Now Paul Martin has challenged Stephen Harper over the issue of abortion and the Not Withstanding Clause, which has nothing to do with the real issues that surround abortion in Canada.
Canada's Martin says rival anti-abortion extremist
Stephen Harper’s Covert Support for Cheryl Gallant
Womens groups along with Dr. Morgentaler are demanding that the Conservative party speak up on their position about a womans right to choose. Considering that the majority of their party members are anti-choice. Do I need to point out that this conflicts with the very essence of Libertarianism, something many of the same Tories claim to be.
"Last call" to guarantee Canadian women's right to choose - ACPD wants specific commitments now from Stephen Harper
Mr. Harper characterizes a woman's right to choose as a polar extreme - Women demand clarity and assurances
Beware! Fundamentalist Conservatives at the Gates! Callwood, Egan, Mallick, Morgentaler and Walker warn against a Conservative majority
Morgentaler warns: 'Don't vote Conservative'
And again I would say they may worry about Harper's party being full of anti-abortion advocates but that is not the issue.
The Liberals have their fair share of anti-abortion advocates as well, many who will probably retain their seats in this election. Liberal and Conservative MPs join together to fight woman’s right to choose
The real issue is that abortion services are privatized in Canada. And there is a certain irony that the Supreme court ruling that created this situation, the one that Paul Martin is now defending, allowed by ommission, the private delivery of abortions, leaving the provinces off the hook for providing this essential medical procendure.
ABORTION IS PRIVATE HEALTH CARE IN CANADA.
Women in Canada have the right to choose to have an abortion what they do not have is the right to this medical service being provided for by the provinces or in public hospitals! So in effect it limits their rights, and their right to choose.
It has to do with the simple fact that in all the provinces in Canada abortion is a privatized medical procedure.
In Edmonton last year all abortion services were abdicated by Captial Health Authority to the Morgentaler clinic. Edmonton Privatizes Abortion Services
Private for profit health care delivery is what Dr. Morgentaler offers. So anyone who claims that there is no private health care in Canada is forgetting this one simple fact, abortion is privatized in Canada. He has in fact offered his clinics as an example of private health care delivering a service the public system can't or won't.
Where the state still offers it in hospitals it is a primitive D&C procedure that is invasive and harmful to women's health. It is barbaric compared to the vacuum procedure perfected by Dr. Morgentaler.
In provinces where no abortion services are offered by the State, women have to go out of province, shades of the Tory election platform, to get abortions but the province only pays a portion of the rate charged them.
The same now occurs in Alberta where medicare will only pay a portion of the fee of the total cost of the medical service provided by the Morgentaler clinic.
This is the real issue around abortion, not some phony debate Martin wants to raise. The real issue is that neither the Tories or the Liberals plan to end the privatized delivery of a healthcare service (abortion) for women in Canada.
Morgentaler asks all parties to support abortion rightsAnd women are the majority in Canada,so we could say that the majority of Canadians face discrimination in that a specific medical procedure they need is not available to them in the public health care system!Dr. Morgentaler, who started doing abortions in 1968, made his comments after testifying in a class-action lawsuit aimed at getting Quebec to reimburse women who have had abortions in private clinics or specialized women's centres.
He is part of court cases in Manitoba and New Brunswick that are trying to get compensation for women for abortions in private clinics.
He was particularly harsh in discussing New Brunswick Premier Bernard Lord's stand on the issue, calling his government "reactionary."
Earlier in the day, Dr. Morgentaler told Quebec Superior Court it would be "criminal" for the provincial government to not reimburse women who had abortions in private clinics.
The lawsuit argues the payments are guaranteed under the provincial health insurance law. Procedures done in hospitals are covered.
Nadia Genois of the Women's Health Centre of Montreal said later a victory in the case is vital.
"The cause is very just," she said. "It's important that all women can have access to abortions, free and legally and also with a quality of care."
Thats what should piss off women and progressives. That abortion is not free and accessible. The privatization of it allows it to be restricted to those who can pay.
That is the real debate we should have over abortion. Over to you Jack.
Also see: Right To Choose
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3 comments:
Eugene, I rarely visit as I rarely agree. I don't agree now, let me be clear. I believe in the right to choose, but I do not believe in the right for publicly-funded abortions unless finances are an issue. Period.
Abortion is ugly, no matter how you play it. I have a tough time, as a pro-choice advocate, buying into the healthcare card nonsense on this one.
Fire away.
Lung cancer is ugly but we pay for that, and we don't cast value judgements on why or how the person got it. Your arguement short as it is does not make any sense. By not publicly financing one form of medical procedure over another that is discrimination. To put a prove you are poor limitation on it is discriminatory. What you are saying is a woman has the right to choose but she must bear the burden of that choice, which of course is no choice, it is the very opposite of choice it is blaming the victim again. She got pregant her fault live with it.
I had at least expected a horray for privatized health care out of you. That would have been the libertarian response. Your response is the anti-choice response given by the right when they say they are pro-choice. There I have fired my blunderbuss.
You are correct about the waiting times, which is buried in my original article. It should have been four to six weeks not months. Opps. I was also using Alberta as an example since I have no direct knowledge of B.C. or Ontario. In Alberta the Morgentaler method is not used in hospitals.
The issue though is still why are there private abortion clinics in Canada? The Supreme court ruling allowed for privatization of healtcare through the back door. While the womens movement cheered the decision they did not then move on to demand fully paid coverage for abortions or that they be performed in hosptials. Rather Morgenatler gave them a privatized option. Ironic that.It let government funded public hospitals off the hook in Alberta at least.
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