Can We Talk about the Gosnell Case? Apparently Not

Yet another demonstration of why there is no common ground between pro- and anti-choice.

When Kermit Gosnell was convicted Tuesday in the deaths of three babies, it might have been a moment for anti-abortion and abortion rights groups to come together over something they both opposed: a doctor providing bad medical care to women.

Instead, it was another moment of dissension. Anti-abortion groups warned that Gosnell was just one example of many doctors who carry out troubling late-term abortions across the country, while abortion rights groups said women went to Gosnell's "house of horrors" Philadelphia clinic because they didn't know what other options were available.

"I would hope that we could both rally behind the prosecution of someone who was providing subpar medical care to women," says Leah Chamberlain, administrator of the Philadelphia Women's Center, one of the first abortion clinics in the city. "[But] this situation seems to be drawing clear divisions between the two camps and there's a lot of yelling at each other rather than listening."

Yeah, you'd think we could agree at least on that.

But no.

There is common ground, but it is occupied by pro-choicers. We already support all the family friendly, abortion-reducing things: affordable birth control, adoption, child care, comprehensive sex ed, financial and other support for pregnant women and families, and good health care for all.

There is no talking to, let alone compromising with fanatical fetus fetishists, and, thankfully at least in Canada, no earthly reason to.

Anti-Choice 'Sophisticated'? ROTFLMAO!

I realize that books have to be flogged, but lately these people, Paul Saurette and Kelly Gordon, have been all over Canadian media with a 'new' take on fetus fetishist strategy.

Actually, it ain't new at all, but hey, those women's studies MAs (pdf) don't write themselves, you know.

The thesis is that the anti-choice movement in Canada is getting 'sophisticated', co-opting pro-choice language, framing abortion as 'harming women', moving the *undebate* into a discussion of free speech and democracy, claiming that it's a 'youth movement', and playing the 'silenced' victim card.

The anti-abortion movement in Canada, while increasingly enlivened and sophisticated, remains a small minority. Clearly phrased polls show that Canadians do not want the issue re-politicized. This is precisely why Harper promised not to do so. He knows that it is a toxic issue for his goal of mainstreaming conservatism. The anti-abortion movement has also understood that the old arguments and positioning have not worked. They are therefore increasingly seeking to frame the issue in ways that piggyback on values, issues and rhetorical strategies traditionally used by progressive movements (and which have greater traction and resonance in Canadian society).

Veteran fetus fetishist watchers (ahem) recognize all these tactics. They've been trying them forever.

The 'abortion harms women (AHW)' meme originated over a decade ago with the 'Moses' of the 'post-abortion movement', quack David Reardon. They try, amusingly, to back this up with sciencey stuff that we here at DJ! love to debunk. That abortion causes breast cancer, insanity, substance abuse, etc etc.

Warawa's Wank, aka #M408, is a variant on AHW with the new twist that abortion harms 'preborn' women.

Co-opting language, been there, done that.



Free speech, democracy, and human rights? Yep. Comparisons of abortion to slavery, genocide, and the Holocaust abound.

Youth movement? Sure, especially since they're now admitting that Catholic schools pay to bus kids to events like March for Lies.

Hilariously, they've been trying to 'hip'-ify their activities for years too.

Martyrdom has always been big with them, recently celebrated with
Jubilee medals courtesy of the Canadian government.

Silencing? Old hat.




In trying to work up a new take on a dying movement, these new kids on the block give the fetus fetishists waaaay too much credit. It's the sameold sameold, no matter how many books they have to sell hard they try to spin it.

Divide the Right: Fetal Gore Porn Gang Targets Harper

Woo-hoo!.

