Canadian Jewish Outlook, May, 1985

Herewith, the latest selection from dusted-off published poetry and short fiction, circa 1970s vintage and beyond....

The new right - and reproductive freedom

There has been much in the news of late on the growing militancy of the groups that call themselves 'pro-life'. The mood of these groups growing increasingly dark and they have begun to express their resentment, frustration and hostility with growing acts of intimidation and violence.

Throughout 1984 there have been many guerrilla attacks in the United States against both abortion clinics (which operate as free-standing clinics unconnected to any hospitals) and Planned Parenthood offices. the right-to-lifers identify Planned Parenthood with abortion clinics and their bitterness and hostility has spilled over toward the former organizations as well as the latter. Certainly those groups must take great heart from the fact that the current president of the United States has gone on public record repeatedly deploring what he considers to be the wanton and heartless murder of "children". Pro-life groups lobbied vehemently during the last two federal elections in the States and forced politicians to 'take sides' with disastrous personal results for some candidates.

For the first half of this decade there has been a worldwide swing in democratic countries toward the right. We saw this happen first in England when Margaret Thatcher became prime minister and soon after when Ronald Reagan took over the helm in the United States. It's been a little longer coming to Canada where the Liberal party here was more firmly and traditionally ensconced. One of the fall-outs of the change in political direction has been the growth of conservatism and the reflection of its (often retrogressive) values in every aspect of our lives.

There has been a strong lobby of groups in Canada claiming to represent the interests of the 'unborn'. Those whom they claim are unprotected by legislation. The lobby is well-financed and supported by the Roman Catholic hierarchies, many fundamentalist Protestant churches, as well as by some Jewish fundamentalist groups. Their incessant propaganda labels their opponents as Nazis, the cessation of pregnancy as murder, while the entire pro-choice movement is accused of perpetrating a 'holocaust'. These inflammatory descriptions have also been utilized by Ronald Reagan who has long aligned himself with these groups. That kind of rhetoric can only encourage the fanatics in believing that any actions on their part, however violent and/or illegal, are excused from censure in the cause of the Common Good.

In Canada, however, a strange thing was happening. Despite the frenzied activities of these groups, despite the garnering of what was claimed to be one million signatures (gathered in church halls and Catholic schools throughout the country), constant petitioning of Parliament and the introduction of private members' bills, nothing much appeared to be happening. Polls continued to indicate that the majority of those questioned still supported the concept of free choice. For their part, the pro-choice group was also lobbying, and knowledgeable spokespeople were acting and speaking on behalf of freedom of choice for women, dignity of childbirth when desired, and "every child a wanted child".

It was a political hot potato, an issue which refused to resolve itself since government would be damned whatever it might do. The government felt it could seek safety in defending the current legislation under which abortion remains legal when performed in a hospital with proper authorization. Pro-lifers continue to oppose all abortion, even where pregnancies have resulted from rape, incest, child abuse and other atrocities. They espouse the sacred right of the foetus to be born regardless of all other factors.

Thus it is that we are led to the present. We have seen abortion clinics and Planned Parenthood offices firebombed in the United States, and those guilty of these criminal acts testifying proudly that they "did it for Jesus". There have of course been outspoken churchmen and groups of Roman Catholic nuns who have issued public declarations of support for the pro-choice faction. These people risk much in their efforts to live up to their views of fairness in ethical and moral imperatives. Yet the ferocious war is still heating up; in major Canadian cities Roman Catholic and fundamentalist churchmen unceasingly thunder at their congregants to inflame them into action against the "unspeakable evil" of abortion. We now have women approaching clinics for abortions being verbally and physically coerced and abused by fanatic pro-lifers.

In Canada, Dr. Henry Morgentaler was acquitted by a jury of Quebec citizens not once, but three times, yet the acquittal was overturned at the province's intervention and he was incarcerated, his practise and his personal life left in ruins. When this travesty of justice was finally rectified, Dr. Morgentaler expressed his determination to continue the fight for the interests of Canadian women, especially the poor, the uneducated, the desperate who are most often the victims of an unjust society. And it is an unjust decision for government to intervene and issue guidelines for public morality in the decision of a woman to determine whether or not her pregnancy should be continued.

