What Should Government Policy Be on Maternal Health?

Here is a terrific, short piece from today's Ottawa Citizen by a 22 year old university student namedMarissa Poisson. It is entitled: "Ignatieff is out of step with us, there's no consensus for abortion."

"Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff's call for Prime Minister Stephen Harper to include abortions as part of his maternal health initiative prompted me to write my first letter to a politician.

As a 22-year-old Canadian woman, I felt I needed to inform Ignatieff that there is by no means a Canadian consensus in favour of abortion. I believe that it is scientifically indisputable that abortion is the act of terminating a human life.

We should all be committed to improving conditions for women in Canada and around the world so that no mother is ever in such a desperate situation that she feels forced to abort her child.

In the 1988, the very year I was born, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down our country's abortion law and Parliament has since failed to pass any bill at all on abortion.

Abortion on demand became legal and funded by taxpayer's dollars even up to the ninth month of pregnancy in Canada not because that is the will of all Canadians but rather because of political cowardice.

According to a new Angus Reid public opinion poll, only 20 per cent of Canadians are aware of the current status quo of abortion in Canada. When informed about existing regulations, only 30 per cent endorsed them. This hardly amounts to a consensus.

I can even offer further evidence that the pro-life position exists in our country. Last night, the Ottawa Students for Life hosted Andrea Mrozek, who spoke on the very topical subject of whether being pro-life is antithetical to being pro-woman.

Let's focus on saving the lives of women and children, not exporting abortion to other countries."

She is absolutely right about there being no consensus today on abortion. And her statement that: "We should all be committed to improving conditions for women in Canada and around the world so that no mother is ever in such a desperate situation that she feels forced to abort her child" is a concise summary of what government polity on maternal health should be. All those who are pro-life and pro-choice should be able to agree with this goal.

The problem is that pro-abortion fanatics control the levers of power in this country even though they are a tiny minority. Their pro-choice fellow travelers make it unsafe for any politician to challenge them, but maybe the tide is turning. There is no excuse for the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada to be out on the lunatic fringe on this issue.

HT - ProWomanProLife