Both sides of abortion debate deserve protection
By Letter to the Editor on May 3, 2018.
I agree it is truly up to the government and within the law to ban “pro-life” protesters away from abortion clinics, especially as it is a legal procedure. But the NDP’s proposed bill has a flaw.
“Pro-choice” protesters can be quite violent at times towards “pro-life” opponents, causing them serious injuries, and in some cases deaths. That being said, I admit that the reverse is also true. The proposed law should be amended to ban both sets of protesters on both sides of the debate from blocking access to clinics or yelling at patients. It is my contention that this proposed law clearly favours the “pro-choice” stance.
To be absolutely fair, and to give the same protections to all sides in the abortion debate, the legislation should also protect the “pro-life” argument which people have a right to make. In Canada, it’s their right to get their points and views against abortion across, just as it is the right of those who support abortion to do so.
If the government doesn’t believe this, then I guess we have a totalitarian state — one where only the “left-wing” viewpoint on abortion is tolerated. I am not a medical expert and so would be rather uncomfortable in deciding whether to take a stance in favour or against abortion. Both have arguments in favour that are strong and both have arguments in favour that are weak. So I leave that debate to those folks with expertise.
What I would like to see is a law crafted that respects both the legal procedure of abortion and also allows for equal protests for and against the argument. Say at a point across from an abortion clinic, or at neighbouring venue such as a park or a community hall. Each side would be then given half the floor space for its supporters to hand out leaflets, with a neutral space in between where both they and the media and other interested parties can interact without fear of being verbally and/or physically assaulted. Say one representative from either party.
In this way, no clinics would be attacked, and perhaps a healthy dialogue can occur.
Rory Koopmans
Edmonton
It’s amazing how these people will use anything they can to attack the NDP government that the true conservatives elected, to put a stop to the mess we were being forced into.
Rory’s lame reasoning is a great example. I think that he will find we have all sorts of laws already in place to protect them against violence and the NDP proposal does not have a flaw, as he tries to point out.
Another great example of their blind stupidity is my latest power and gas bills. While they believe every lie Jason Kenney feeds them about how the Carbon Tax is going to financially destroy them my latest bills shows the Carbon Tax at $10.08 while my wife had $112. put in her bank account recently in the form of a Carbon Tax Rebate, yet the fees that have been added to our bills , thanks, to Ralph Klein’s deregulation, totaled $130.28 and we have been paying these fees for about 17 years, yet you don’t hear them whining about that , do you?
You certainly have to question their intelligence, don’t you?