From the Fetal Gore Tour nutters:

Anti-Abortion Face-Off with Stephen Harper

Postcards with Aborted Fetus Images Alongside Harper Images Go to Constituents

Calgary, AB. Starting today, a group of anti-abortion activists will circulate postcards with images of Prime Minister Stephen Harper next to bloody, graphic pictures of late-term aborted children to homes in Harper’s constituency.  Harper is the first of five politicians the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform (CCBR) says it will make “Face the Children”—the name of its new project.  The group plans to distribute 250,000 postcards in the five ridings by summer’s end.

You can see the postcard at the link.

They are keeping mum on the other politicians they will target.

This is a beauty lose-lose for Herr Harper.

Keep It Simple: Commit Math

Now, this has gotta sting, coming as it does from former senior advisor to Heil Harper, Keith Beardsley.

Fiscal responsibility has been the hallmark of the Harper government from day one. It's therefore quite interesting to see in year seven of his reign that the opposition is focused on trying to destroy the credibility the Tories have on that front. It's a good strategy on their part, enabled by some help from the government side.

He cites Scott Brison's jibe about each Economic Action Scam ad on Hockey Night in Canada representing the cost of the federal contribution to 32 summer student jobs.

Beardsley notes:

Simple stuff, but it resonates with Canadian families struggling to get their kids through university.

Yes, that resonates with Canadians with kids, but how about something that will resonate with all of us?

I did some math. One ad spot costs $95,000. The average yearly Old Age Supplement is a paltry $6,180.

Ergo, one EAScam ad = 15.3 yearly pensions.

In our ongoing quest to Divide the Right, it's time to bang the fiscal wastebin a little harder.

The other day I blogged about just two items: the mystery billions spent on consultants and the Economic Action Scam ads.

On Twitter, I asked my good friend Connie what her members think of such waste and unaccountability.

She obliged and started a thread at the Freaks with a link to my blogpost.

Embarrassing - hardcore leftists calling CPC on fiscal waste

by Connie Fournier » 05/ 09/ 13 11:23 am

With the CPC Convention coming up really soon, it's a good time for us to take an honest look at how the majority CPC government has been performing so far.

When the far, far left is calling the government on fiscal waste, I think we need to, at least, check it out.

What do y'all think?

It didn't get much response. But hey, I'm trying and Connie is willing.

Harper is fucked on the so-con file and he knows it as Chantal Hébert points out.

And as a commenter there observes, the base is finally getting it too.

For all these years Harper's worked on the theory the "base" of his party isn't too bright, and it's taken the base this long to figure it out - which pretty much speaks for itself.

Scott Brison is a smart feller. So is Keith Beardsley. Let's help them out. Commit more math!

ADDED: Here's another unit of measurement: $3,000 a day for CON media monitoring. Two days = 1 average OAS pension.

March for Lies A Bust

I'm calling it. March for Lies was a huge bust. Look at all the weaselling.

LifeShite:

Up to 25,000 pro-lifers packed Parliament Hill today under threats of thunderstorms. The bad weather, however, held out, providing sunny conditions for the 16th National March for Life.

This year was another record-breaking year for the federal parliament's largest annual rally. Organizers estimated the crowd at likely near 25,000 given the evident substantial increase in numbers over last year, when the count was 19,500.

Because, you know, every year must be bigger than the year before. And 19,500 was a pretty large porky last year.

Other news outlets were a bit more cautious.

More than 10,000 people joined the 16th annual anti-abortion March for Life on Parliament Hill Thursday, with several Conservative MPs adding their support to the throng.  A small group of pro-choice advocates staged counter-demonstrations.

But the real knee to the nads comes from Stun News.

A count of the crowd by QMI Agency set the attendance of Thursday's rally at about 5,000.

The RCMP estimated a crowd of 12,000, while organizers said there were 15,000.

And now a note from the Martyrdom and Mail, aka Kicking Abortion's Ass:

Just heard from a friend of the family that the cops prohibited the last 2000 people on the Hill from marching. Probably couldn’t handle the numbers. Too many people. In the future, there will be so many people on the Hill, it will overflow to the Streets. There won’t be any room to march.

