Froma Macleans interview:
M: Last year, you made some comments on abortion that attracted attention - namely that you would never have an abortion, “not in a million years," and that “nobody in their right mind is for abortions.” Is there a conflict between you and your party on this?
EM: The party has the same position. The party’s position is called "pro-life, pro-choice." What we’re saying as a party, and what I’m saying as an individual leader, is that any civilized society must provide safe legal access to any woman who needs or wants an abortion.
No, it is not pro-life to say that killing an unborn child is morally permissible option.
Where does she get off trying to mislead the public into thinking that she is somehow in the same league as real pro-lifers, i.e. people who favour the rights of unborn children. I've seen feminists trying to do this: appropriate the term "pro-life" based on their belief that abortion saves women's lives, or that "pro-life" is about "quality of life" (as if physical existence were not part of that!).
I find that spin somewhat deceptive.
But it’s not something someone is for, in the same way that no one is for chemotherapy. I think Bill Clinton probably said it best - we’d like a society where abortions are safe and legal and rare.
And this is why we pro-lifers have to emphasize the unborn rights aspect of it. As long as the debate is framed in terms of abortion, politicians will be able to circumvent the issue of the value of the unborn child.
I would never change a thing about the current abortion laws; we must have them.
And what laws would that be? I would like a journalist to put that question to her. Does she not know that there are currently no abortion laws in Canada?
All I was trying to say was that abortion is never viewed by anyone as a societal good. Access to legal and safe abortions, yes.
Abortion is a bad thing, but we should encourage access to them. Huh? That doesn't make sense.
But being in favour of having a legal right to a safe abortion doesn’t mean you are "pro-abortion." I gave a very long, nuanced answer to a group of Roman catholic nuns and it was distorted by people over e-mail and websites and that’s just the way it is to be a politician.
The nuns should have asked her about what she believes in regards to the unborn child.
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