You can read more about the bill here: http://www.arcc-cdac.ca/m312.html
and the bill's full text here: http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=543781
While it's clear that's such a bill has little chance of passing now, it is symptomatic of the gradual erosion of reproductive freedoms and women's rights in this nation state. Granting a legal status of "life" to a fetus would send us down the road taken by so many areas in the US where women are denied abortion, or charged with child abuse for such things as drug use while pregnant, the refusal of medical procedures (even if they are unnecessary), or the desire to birth at home.
Even if all of the scientific evidence in the world confirmed the life and personhood of a fetus, I don't ever believe it should trump the right of a pregnant person to do what they feel is right with their own body. I don't feel it should ever give the state the right to force parenthood on anyone, or to tell them how to "parent" a part of their own body. Who's the parent anyway? The state or the person carrying/caring for the fetus/child?
This bill happens to come about at a time where I am biking past the "40 Days For Life" protesters every day outside my local abortion clinic. This blog post is my plea to all y'all, my readers, to fight against this tide of anti-choice dogma. To do anything you can to render these extremist, disruptive, woman- and queer-hating tactics ineffective.
For some ideas, and for more information about the state of abortion politics around here, buy a copy of my zine!
Never Again: A treatise on dwindling abortion rights in Canada
You won't be disappointed! Plus, it's fun to get mail. Order copies here:
bendergear@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment