Scary anti-abortion protest on parliament hill

Huge anti-abortion rally hails Canada’s new foreign-aid stand - thestar.com

Heartened and emboldened by Canada’s new anti-abortion stand on foreign aid, thousands of pro-life campaigners flooded in unprecedented numbers to Parliament Hill on Thursday, daring to hope that Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government will take further steps against abortion at home as well as abroad.

The debate that Harper says he doesn’t want to reopen in Canada arrived literally on his doorstep on Thursday, with high spirits and demands for the Conservative government to do much more to discourage abortion in this country.


Around 15,000 pro-life campaigners, clearly buoyed by what they see as last month’s victory on the foreign-aid front, cheered loudly when numerous speakers talked about the next steps in what one called bringing a “culture of life” to Canada.

I just want to say that these people scare the shit out of me because they are asking for a great leap backwards in woman's rights. I can only hope there is a large backlash against these fools. As I've said in another thread, abortion happens no matter what. You can legalize it and make it safe, or you can add to the current death count of 70,000 women that die each year from unsafe unregulated abortions.

Every woman has a right to her own body, it is her own body first and foremost before anyone elses, including an unborn embryo/fetus/child.


*edit* Also, I hope someone looks into where the funding came from to bus those catholic students in. More reason to axe the catholic school system.... clearly pushing doctrine on innocent children with public dollars.

Originally Posted by B Roodnick

Question for you bio types. Does the fetus experience pain during the process of abortion?

Not until the 28th week because it hasn't developed the nerve pathways until then to feel anything. Source: http://discovermagazine.com/2005/dec/fetus-feel-pain

Originally Posted by B Roodnick

Please explain the legal and moral distinctions of abortion to me in this instance. Hypothetically......a doctor could open a women's womb...as in a cesarean section...look at the unborn child/fetus. If he reaches in a kills the child/fetus ....no crime has been committed. If on the other hand he lifts the child/fetus out of the womb and then kills it...this is regarded as murder. Does this make any sense?

It depends on how you define 'fetus' vs 'child'. When does a fetus become a child? I would argue that when the fetus is at a stage where it can exit the womb and sustain itself, then it has become a child. Most women have abortions ten weeks or earlier. Abortions after this point are usually done for medical reasons, such as if the fetus poses a risk to the host.

Please explain the legal and moral distinctions of abortion to me in this instance. Hypothetically......a doctor could open a women's womb...as in a cesarean section...look at the unborn child/fetus. If he reaches in a kills the child/fetus ....no crime has been committed. If on the other hand he lifts the child/fetus out of the womb and then kills it...this is regarded as murder. Does this make any sense?

Wrong.

If the woman has an abortion and the doctor destroys the fetus/parasite before it has reached the first trimester, then it is not illegal.

Abortion itself is within federal jurisdiction, but regulations on abortion are provincial.

Canada is not anti-abortion. We just don't have the MONEY to back every single risky expensive medical care procedure requested of foreign aid. If they asked for Canadian foreign aid funds to pay for chiropractic services or for dental work they'd probably see a similar *NO*.

Criminal Code of Canada on Abortion.

Abortion

Procuring miscarriage

287. (1) Every one who, with intent to procure the miscarriage of a female person, whether or not she is pregnant, uses any means for the purpose of carrying out his intention is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for life.

Woman procuring her own miscarriage

(2) Every female person who, being pregnant, with intent to procure her own miscarriage, uses any means or permits any means to be used for the purpose of carrying out her intention is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years.

Definition of “means”

(3) In this section, “means” includes

(a) the administration of a drug or other noxious thing;

(b) the use of an instrument; and

(c) manipulation of any kind.

Exceptions

(4) Subsections (1) and (2) do not apply to

(a) a qualified medical practitioner, other than a member of a therapeutic abortion committee for any hospital, who in good faith uses in an accredited or approved hospital any means for the purpose of carrying out his intention to procure the miscarriage of a female person, or

(b) a female person who, being pregnant, permits a qualified medical practitioner to use in an accredited or approved hospital any means for the purpose of carrying out her intention to procure her own miscarriage,

if, before the use of those means, the therapeutic abortion committee for that accredited or approved hospital, by a majority of the members of the committee and at a meeting of the committee at which the case of the female person has been reviewed,

(c) has by certificate in writing stated that in its opinion the continuation of the pregnancy of the female person would or would be likely to endanger her life or health, and

(d) has caused a copy of that certificate to be given to the qualified medical practitioner.

Information requirement

(5) The Minister of Health of a province may by order

(a) require a therapeutic abortion committee for any hospital in that province, or any member thereof, to furnish him with a copy of any certificate described in paragraph (4)(c) issued by that committee, together with such other information relating to the circumstances surrounding the issue of that certificate as he may require; or

(b) require a medical practitioner who, in that province, has procured the miscarriage of any female person named in a certificate described in paragraph (4)(c), to furnish him with a copy of that certificate, together with such other information relating to the procuring of the miscarriage as he may require.

What these anti-abortion tramps are doing will only result in greater pressure for the Canadian government to front money for foreign aid seeking support for abortions overseas.
Way to go morons.

So, sustainability is the main definition for 'life'? Does this include sustainability using medical intervention?

Who said life? Technically even trees are living...

The issue in question is: when do the rights of a developing baby trump those of an adult.

There has never been a good, realistic argument for enforcing bans on early abortions. If anyone has one, I'm all ears.