A headline in this week’s demonstrates how the worst possible things can have their origins in the best of intentions: Huge anti-abortion rally hails Canada’s new foreign-aid stand. Pro-Lifers gathered on Parliament Hill to show their appreciation for Harper’s decision to withhold foreign-aid support for abortions. And who wouldn’t be appreciative for someone taking steps to preserve the life of an unborn child? Really, when you think about it this way, it seems like the right thing to do.
Until of course, you find yourself destitute and pregnant. Caught in the light of such a predicament, all symbolism and sentiment withers away rather quickly.
But it is the mindset of the religious Pro-Lifer not to think that far ahead. I should know. I used to be one.
In my mid-teens, a member of an Evangelical youth group, and definitively NOT sexually active, my mantra on the issue of abortion was “you play, you pay”. In other words, if you commit the sin of sex, you have to deal with the possible consequences of a baby, whether you want it or not. This sentiment was directed at my very patient and sexually active friends, who would only shake their heads, and say, “when you get in a relationship, you’ll know.”
Of course I never considered what they were talking about because it wasn’t my position to consider anything. The dispute for me began and ended with the tenet “you play, you pay”. Period. End of story. There was no arguing against my good, moral, Christian position. Anything less than completely illegalizing abortion would result in the continual murder of babies, steady de-population, and the proliferation of foetus farms. As for the unlucky girl: just suck it up. Have the baby and give it up for adoption, how hard could it be? Of course your family would help and of course your boyfriend would stick around, right? And someone’s bound to adopt the little tike. Me? Are you kidding? I’m too young to have kids. Besides, compromising my position would make me less of a Christian, therefore lessening my chances at going up in the Rapture and getting front row seats to watch you sinful suckers fry.(Thinking about it, I am beginning to doubt that I was celibate by choice. I mean come on, what girl wouldn’t want to fuck a guy who does the equivalent of pointing at her body and saying: that isn’t yours. Form an orderly queue, ladies)
You may laugh, but much of my motivation behind the such a hard-line position was about being a good Christian. And that’s what I recognize in the faces of the Pro-Life demonstrators, a lot of people doing their best to follow their faith. (Looking at them I keep thinking of a possible new reality show, So You Think You’re a Christian) Awash in blessed sentiment, these rosary-adorned crowds don’t realize (or refuse to think) that they aren’t the only people who are thanking Harper for cutting abortion funding to countries where war-rape is common. Male soldiers love the idea. What’s the point of war-rape if you can’t saddle your enemies with unwanted babies? Also, his decision will no doubt be a boon to the proprietors of back alley abortion clinics, and to the orphanages who will receive a sharp spike in enrollment in the children of mothers who’ll make the fatal decision to patronize the substandard clinics.
But again, it’s not the role of the faithful to think about such unintended consequences, but simply to follow. When confronted, simply shout something about killing babies, and perhaps wave the results of recently published and swiftly refuted scientific studies about abortions causing breast cancer, or abortions being detrimental to maternal health (the whole Ireland thing – turns out, Irish women still have abortions, but “take the boat to England” to do so)
Please do not take my tone as diminutive towards the faithful. The religious Right in Canada are as politically organized and motivated as they are passionate. We could at least afford a chortle or two if we had some MP’s vocally taking a stand for women’s reproductive rights. But from I can glean from the news, there has been nothing but cowed silence. This has emboldened the Pro-Lifers enough that Pro-Life MP Paul Szabo publically stated, “we’re taking incremental steps, small steps. It’s just a question of knowing when it’s the right time.” This, on the idea of making changes to the abortion laws in Canada in a way that better suits good, moral, Christian values. In other words, if we let them have their way, we’ll soon have our own Canadian surge in the number of wealthy back-alley abortionists.
Given the silence from Pro-Choice MP’s, it looks as though we’ll have to make our own noise.
Joyce Arthur, of Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, has a list of ideas on her website on how to take a stand on the issue. Among them are contacting your local MP (harangue them if they are Pro-Life), volunteering at local events, and sending letters to your regional newspaper. If you want a template for a letter to your MP, you are welcome to use mine. There was a time when we could laugh-off the religious Right as an American phenomenon. Times have changed. They’re here and they have their own vision of Canada which they want realized, whether we like it or not.
As an aside, check out the article, The Only Moral Abortion is MY Abortion.