Random Acts of Observation

David Gunn, March 10, 1993, Pensakola Florida
George Patterson, August 21, 1993, Mobile, Alabama
John Britton, June 29, 1994, Pensacola, Florida
James Barrett, June 29, 1994, Pensacola, Florida
Shannon Lowney, December 30, 1994, Brookline, Massachusetts
Lee Ann Nichols, December 30, 1994, Brookline, Massachusetts
Robert Sanderson, January 29, 1998, Birmingham, Alabama
Barnett Slepian, October 23, 1998, Amherst, New York
Steven Rogers, July 16, 2001, Melbourne, Australia
George Tiller, May 31, 2009, Witchita, Kansas

These women and men were murdered by anti-abortion terrorists because they offered, supported and defended reproductive choice. In addition, there have been over a dozen attempted murders, hundreds of assaults and hundreds of arsons, bombings and major acts of vandalism, primarily in the U.S., but also in Canada and Australia. In the face of these acts of terror, the people who continue to provide abortion services, and those who protect them, their clients, and their offices and clinics are nothing short of heroes.

Lest the sacrifice of those who have died and the courage and dedication of those who continue to face the threat of violence in order to provide this necessary medical service be in vain…

Support reproductive choice.
The decision to have an abortion is a personal decision between client and doctor.
The state has no place in the uteri of the nation.

It's been announced that Dr. Henry Morgentaler is to receive the Order of Canada, our highest civilian honour, in recognition of his "commitment to increased health care options for women, his determined efforts to influence Canadian public policy and his leadership in humanist and civil liberties organizations."

Henry Morgentaler is one of my heroes. Without his courage and commitment and steadfastness and leadership, the struggle for a woman's right to control her own body would not be as far along as it is today in Canada. At the risk of his livelihood, his freedom, his health and his life, Dr. Morgentaler fought for women's right to choose, and he made it his life's calling to provide safe abortions to women who wanted them, even when to do so was illegal in Canada. And he's continued to speak out for the need for access to abortion for all women.

Congratulations to Dr. Morgentaler for the recognition he so richly deserves.

Naturally, the usual suspects are horrified. Our weasel right-wing government is desperately trying to distance itself from the award, reminding everyone that it had nothing to do with the decision, that the honour list is decided by an independent advisory council, chaired by the Chief Justice of Canada. As if anyone thought for a minute that our weasel overlords would do anything truly honourable, or recognise a real hero when they see one.

And of course the Catholic church has said that it's truly shocking that such immorality should be honoured. As if the Catholic Church actually knew anything about what is and is not immoral, as opposed to what they think their version of a deity gets all worked up about - such as responsible people choosing to use condoms to avoid exposing themselves or their sexual partners to sexually transmitted diseases, which is apparently the height of immoral behaviour.

But enough about clone minds who are more concerned about foetuses than the actual women who, thanks in great part to Dr. Morgentaler and all of the other Canadians who worked for the right to safe and legal abortion, have the absolute right to choose whether they will bear a child or not.

Thank you, Dr. Morgentaler, for your courage and your humanity. May you wear your Order of Canada with pride.

I support reproductive choice.

I support those who choose to bear a child, without reservation, no matter what their social or economic situation may be, no matter what medical issues may exist for the one who carries or the one who is being born.

I support those who choose not to bear a child, without reservation.

In order to make these choices freely possible for all, I support a full system of social and financial supports for those who choose to bear a child, and for children that have been born, so that no pregnant person need go without food, shelter or medical case, and that no child need live without food, shelter, medical care and education. I support universal daycare so that no caregivers of children need choose between work and knowing that their children are safe and cared for at all times. I support complete and intelligent sex education for all young people so they can make decisions for themselves in full knowledge of the meanings and potential consequences of their actions and in full knowledge of how to protect themselves from risk. I support universal access to contraception, abortion and sterilization products, services and technologies, and increased research into new methods that will continue to make these safer and more accessible. I support full access and increased research into medical services that provide persons who wish to bear a child but cannot do so easily or without intervention with the assistance they need to have their chance to bear a child. And I support strict legal guidelines that make it certain that no person will ever be forced, coerced or pressured into any of these reproductive choices.

I support these things because it is the right of every human being to control their own body, and because it is also the right of every human being to be respected and given access to the necessities of life, and the responsibility of society - which is all of us - to ensure that those rights are in fact respected for all.

I have never had any personal ethical struggles with abortion, as many have, at least in part because my belief system is not a Judeo-Christian one. I don't believe, and never have believed, that conception had anything to do with a providential deity or with granting or denying a spirit's one and only chance to be born into flesh. I believe in the immortality of spirit, both before and after birth and death. I believe that the decision of whether to bear a child is a conversation between the one who bears and the one who would be born, and that it is always possible for the one who bears to say "Not now - come again later if you so deeply want to live a life as my child, or go with my goodwill to choose another parent in another place and time," or "No, I choose not to bear a child in this life. May you find the environment you seek elsewhere."

I have had an abortion. I have never born living children, though I have had several pregnancies that ended in miscarriage. I have no regrets, and I would not change my decision were I to be in that time and place again, knowing all that I know now. I have assisted another woman to conceive outside of heterosexual intercourse and joyfully call both her and the child she bore part of my chosen family. I have fostered a young girl without anyone to parent her, and helped her to find her own path in the world. I have had the great gift of being able to make my own reproductive choices in this life, and I am at peace with them.

I long for the day when every person can say the same.

From rocketdreams via feminist:


The University of Western Ontario has decided to give Dr. Henry Morgentaler an honorary Doctor of Laws degree on June 16. Unfortunately, the university has been getting a large amount of anti-choice mail protesting this decision and slandering Dr. Morgentaler. In contrast, there has been next to no pro-choice mail in support, so far. Dr. Morgentaler is a hero to Canadian women for securing the right to choose abortion in 1988, in the Supreme Court Morgentaler decision that threw out Canada's abortion law.

( info on sending emails of support )


For those who aren't familiar with Dr. Morgentaler, he is probably the single person most responsible for the legalisation of abortion in Canada. Back when abortion was still illegal, he chose to perform abortions for women who needed tham, rather than send them to back-street butchers. he opened up freestanding clinics, first in Quebec, and then in other provinces, in defiance of the law, and through his court battles succeeded in proving that Canadians did not believe that providing a necessary medical service to women and respecting their rights to reproductive freedom should be against the law. He was charged numerous times, but never convicted by a jury - although the government of Quebec did appeal one early aquittal verdict which resulted in his being sentenced by a judge and spending time in prison, during which he suffered serious health problems. But that didn't stop him.

He's one of my heroes. Read more here.

Please pass this on to any Canadians you may know.