If you've memorized your civil rights don't forget one

Yesterday was a lovely day in Fredericton.  The air clean and crisp, the birds singing, the anti-choice women-haters demonstrators swarming in buzzing streams, their pitchforks and torches glittering charmingly in the afternoon sun.

I liked the six-year old holding the "abortion stops a beating heart" sign best.  Slaves of oppression are always so cute at that age, what with their little pigtails and Sunday dresses and their enthusiastic pumping of their tiny pink-edged placards.  It's good to see the anti-choicers indoctrinating their young to truly appreciate that their right-to-life is dependent on being Mommy and Daddy's sweet little heartstring-tugging pawn. 

Such a nice way to spend a Sunday.  It made me feel positively saintly to go off afterward and celebrate my baby-killing heathenish ways by purchasing a pair of low-rise jeans that barely cover my pubic bones.  As I figure it, I need to start planning my wardrobe now for any unplanned pregancies that might arise in my future.  All pant choices hereafter need to remain unaffected by my rising bulge, which should artfully amass itself over any sufficiently low waistband.  After all, if enough coerced six-year-olds have their say, I might not be able to gad about at CFB Gagetown on Friday nights with impunity anymore, thoughtlessly filling myself with semen and soldiers in what can only be described as a "come one, come all" affair.  My post-market Saturday sojourn into the Morgentaler clinic for a little D n' C with my latte would go by the wayside, and I'd have to find someplace else to spend my hard-earned $500 that I've been monthly earmarking for baby-killing.

Because, you see, that's what an abortion in New Brunswick costs, even though abortion is considered basic health care under the Canada Health Act.  The provincial government refuses to adhere to the policies of the CHA, choosing to fully fund abortions only if they are performed in a hospital and found by two doctors to be "medically necessary."  For the record, there are only two hospitals in the entire province of 750,000 people that perform abortions. 

And here's what that means:   
         
New Brunswick's Medical Services Payment Act, Regulation 84-20, Schedule 2(a.1)) states that abortion is only eligible for payment by Medicare when:

"…performed by a specialist in the field of obstetrics and gynaecology in a hospital facility approved by the jurisdiction in which the hospital facility is located, and two medical practitioners certify in writing that the abortion was medically required."        

This regulation violates women's constitutional rights, as well as all five principles of the Canada Health Act (comprehensiveness, universality, accessibility, portability, and public administration)

• It forces women to pay out-of-pocket for abortions at the Morgentaler Clinic, while funding them at hospitals. But Health Canada says that medically required treatments must be fully funded regardless of where they are performed, hospitals or clinics.

• It forces women to obtain approval from two doctors before they can get a funded abortion at a hospital. This violates women's constitutional rights to freedom of conscience, liberty, and bodily security. The Supreme Court of Canada said (in the 1988 Morgentaler decision that threw out Canada's abortion law) that abortion is a woman's private decision that the state is required to respect, not approve.
               
• It forces the two doctors to certify in writing that the abortion is "medically required." This is redundant because the province has already deemed abortion to be medically required by funding some of them at hospitals. By definition, all abortions are medically required and must be funded, just like all childbirths are medically required and funded - regardless of the woman's reasons for wanting an abortion or a baby.
               
• It requires abortions to be performed by a specialist in Obstetrics/Gynecology. This limits access unnecessarily, because abortions can easily be done by family physicians, who are far more numerous than Ob/Gyns.                
               
• It violates the rights of New Brunswick women who need an abortion while outside the province. All Canadian citizens are covered by Medicare when they move or travel to another province. However, New Brunswick has used its abortion regulation to justify keeping   abortion on the list of services excluded from its reciprocal billing agreement with other provinces.

Also, hospitals in New Brunswick perform abortions only up to 12 weeks gestation. This arbitrary policy exists even though the province forces women to wade through red tape that often delays the procedure past 12 weeks.

Hence the Morgentaler clinic, which performs abortions at cost that women must pay for themselves, to compensate for the basic health care that New Brunswick does not provide.  Morgentaler is currently suing the N.B. government for failing to provide this essential part of women's health care, which is apprently of insufficient importance to draw the attention of health minister Elvy Robichaud.  When the federal government pointed out that N.B.'s refusal to offer abortion services is a failure uphold the Canada Health Act, Robichaud's official position was that "jurisdictions can decide which procedures to fund in their jurisdiction. If he was to proceed with the dispute resolution we will be ready to defend our position."

Nice.

So it remains to be seen what exactly the anti-choice protesters were protesting yesterday, given that for all intents and purposes their viewpoint is illegally shared by the provincial minister of health.  Perhaps, then, what I saw was not a protest but a celebration, the little girl in pigtails demonstrating the way that the "right to life" movement is rendered ironic by a steadfast refusal to admit that baby-makers have lives too.

Regardless, it made me clamour for a copy of Consolidated's "Butyric Acid":

Anything to empower women, that's for damn sure
Know what it means when they're bombing all the clinics,
who's going to say get off the fence to the cynics
Harassing g.y.n. with a death threat,
say that you're doing god's work, well, yeah but
Respect women and give her some room,
believe in her rights, stay out of her womb
If you want to see women stop termination,
give her a future and a real education
Do you think women want to kill their own babies?
If you've got your own twisted baggage, then maybe

If you don't want a Nazi in your house, don't let one,
(you) Don't know a fundamentalist 'til you've met one
If you've memorized your civil rights, don't forget one,
If you don't want an abortion, don't get one

Rest of the song lyrics (plus more pro-choice tracks, and an interesting debate) here.

Comments

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Reminds me of listening to christian radio while driving, and the scaborous old male host talking about the "preycious blonde lil'angel" the'd had on the show that afternoon, and how good it was she hadn't been aborted...and then the kids mother agreed with him, and got this little 6year old to sing "This little light of mine"

And i realized these people are really, really messed up. Like, conception = Jon Bennet Ramesey in utero, on contact.

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