Buses carry, what, 50-60 people? So that's 35 to 40 buses diverted, cordoned off, or something by police?

Yeah, right.

And nothing says 'take us seriously' like a bunch of men in feathered hats.

ENOUGH KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS TO BESIEGE A SMALL CASTLE. #MFLtwitpic.com/cpf2uj

— InfoAlerteBot (@InfoAlerteBot) May 9, 2013

The last word goes to veteran March of the Feti watcher, David Akin.

I say again: March For Life easily the largest annual protest on the Hill - and all to absolutely no effect. #cdnpoli #mfl

— David Akin (@davidakin) May 9, 2013

The real tell is that they're not even protesting the numbers very hard this year.

They know it was a bust.

Hill Cam shot from 1:15 yesterday. That look like even 15,000 people to you?

Expanded, NOT Restricted, Abortion Options

Canada's lawless abortion regime rightfully stands as a beacon to progressive countries struggling to escape patriarchal attitudes to women's health and reproductive freedom.

But as we've noted recently (here and here), Australia has grabbed the patriarchal bull by the RU486 (aka 'home abortion pill') horns.

Pioneered by Dr Caroline de Costa, the medication is set to be added to Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory list, which would lower the cost from $300-400 to $36 for woman who can pay and $12 for women on benefits.

(For those interested, there is -- of course -- a political angle. When Tony Abbott, former seminarian nicknamed the Mad Monk, was Minister of Health in a previous government, he fought tooth and nail to keep RU486 out of the country. Now that he is Liberal leader of the opposition, feminists and pro-choicers are dredging up that unsavory past to paint him in a light unfriendly to women.)

Meanwhile, in Canada, RU486, or mifepristone, remains unapproved by Health Canada.

In fact, the most recent reference I can find to it in medical literature is a paper from 2005 by Jennifer LaLiberté.

Mifepristone has been around for more than 20 years. It is considered to be very safe and is the preferred method of medical abortion in many countries, most notably France.

Use of mifepristone (Mifeprex®) has been associated with fewer deaths than Tylenol or Viagra, and is safer than full term pregnancy.

Antis love to cite the rare instances of complications and really really love to cite the ickyness of the process. In fact, some like Big Nursie Stanek, absolutely revel in descriptions of cramps, bleeding, and pain.

But, frankly, only people who believe women's reproductive organs mirror Barbie's smooth plastic parts, think that being female is all sugar and spice.

Who among us hasn't has a narsty bloody crampy period and wondered just what was happening? Is this a miscarriage, we wonder? We don't know, do we? We just deal with it.

Today, on March of the Feti Day, as hundreds (of bussed-in Catholic schoolchildren) gather on Parliament Hill to shriek abuse and hatred at women, it seems appropriate to ask: just what the hell is going on with RU486 in Canada?

It has many benefits: safety, lower complication rates than other medical abortions, privacy, and -- in particular -- cost. In a universal healthcare system, it is the duty of policy makers to satisfy patients while minimizing cost.

A recent news story about Health Canada may shed some light on our federal health regulatory body.

In mid-April this year, there was a badly bungled recall of birth control pills.

Apotex, the maker, discovered that some lots of pills contained not one week of sugar-pills (included to insure that women take a pill every day) but TWO weeks, significantly raising the chances of unintended pregnancy in women who thought they had that covered.

Apotex informed Health Canada of the problem last Thursday. However, Health Canada and Apotex failed to inform the general public of the problem until last Monday, nearly a week after the problem was first identified. A Health Canada spokeswoman explained that an urgent recall was not issued immediately because the problem with the pill was not considered life-or-death. Instead, the department and Apotex issued a “Class II” recall, reserved for products that may cause temporary health issues, or where the probability of a serious health impact is low.

In other words, risk of accidental pregnancy was not deemed serious enough to trigger an urgent product recall.

The department upgraded the recall on Monday to a Class I recall after realizing some women who shouldn’t become pregnant for medical reasons could be affected.

