By Gudrun Schultz and Steve Jalsevac
CALGARY, Alberta, February 28, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – One of Calgary’s mainstream newspapers wants to see a limit on how far into pregnancies abortions may be done in Canada.
In an editorial published on Sunday, Feb. 26, the Calgary Herald said it’s time Canada follows the example of most western nations in imposing some legal restrictions on abortions. The article relates the various limits of 12 to 24 weeks gestation in place in European nations as examples to emulate.
“It is absurd that alone among its peers, Canadians cannot create a moderate, well-conceived law regulating when, and under what circumstances, a pregnancy can be terminated,” the editorial ran.
The Herald points out that 52 percent of all Canadians think there should be some laws restricting abortion access (14 percent don’t think abortion is acceptable at any time). Canada’s present policy of allowing abortions at any time during pregnancy, for any reason, represents the viewpoint of only one third of the country’s population.
The paper calls for some legal accountability on when, in a pregnancy, the decision to abort can be made.
“…It is a matter of asking for that choice to be made in a timely and responsible manner; and recognition that there is a date after which the state has a legitimate interest in the life of the fetus.”
The Herald points out that even those socially liberal countries such as Sweden and Norway limit abortions to 18 weeks gestation. In France, Germany and Belgium, abortions are illegal after 12 weeks. “These are not countries known for oppressing women,” says the Herald.
The Herald says the resurgence of the partial abortion debate in the U.S,. as a result of the Supreme Court’s decision to review the partial birth abortion ban, should prompt new discussions in Canada.
The partial birth abortion ban is the prohibition of a procedure rather than a gestational limit on abortion. Partial birth abortion is considered by many to be more of an infanticide procedure than an abortion. The campaign to ban it has been very successful in conveying the humanity of the unborn child. This isÂbecause of the obvious humanity of the partial birth victim who is brutally killed while partially in and mostly out of the birth canal during what would otherwise be a normal birth procedure of a viable or almost viable infant.
In the US, numerous successful restrictions on abortion have been implemented by state legislatures in recent years and have so far avoided the gestational approach.
US incremental measures have instead emphasized publicly supported restrictions such as informed consent with a mandatory waiting period, parental consent, penalties for adults who coerce minors to abort, removal of all taxpayer funding, strict regulation of abortion facilities, facilitating lawsuits and charges against abortionists, state support for organizations promoting alternatives to abortion and for organizations promoting abstinence, plus many other measures.
Read full Calgary Herald article here:
https://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/theeditorialpage/story.html?id=97f74d26-2315-4202-9a84-74e9f83ac89a&k=58674