You might read the title of the article and think: Canada is not pro-choice? That is obviously a mistake.Oh no-- it's not a mistake.
Most people in Canada think of themselves as pro-choice. I don't think that's a big secret. They don't want to "impose" their values and make abortion illegal. They think it's the decent thing to do, and nothing more.
However, for feminists, "pro-choice" means something more. Much more.
Witness the reaction to Elizabeth May. The leader of the Green Party staunchly defends legalized abortion. If elected, she wouldn't dream of introducing legislation to restrict abortion in Canada.
Sounds pro-choice, right?
The problem is that Elizabeth May believes that sometimes abortions are frivolous.
That makes her anti-choice.
I know, I know. There are lots of Canadians who think some abortions are frivolous. But if you condemn any decision to abort, no matter what the reason, then you are anti-choice. You are anti-choice because you are not trusting the woman to make her own choices, and women always make the right choices about killing their unborn children. It does not matter if the reason is completely irrational to you, it must be supported in the name of female autonomy, even if it means that you believe you are supporting the killing of a baby.
Now, using that standard, what percentage of Canadians are truly pro-choice?
A majority?
As it is, at least sixty to seventy per cent of Canadians favour some restriction on abortion. Those figures don't include people who may not favour restrictions, but still think abortion is wrong for someone else and won't personally sanction it.
So no, Canada is not truly pro-choice.
BUT--
People with a vested interest in legalized abortion like to say it is.
When it comes to moral issues, people don't like to be in a minority. Some people who unconsciously fear being singled out for their beliefs. They reason that if they side with the majority, there must be some substance to that opinion, especially when the minority is labelled extremist.
So they don't want to be in the anti-abortion minority.
But then, what I see more and more is that people don't want to be in the pro-abortion minority, either. They say things like "I'm pro-life: I'm against abortion, but I think it should be legal."
Canadians, then, are not pro-fetal rights-- but they're not pro-choice, either.
Most Canadians do not buy into the feminist ideology on abortion. Rather, they adopt what might be termed a liberal ideology on abortion: I live and let live, but I don't have to like it.
Clearly the latter stream is the dominant ideology in Canada. But both are categorized as "pro-choice".
Yet it is the feminists who are most vocal in their predictions of doom and gloom if Conservatives attain power. There are people who seriously believe that if Stephen Harper wins a majority government, he will ban abortion. Feminists are the ones who scream the loudest about this possibility. The liberal camp react emotionally at this predicted apocalypse and strategically vote for a Conservative loss, without realizing what a social conservative government could realistically do-- which would usually be measures they wouldn't necessarily be against.
Many in the liberal camp blissfully believe that they are included in the "progressive" side of the issue, when their lack of commitment to the feminist ideology puts them outside of orthodoxy. But when political necessity requires, the feminists are more than happy to include liberals among their numbers when it suits them.
People who support legal abortion but also favour some restrictions are considered fellow travellers insofar as they are politically useful.
When they are not politically useful, as in the case of Elizabeth May, they are scorned almost as much as if they were opposed to legal abortion.
If feminists don't think that Canada is truly pro-choice-- and pro-lifers agree-- I don't see why both camps shouldn't send that message to the Canadian public: Canada is not pro-choice.
Now if the mainstream media, and the bulk of the Canadian people could simply wake up to this fact, they would realize that abortion is not the dead issue that some make it out to be. However, the MSM, being happy with the state of affairs-- legal abortion and no shrill abortion debate-- have no interest in putting out that message. Plus most people in the MSM like the image of Canada as an urbane "progressive" country, and this would put a dent in their illusion.
Let's not wait for the mainstream media to do this job for us. That age of whining about the media is over. Just repeat over and over:
Canada is not pro-choice.
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