Health Canada spokeswoman Blossom Leung said in an e-mail the recall assessment takes health impacts into account, not “lifestyle impacts” such as unplanned pregnancy, which is why the urgent product recall was only issued Monday.

A department that considers an unplanned pregnancy a 'lifestyle impact' and not, for some women, a devastating health risk, is -- one might say -- a tad tone-deaf to the reproductive needs of Canadian women.

And we're not the only ones wondering what's up. Here, pharmacist and lawyer, John Griess, writing about OxyContin compares the US FDA's approach to Health Canada's. The FDA would not approve a generic form of OxyContin, considered to be hella more dangerous to addicts than the reformulated version, while Health Canada saw no problemo with it.

Health Canada’s focus on bioequivalence with no mention of its duty to “protect the public by minimizing risks” highlights the difference between the two organizations, and indicates why clinicians and Canadians should be concerned about what’s going on at Health Canada.

So, as fetus fetishists stomp their widdle feet on Parliament Hill today, we ask: What is Health Canada doing to provide Canadian women and families with the widest possible choice of legal, safe, preferred, and cost-effective medications to terminate pregnancy?

After all, isn't that the most rational (i.e. non-religious) argument fetus fetishists have? That they don't want to pay for 'lifestyle issues' of slutty women?

Seems Health Canada doesn't want to either, even at a greatly reduced cost to taxpayers.

We at DJ! suggest that women raise the issue with their doctors and OB/GYNs. Also, we should inform ourselves about the safety and efficacy of mifepristone. We will need to counter the lies of the antis if/when this issue ever comes up in Canada.

ADDED: Gail of ROAR in PEI has some trenchant thoughts.

ADDED: Jarrah of Gender Focus adds her thoughts. There is no reason this is not available to Canadian women.

ProWomanProForcedPregnancy Is a Total Stand-Alone (Astroturf) Organization

In a recent blogpost about March for Lies being such a good teachable moment for young women to learn slut-shaming and sanctimonious judgement, we mentioned that the original article by Amanda Watson seems to have struck a nerve with those professional female slut-shamers over at ProWomanProForcedPregnancy.

They responded with their lie protest that they are NOT affiliated with other organizations.

You be the judge. The principal is Andrea Mrozek. Here's her day job.

Andrea currently works at the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada as Manager of Research and Communications.

But PWPFP is not owned or affiliated with James Dobson's loathesome Focus on the Family, they say.

Seems opinions differ on that.

Focus on the Family Canada (French: Objectif Famille) is a Canadian affiliate of the American evangelical Christian organization Focus on the Family.
. . .

Focus on the Family Canada is operated and directed independently of Focus on the Family USA.[citation needed] However, some ties do exist between the two organizations. Between 2000 and 2003, the Canadian affiliate received $1.6 million in services from the larger American organization. Two members on the board of directors of Focus on the Family Canada, Tom Mason and Jim Daly, are also vice-presidents of Focus on the Family in the United States. Other than receiving financial support from Focus on the Family USA between 2000 and 2003, Focus on the Family Canada relies fully on donor support for its operations.
. . .
Focus on the Family Canada has also established the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada/Institut du Mariage et de la Famille Canada (IMFC).

It's all just a big coincidence that Mrozek moonlights as the principal of an astroturf anti-abortion website.

Make sense to you?

ADDED: In addition to Mrozek, at least four other of The Women make their livings at least in part from anti-choice activities/careers.

Faye Sonier

Faye joined The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada as Legal Counsel. She practices constitutional and human rights law, with a special focus on freedom of religion and sanctity of human life issues.

Deborah Mullan

In March she finally secured a very part-time job as the office manager for the Victoria Right to Life Society.

Natalie Hudson Sonnen

Natalie is now the executive director of LifeCanada, a national pro-life organization based out of Ottawa.