There has been a strong lobby of groups in Canada claiming to represent the interests of the 'unborn', those whom they claim are unprotected by legislation. Bear in mind that the growing conservative right-wing tide also bears heavily in favour of capital punishment. Their insistence on the continuance of an unwanted pregnancy appears to be punishment-oriented. These people appear to be far less concerned with the plight of the mother bearing her unwanted child and her capability of nurturing that child, than with their rabid determination to prevent abortion. A child with a congenital abnormality whom right-to-lifers insist should have the right to life faces an uncertain and hapless future. Most of the children seen in daily newspapers (for adoption) are children who fall into this category - what of their right to be loved, protected and supported throughout life? What of the countless unwanted children normal in every physical aspect who have been abused by parents who did not want them?

We have seen Dr. Morgentaler attacked physically, vilified in public and in print, and one of his clinics torched. Yet another jury, this time of English-speaking Ontarians, has acquitted him of the charge of "conspiracy to procure an abortion". What an absurd situation! But the increasingly militant right-to-life groups inform us that they will not rest until 'the murders' stop.

We have some churchmen exhorting their flocks to go out and protest by whatever means possible against the "slaughter of the unborn". Would that they had done likewise to protest the slaughter of innocent children, women and men during the recent wars, when living, breathing, fully-functional human beings were being annihilated.

The world is quickly becoming over-populated. Our primary concern on a global scale is to be able to feed and clothe, and give shelter to burgeoning mankind. Disastrous famines wreak havoc on populations whose countries are unable to provide the basic necessities to sustain life. North Americans, long aware of the population explosion and ebbing resources have realized the necessity of birth control. North America is approaching zero population growth.

Lives are 'cheap' on the continents which have long known natural and man-made disasters (earthquakes, floods, famine, war) that wipe out huge segments of their populations. In poor rural communities many children were bred to help produce food, where surviving offspring in a harsh environment would in their turn sustain life, however, meagre, for their ageing parents. The developing countries, realizing that they must try to contain the size of their populations in an effort to become self-sufficient and have the capacity to feed their multitudes, have tried to encourage birth control by any means. We have the absurd spectacle of the religious-inspired conservative United States threatening to cut off needed economic aid to developing countries because abortion is used as one of the methods of birth control.

In countries like Canada and the United States, population growth would be at a standstill were it not for immigration. Under these circumstances a country becomes nervous. It would like to encourage its citizens to reproduce so that its national universe can unfold as politicians feel it is intended to. A country's prosperity is built upon its ability to increase its economic output, its gross national product. Stability is built upon the ideal of the family unit; the father working, the mother bearing and raising children who are trained in the school system and through social indoctrination to take their place in this best of all possible societies. When the balance becomes upset because more pregnancies are interrupted than those that go full term, a government becomes uneasy and self-righteous, feeling its economic security to be imperilled.

Church and state sometimes see their mutual interests converging. So it is that we see a 'very religious' right-wing conservative President Reagan, a staunch supporter of bringing prayers into schools, or curtailing the slaughter of innocents (abortions) - in short, of bringing 'traditional values' back to society. The catch-phrase is 'traditional values' with all that implies in sentimental glorification of the 'good old days'. The movement grows on peoples' insecurities.

If somehow the growing tide of right-wing protest is successful, it will be women, all women, who will surrender their identity as individuals, their right to self-determination at that most basic of levels; their biological destiny. And not only they, but the children whom they must, however unwillingly, bring into the world. And society as a whole - what price will it pay?

Throughout history, women have sought to abort pregnancies they could not support, often with crippling or fatal results. Denial of access to abortion has resulted in back-room butchery, suicides, infanticides and insanity. More often unwanted children grow into alienated persons who transmit their frustrations to the next generation. A more civilized approach to abortion is imperative!

c. 1985 Rita Rosenfeld
published in Canadian Jewish Outlook, Vol.23, No.5