CANADA

By KERRY McCUAIG

Ontario’s attorney general Roy McMurtry may
have hoped his decision to appeal the Noy. 8 jury
acquittal of Dr. Henry Morgentaler would put the
abortion controversy on hold. But the wily
Quebec doctor was back at his Toronto clinic last
Week reporting appointments were booked solid
and he would be performing operations along with
his colleague, Dr. Robert Scott.

Elaborate security surrounds the premises fol-
lowing numerous threats and the daily picketing of
the anti-choice dozen exercising their legs and
lungs outside. A private firm has been hired to
Protect the clinic, its personnel and patients. Clinic
Volunteers provide personal escorts for women en-
tering and leaving the building.

From the sidelines the police watch, leaned up
against their cars, on occasion moving in to break
up the crowds when tensions get too thick. Across
the road; plain-clothes men conspicuously record
€very detail from cameras mounted atop a van.

Away from the clinic the abortion debate takes
On different forms. Ottawa and Queen’s Park
aren’t talking since ‘‘the case is in the courts’’. But
pulpits, newspaper letter columns, public meetings
and livingrooms are Jaunch pads for fiery rhetoric.
_ Despite Dr. Morgentaler’s impending trial dur-
Ing the federal election the abortion issue wasn’t as
high profile during the campaign as might have

€n expected. Both sides claimed victories as
pro-choice and anti-choice candidates were either
re-elected or defeated.

The reality however is no-single issue group
Could take responsibility for the election of can-

didates. When voters are out for “‘change’’ the’

Issues become obscure.
ill-will From Conservatives

However the composition of the House does not
bode well for those wanting more accessible abor-
tion. Pro-life endorsed more Conservative candi-
dates than from any other party, it also claims some
influential cabinet members as their own, including
Health Minister Jake Epp.

The Catholic Church takes some of the credit; it
Was vocal using both its press and hierarchy to
exhort its parishioners to vote for “‘pro-life’’ can-
didates. A loophole in the Canada Elections Act,
8ave Campaign Life, an anti-choice umbrella
group, registered as a political party, three minutes
of free air time on the two national TV networks,
€ven though it fielded no candidates.

The anti-choice movement was also given a
boost by the timely tour of Pope John Paul in
September who in his coast-to-coast pilgrimage
addressed homosexuality, celibacy, the ordination
of women, birth control and abortion. Calls for

“Married celibacy”’ as the only acceptable means
of birth control and the sacredness of life from the
moment of conception were urged on Roman
Catholics in particular and Canadians in general.

The Pope’s stature may have given the anti-
Choice side some points but the country’s 8-million
Catholics are hardly monolithic on the subject. In
Quebec, with a majority Catholic population, abor-
tion clinics operate openly and unimpeded. It wasa
8roup of Francophone women who called on other
Roman Catholic women to denounce the Church

Cause of its stand on women’s issues prior to the
Pope’s arrival. Over 2,400 women signed the peti-
tion and 1,140 withdrew from the church. Some

Ontrealers returned their baptismal certificates to
the head of the Archdiocese.

John Paul has the last word in such matters
Owever. Twenty-four U.S. nuns and two priests
who signed a statement sponsored by Catholics for
Choice were warned they face expulsion from their
Orders if they don’t withdraw their names. The
Statement published as an advertisement in the

ew York Times, said ‘‘a diversity of opinions
peatding abortion exists among committed Catho-
ICS;

Polls indicate that only 20 per cent of U.S.
Catholics agree with the official church version
that abortion is unacceptable under any circum-
Stances, but for nuns and priests to start admitting
It apparently-went too far.

In the abortion debate the odds aren’t evenly
Matched. A force backed by the organization,
financing and political clout of the Catholic Church
Versus women — for the most part an economically
depressed, divided grouping, lacking any real
lMpact on the legislatures or Commons. The labor

movement, the one organized force with the poten-
tial of countering the right offensive is saddled
either with ineffective leadership or a myriad .of
pressing economic issues on its plate which moves
the choice question down the line.

Where the silent majority consistently wins the
gallop polls, it is the anti-abortion lobby which can
plug up the phone lines and flood the post offices
with petitions and cards when called upon to act.

It is the latter group that governments feel com-
pelled to represent, either tenaciously hanging
onto the status quo or actively promoting their
aims. When it came to. prosecuting Dr. Morgen-
taler, it is worth noting that both a Conservative
government in Ontario and Manitoba’s New
Democrats, who are on record supporting freedom
of choice, acted in unison.

Hospital Board Fights

But it is the nature of the abortion laws which
often takes the fight to the town level where access
to abortion is decided. Section 251 of the Criminal
Code allows abortion in accredited hospitals after
approval by a committee. Hospitals are free to
decide whether or not to set up a committee and
each committee is at liberty to decide how stre-
nuously it will enforce the guidelines. Some big city
hospitals will rubber stamp every petition where in
Prince Edward Island the only hospital with a
committee, denied a cancer victim the operation.

Elections to hospital boards frequently become
battlegrounds over this single issue, conveniently
pushing other subjects such as government cut-
backs into oblivion. Still the anti-choice forces
have been successful in abolishing the committees
in several hospitals, leaving entire regions and sev-
eral northern areas without access.

