the native Canadians and the internment of the Japanese families during the war.

These ‘not your father’s Conservatives’, are an unhealthy blend of blinkered, literalist religion and unshackled corporatism. In no way should they be confused with the likes of Bill Davis.

These anti choicers often claim they want a return to the 50’s and 60’s as if there was no sex then, no out of wedlock children, no rape, and that corporate profit was valued above all.

Being the product of a 1950’s out of wedlock sexual experience I can testify that even then teenages felt the urge to merge. The sad thing was that so many were forced into giving their babies away or giving them to family to raise. Which impacted not only thier lives but the lives of the children involved.

Rape was as common then as now, it was just blamed on the woman. Heh, I guess that hasn’t really changed much.

Corporations, however, did pull their own weight, paid their taxes like good citizens and in fact carried a much heavier tax load than did the average hard working Canadian, as is appropriate. Interestingly, they managed to do all that and still provide plentiful and usually decent paying jobs.

The upside of this besides the job availability was that schools, health care and other social programs were being properly funded and there was increasing recognition that taking care of “the least of these my brethren” was not only a proper Christian thing to do, but benefited society in general.

I remember schools being open during the summer months with arts & crafts, sports, movies, and other programs being run by university Recreation students. These provided stay at home moms with a break and kids with something to do. These programs were free of charge, drop-in and definitely “family friendly”. I very much doubt the so-called pro-family sorts would support their tax dollars going to it however. Other free programs that provided entertainment for children were swimming pools, ice rinks, and parks provided programs and places to play ball.

Health care funding came into being and was amply supported by the corporate tax base. Now that that base has been so throughly eroded health care appears to be an undue burden when in fact it is the change of tax base that is the unfair burden.

It had been recognized that providing at least a semi decent living for families out of work, single mothers and the children associated with these families was a good thing. Then the CONservatives came along and othered the poor. Now there are Canadian children going to school without boots or properly warm coats, going to bed without dinner and poverty related businesses like pawn shops, buy & sells and pay day loans are booming. Diseases like TB once thought to be under control are flourishing again as are other poverty related illnesses.

Anti-choicers in the U.S. and Canada are working ‘incrementally’ towards making abortion unconstitutional. Well lets look at that in practice.

Section 12 of the Philippine constitution reads;

The State recognizes the sanctity of family life and shall protect and strengthen the family as a basic autonomous social institution. It shall equally protect the life of the mother and the life of the unborn from conception. The natural and primary right and duty of parents in the rearing of the youth for civic efficiency and the development of moral character shall receive the support of the Government.

oooh a fetus fetishers wet dream come true.

Or maybe not so much. Let’s look at how this works in practice.

Official estimates put annual abortions at 400,000 to 500,000, and rising. The World Health Organization estimate puts the figure at nearly 800,000, one of the highest rates of unsafe abortions in Asia.

Seventy percent of unwanted pregnancies in the Philippines end in abortion said Jean-Marc Olivé, the country representative of the World Health Organization. One of four pregnancies in the Philippines end in abortion, according to Pro-Life Philippines, an anti-abortion group.

According to the Department of Health, nearly 100,000 women who have unsafe abortions every year end up in the hospital.

The Philippines, with its high population growth rate (2.6 percent) and low rate of contraceptive use (an estimated 35 percent) also has an increasing number of teenage pregnancies. As many as 17 percent of all unsafe abortions are done on teenage or young mothers, according to the Department of Health.

Use of contraceptives is actively discouraged

Women in the Philippines are trapped in an unbearable dilemma: the Catholic Church, whose influence over the country is strong, prohibits all forms of contraception, but extreme poverty prohibits large families. As a result, the Philippines has a very high abortion rate: 20-30 out of every 1,000 women of childbearing age have had an abortion, despite its illegal status. Filipino women, in an effort to keep their abortions secret, use crude methods, such as inserting sharp objects into the uterus or drinking toxic chemicals. The problem is so severe that illegal abortion is now the fourth leading cause of death among Filipino women.

Well now doesn’t that sound terrific? And I mean that as in the Latin terrificus : terr?re, to frighten + -ficus, -fic

Before you decide that bills like C-484, and campaigns like The Pill Kills, are of no consequence remember the stats above. Making abortion illegal, making contraceptives illegal does not stop the reality of the need for abortion. Indeed all it does is make criminals out of women exercising control over their bodies and of mothers trying to ensure there is enough for their already born children. From Reuters, ” Most women who have abortions in the Philippines are married, Roman Catholic and mothers already with at least three children. The majority terminate their pregnancy because they cannot afford another child.”

Those who truly believe in families, in values and indeed in a glorious being, will recognize the value in a political system which does not seek to make women’s reproductive capacities state infrastructure.