CKNW Editorial
for July 13, 2000

In a few minutes, one of my producers, Shiral Tobin, a young woman, and I will talk about the abortion issue from two quite different perspectives. I should first of all tell you how this happened.

Yesterday morning my two producers and I talked about what we should do on the program about the stabbing of Dr Gary Ramelis, a well known abortionist. I didn't want to do anything, not because of my personal views on abortion but because I couldn't think of anything we could do that would be original. Over the past few years we have had as a policy that in covering a story we would, where at all possible, take a fresh approach or another angle rather than simply rehashing the story and opening the lines to a very predictable response. Quite as an aside to this discussion I commented that as one who tends to the pro-life side I resented it being made out by so called pro-choicers that I was somehow personally responsible for acts of violence. Shiral and I talked quite a bit about this after the show and both agreed that the issue of abortion, especially since the advent of Stockwell Day as a prominent national political figure, had to de debated in light of changed events. In saying this, we both agreed that it had to be debated on a basis a little more productive than we have heard in the past. There are new issues and the underlying question can't simply be divided into Pro-Life and Pro-Choice both of which terms are evocative rather than informative.

Secondly, herewith my feelings as a starting point for the discussion Shiral and I will have.

I believe that abortion is the taking of a human life and believe that there is no one of any repute in the scientific community who could disagree with that. It is, granted, a life that has not yet reached the point that it can live apart from its mother but in my view it is none the less human life for that.

Why do I disagree with the proposition that it is a matter of a woman's right to control her own body?

That's easy. For if you believe, as I do, that another human life starts at conception, then it is no longer just the woman's body we're talking about. And there is also the right of the father, a right that may well vary in accordance to the circumstances of the intercourse in question. To the argument that a foetus is dependant upon the mother I say simply that, again it is no less a human for that and that, further, it will continue to depend upon the mother for a long time thereafter. A child just born is just as dependent on its mother as it was a moment or two before it was born. The issue really boils down to this - does life begin at conception and do we respect all human life, with the same even degree of acceptance, or do we make exceptions with the foetus? I make no exceptions and, to be consistent oppose capital punishment and euthanasia.

On moral grounds, then, I oppose abortion.

Of equal importance, I think, is my companion view that I cannot and should not impose my views on others. But in saying that, I also aver most strongly that I am entitled to express my views without thereby being associated with people who argue with fists, knives and guns. I am entitled to argue this issue, as any other issue, without being made over, because of my views, into some sort of violent social pariah.

But I would not change the law relating to abortion. I would not criminalize it as it was in days gone by. As a religious and moral issue I stand against abortion - as a citizen I have no desire whatever to see the return of coat hangers in the alleys or butchers in underground abortion parlours. On this point I part company dramatically from the "Pro-Life movement.

Abortion is a moral, medical and social issue. With respect to the latter I look upon it as something to be avoided if possible. And the best way to avoid it is to put far more resources into the prevention of unwanted pregnancies. That is too long a subject to deal with here but let me just say how amazed I am that, speaking generally, the Pro-Life movement also contains most of the people who oppose contraception and most of those who oppose sex education for young people. So you can see, I hope, that I dissociate myself from both mainstreams of the debate. There is where I stand. In a few moments Shiral will tell us where she stands ... we'll talk about it a bit ... then open the lines for your contributions.