The class nature of the law then becomes painful-
ly evident. Those with money can travel out of the
province for an abortion. Poor women remain bio-
logical and economic prisoners.

Fears are rising that the heat of the controversy
may not limit itself to a war of words and organiza-
tion. An arson attempt on Morgantaler’s offices
last summer left an adjacent bookstore gutted.
Anti-choice spokespersons have warned that if the
physician expands his operations into Manitoba he
can expect similar actions.

If recent events in the U.S. are any yardstick,
abortion clinic bombing could become a common-
place response. In the face of terrofist activities
right-wing authorities have adopted a self-imposed
impotency. :

No one has yet to be charged with the Toronto
arson and in the U.S. the Federal Bureau of
Investigation announced it did not consider abor-
tion clinic bombings to be terrorist activity and
would not become involvéd. Twenty-four clinics
were gutted last year, the latest on New Year’s
Day.

Credit for the most recent bombings were
claimed by the ‘‘Army of God’’, who first came on
the scene in 1982 by kidnapping an Illinois doctor
and his wife. Since then, the ‘‘Army’’ has taken
credit for other bombings, death threats and vio-
lence. The FBI maintains however that the group
only contains four people and is not part of a con-
spiracy. :

Equally incendiary is a book by Joseph Schei-
dler, ‘‘Closed: Ninty-nine Ways to Shut Down the
Abortion Industry’’, promoting the harassment of
clinic doctors, personnel and patients.

Attack on Workers’ Rights

The abortion controversy goes far deeper than a
religious minority trying to enforce its position on
others. The state is using fundamentalist views as a
tool in its attack on women. In order to enact its
monetarist policies of cutbacks and restraint it
does its best to undermine worker unity, to inflame
prejudices, to pit men against women, white against
minorities, older workers against young workers.

The success of the women’s and labor move-
ments over the past years has been to make popu-
lar the powerful idea that women should have equal
rights. At the same time a counter-offensive has
been launched aimed at convincing working people
that a woman’s place is in the home. It is used to
justify lower wages, job ghettos and unemploy-
ment for women.

Abortion is therefore a target as working people
recognize that a woman’s ability to play a role in
society and the workplace is inseparably linked to
her right to choose when and if to bear children:

U.S. police shift through the wreckage of a Florida clinic destroyed by a

bomb blast on Christmas Day. Twenty-four abortion clinics have been
destroyed by terrorist attacks in the past year.

Epp allows provinces
to ignore Health Act

OTTAWA — Guy Adam,
chairperson of the Canadian
Health Coalition has expressed
concern with federal Health Min-
ister Jake Epp’s comments about
a secret September 17 meeting he
had .with provincial health
ministers.

‘Mr. Epp-has agreed with pro-
vincial health ministers that the
federal government will adopt a
non-interference policy with re-
ference to Canada’s medicare
system. It appears that Mr. Epp
has forgotten that the Canada
Health Act outlines the program
criteria the provinces must follow
if they are to receive federal fund-
ing for their medicare programs.
Does this mean that the federal
government will not interfere if
some provinces decide not to fol-
low the program criteria of non-
profit administration, univer-
sality, accessibility, comprehen-
siveness and portability?”’

“The Canadian Health Coali-
tion is gravely concerned about

‘the federal government’s non-
interference policy. We intend to-

monitor any provincial infraction
of the program criteria as outlined
in the Canada Health Act. If the
federal government chooses to
ignore these program criteria they
are in effect jeoparidizing the fu-
ture of medicare as a universal
social program. This non-inter-
ference policy demonstrates that
in reality the federal government
does not support medicare as a
sacred trust.”

‘‘Maintaining the universality
of medicare will only be possible
if the federal government in
consultation with public interest
groups such as the Canadian
Health Coalition, closely
monitors the action of provincial
governments to ensure that they
follow the program criteria for
medicare.”’

The Canadian Health Coalition
consists of 44 national organiza-
tions, including labor and rep-
resentatives of health, education,
co-op, church, social develop-
ment, consumer, senior, native
women, agricultural and envi-
ronment groups, as well as nine
provincial coalitions.

Canadians across the country
are now going to be paying a lot
more for gasoline, diesel fuel and
home heating oil following price
increases announced by all the
leading oil companies last week.

Imperial Oil led the field. In
Ontario, retail gas pump prices
jumped by a whopping 25 per cent
from approximately 41 cents a
litre in some places to 50.8 cents
and more for leaded gasoline.

Home heating oil also goes up,
from 36.9 cents to 38.1 cents a
litre in the Toronto area — a 1.5
cent increase — and from 37.4
cents to 38.9 cents in Ottawa.

Among the companies an-
nouncing the price increases were

Imperial, Gulf, Texaco and
PetroCanada.

New Democratic Party energy
critic Ian Wadell told Canadian
Press that he found it ‘‘passing
strange’ that so many oil com-
panies planned to raise their
prices on the same day, and called
on federal anti-combines officers
to investigate whether there was
collusion in the increases.

The oil ‘companies’ mouths
match their hefty increases.
Without any qualms, Imperial Oil
spokesman Ron Haynes said that
gasoline is still cheap despite the
rise, and “‘at 50.8 cents, it is stilla
bargain for Ontario motorists’.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, JANUARY 16, 1985 e 7