Morgentaler Memories

I hit the snooze button my mobile phone this morning three or four times and the snooze button on my radio two or three times before actually sitting up in bed to hear the incredibly disappointing news that there is a truck driving around this city with billboard sized images of aborted fetuses and the word "choice". Wanting the "re-ignite" the abortion debate in Canada, this American-connected organization, the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform, believes their truck will ensure women feel that abortion is "not an option." This is the same group that brought our University (and the University accepted) the Genocide Awareness Project. Forcing obscene and gruesome images on the public that spread a message of intolerance and, in the case of the GAP, compare women to mass murdering fascists, is hateful and cruel. It is such a base attempt by the anti-choicers to insult pro-choice groups (and women who have had abortions) force their ideas with this graphic nature of a pathos-only driven advertisement.

The question that Calgary needs to answer in response to this truck and the argument that abortion should be illegal, is how much do we value women and women's lives? How much do we value women's decision making abilities? How much do we value the best choice a woman makes in her moments of conflict? The message that a five-week gestation fetus has constitutional human rights takes away respect for women and the control women have over our bodies and our wombs. Comparing the abortion of a nickle-sized embryo to murder violates women's dignity. If society does not respect a woman's choice and does not provide her with a safe means to carry out that choice, then there are very grim consequences.

Let the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform know that their trucks are not welcome on these streets:

Canadian Centre
for Bio-Ethical Reform
Box 123
5 – 8720 Macleod Trail SE
Calgary, AB, T2H 0M4
403-CHOICE-1 (403-246-4231)
email@unmaskingchoice.ca