Véronique Bergeron

Currently employed as an assistant to a federal Member of Parliament, Véronique Bergeron is also teaches biomedical ethics to Masters students at St-Paul University in Ottawa.

That MP would be anti-choice Pierre Lemieux and St-Paul University is the pontifical arm of the University of Ottawa.

While bloggers at DAMMIT JANET! are not 'anonymous' as charged, but rather pseudonymous with long-established online personae, not a single one of us makes a nickel from our pro-choice writing and activism.

Your Assignment, Should You Choose to Accept

Loyal DAMMIT JANET! readers, I have an assignment for you today.

I want you to send these two links to your cranky Uncle Bob and your tax-hating Cousin Laura and ask them if they are OK with this spending by the CONtempt Party government.

Item 1: Secret spending on consultants.

A Star investigation has found 90 per cent of the $2.4 billion paid out in the past decade comes with no description of the work done — and more than a dozen departments refuse to provide details when pressed.

Item 2: Economic Action Scam.

Those TV ads are still airing more than six weeks after the budget was read in Parliament.

Liberal MP Scott Brison said his research shows each single ad spot on CBC's Hockey Night in Canada is costing taxpayers about $95,000.

That's enough to pay the federal contribution toward 32 summer student jobs for the season, said Brison.

According the government's annual advertising reports and recent cabinet approvals, the Conservatives have spent at least $113 million on EAP-specific ads since 2009.

And that's not even counting the $3.1 billion missing in anti-terror spending, the egregious costs of War of 1812 commemorations, F-35 and other military boondoggles. Et fucking cetera.

If your fiscally conservative relllies start blubbering about AdScam, show them this.

[Sheila Fraser] found that $100 million was paid to a variety of communications agencies in the form of fees and commissions and said the program was basically designed to generate commissions for these companies rather than to produce any benefit for Canadians.

So. A hundred million dollars in AdScam brought down a government. Wanton and secretive misuse of BILLIONS of our money creates nary a blip in the Canadian consciousness.

I don't understand. Do you?

Image sources.

Woody's New Wank

SHOCKING NEWS! Pro-choice group refuses to sign on to latest anti-abortion stalking horse gambit!

Woody's got a brand-new wank. And guess what? It's just like the old wank.

Woodworth said he reached out to Joyce Arthur, the executive director of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, for support on the motion. The group is a prominent national pro-choice organization.

Woodworth said he wrote to the group in January with the specific wording of the motion: “That the Parliament of Canada declare that the equal worth and dignity of everyone must be recognized by Canadian law based on their inherent nature as a human being.”

He said Arthur wrote back the next day, and that he then responded and then received no further response from ARCC.

Arthur said she and her group declined Woodworth’s request because they felt it would lead to giving rights to a fetus, which would have dangerous consequences for pregnant mothers.

“He doesn’t seem to recognize that at all,” said Arthur. “When I bring up women’s rights over and over again, he thinks it’s some sort of sideshow. He doesn’t really get the issue, so what’s the point of talking about it with him?”

Woodworth said in a media release that he has "regretfully concluded" the ARCC "simply refuses to affirm human equality."

"We think the ulterior motive is that he's trying to include fetuses in the definition of 'everyone,'" Arthur said.

Ayup. Seems so.

We don't need to woman the barricades just yet. After the trouncing #M312 took last fall, he may have difficulty finding another kamikazi MP to co-sponsor this latest piece of bullshit.

Also, he'll have to wait until the next federal election, by which time if the good people of Kitchener Centre come to their senses, Woody will be wanking all on his lonely.

If you've got ten minutes to waste, listen to this radio interview, in which Woody seems genuinely surprised that ARCC didn't leap at the chance to join in fucking over Canadian women.

Is he really that much of a moran? Who the hell did he think was behind the campaign to Crush Motion 312?

ADDED BONUS: Seems Woody has memory-holed his genius analogy about abortion and ballooning. Pity that. But I found a thorough and fun fisking of it that really captures the lunacy.