Choice — and power

The fight for abortion access passed another hurdle last month when a Nova
Scotia court struck down a provincial law designed to prevent the estab-
lishment of abortion clinics. Dr. Henry Morgentaler had been charged with
violating the law. With its demise, his Halifax clinic is now accepting patients.

But that step for choice has to be measured against the impact of Bill C-43.
The bill, which makes doctors and women liable to a two year prison term if
they do not meet its provisions, has already had devastating consequences.
Over 200 of the 800 physicians in the country who provided abortion services
have announced their intention to stop for fear of prosecution. Private clinics
are swamped. U.S. clinics along the border report an increase in Canadian
patients. Waiting periods for many hospitals have jumped from 10 days to three
weeks. In some provinces, women have no access to abortion services at all.

If and when Bill C-43 is proclaimed, there is a good chance it will not
withstand a court challenge. The old law was struck down three years ago when
the Supreme Court determined that the delays it caused endangered a women’s
right “to security of her person.” Similar evidence mounts against the impend-
ing legislation.

But it could take years before a new court challenge is mounted and if the
Tories stack the Supreme Court in the same way they distorted the Senate,
there are no guarantees of a positive outcome.

The Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs is preparing to
hold hearings on the bill. No one holds to any hope that the senators will dump
C-43, but insisting on a full hearing process is a means to stall its implemen-
tation — perhaps until the next election. But in the meantime women suffer.

Since the law passed the House of Commons in May, one woman has died
of a self-induced abortion and a teenager was injured in a backstreet procedure.
These events happened in southern Ontario, an area where access is supposed
to be easier.

The struggle for choice is so highly charged because choice represents
power. Reproductive control not only provides women with essential options,
it would signal a tremendous ideological breakthrough. Freed from ignorance,
fear, embarrassment and intimidation about their bodies, women would
become aware of their power.

So it’s not surprising that more money was spent to retool a frigate for the
Persian Gulf this summer, than has been spent in three years on contraceptive
research and family planning education.

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~

EDITOR
Sean Griffin

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~-a-y Letters

The following letter was sent to Exter-
nal Affairs Minister Joe Clarke Oct. 25,
with copies to the media.

End the Arms Race has been pleased
with the more moderate and diplomatic
approach you have been taking over the
past weeks in regard to the present Middle
East crisis.

Unfortunately, we are surprised and ap-
palled with the apparent change in Can-
adian policy with regard to this crisis. The
statements you made today are frightening
and frankly hostile to the prospects for a
peaceful resolution of the conflict which
would take the lives of many innocent
civilians as well as those of Canadian mili-

tary personnel now stationed in the Middle
East.

You are right when you suggest the
prospect of war is real but Canada should
do everything in its power to help the world
find a non-violent way to resolve this
crisis. Itis not acceptable for Canada to add
to the growing tensions in the Gulf as you
have done today with your remarks, just at

’ a time when there have been a number of

indications of a possibility of reaching a
negotiated settlement.

This government, which is so low in
public esteem, has no right to gamble with
the lives of Canadians. To speak of the lives
of individual men and women as if they

Correspondence from WWI sought

I am currently engaged in graduate re-
search into the literature of the Front, writ-

ten by Canadian, Australian and British ©

soldiers during World WarI. I am interested
in locating a number of personal letters
written by fighting men in the Great War to
civilians, in order to incorporate them into

my historio-literary project. If you have

any private correspondence related to this

study and would be willing to release it,

please send copies to H.M. Ward, Dept. of
English, Simon Fraser University.

H.M. Ward,

Burnaby

JOE CLARK . announces intention
Oct. 25 to use force in Gulf even
without UN sanction.

* were pawns in a political showdown is not

acceptable.

Canada is obliged to work under the
auspices of the United Nations. It is not, as
you have said, a matter of preference. To
not continue working within the UN to
solve this conflict peacefully will be
regarded by many as a disrespect for inter-
national norms.

It is time Canada to move forward in
this crisis by promoting and/or initiating
peaceful resolutions through the UN
Security Council.

In fact this crisis has provided a unique

|
Clark’s announcement on Gulf crisis ‘shocking’

opportunity to strengthen the peacekeep-
ing role of the UN because of the remark-
able unanimity which has thus far been
reached in dealing with this crisis. To sug-
gest the preferability of launching offen-
sive military activities without UN sanc-
tion will only serve to undermine UN
authority just as a time when it should be
strengthened.

War cannot be the only solution to this
problem. There is a diplomatic and com-
prehensive Middle East resolution to be
found. Canadians will not accept the loss
of lives in a war that need not take place.

Frank Kennedy, president
End the Arms Race

Low rent ‘pods?’

May I propose that the so-called
low rent micro-suites be called
“pods” in honour of David Podmore,
their chief proponent? |

P.W.Pratchett,
Vancouver

4 ¢ Pacific Tribune, November 5, 1990