Saturday, January 25, 2014

Abortion legislation: understanding the real world

Jonathon Van Maren from the Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform interviews Senior Legal Counsel of Americans United for Life, Clarke Forsythe (author of “Politics for the Greatest Good: The Case for Prudence in the Public Square”; and “Abuse of Discretion: The Inside Story of Roe v Wade”) about the virtue of prudence and how it relates to legally limiting the harm of abortion.

Whenever I listen to, or read about, providing some legal limits for pre-born children in Canada, I feel sad. I know there are some pro-life people who don't believe that incremental/gestational limits are moral. I hope they will listen to Jonathon's interview with Clarke Forsythe.

I also imagine that this fact causes the pro-abortions to rub their hands together with glee. They hope that because there are those who would never support a partial ban on abortion, that Canada's any-time-any-reason-tax-payer-funded abortion regime, is safe from change.

As it is, we already have an uphill battle trying to change the status quo on abortion. This just makes the battle more difficult.

I can't imagine why any reasonable Canadian would oppose a ban on late-term abortions. But there are some. And they lie on both ends of the abortion debate.

1 comment:

  1. I had an email debate with someone from CLC about this. I know that they stand firmly against gestational limits on abortion because they say that this would not grant recognition to life at conception.
    I agree with you that, in Canada as it is, we need to make some gains in this area. Incremental changes in legislation are better than none. And like breaking down a wall, it is usually done brick by brick, not in one fell swoop.
    When I look at the US and see how many laws they have managed to legislate and then compare it to Canada where we have had not a single law put through to protect the unborn, I would hope that this is not because of the division within pro-life groups here. But I sense that there is a great disunity and refusal to work together in this country.

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