Thanks again, Dr. Morgentaler!

Twenty years ago today, the SCC decision R.v Morgentaler gave women complete reproductive autonomy. No abortion law: it's a point of pride to me that Canada is considered by some to have the western world's "most radical" (most interference-free) abortion "regime". In Canada, there is no "regime" -- it's a decision between a woman and her doctor, and the state has no business in the wombs of the nation.

Most Canadians would agree -- let women and their doctors decide, there's no reason for the state to interfere. Predictably, a vocal authoritarian minority who'd legislate our very assholes if they could, disagrees. The last twenty years of choice has been accompanied by twenty years of being hassled (and worse) by those who mistakenly think it's their business to dictate our reproductive decisions. The word "debate" keeps coming up: debate? What debate? The "debate" over whether women have the right to self-ownership (makes me sick just to type that) ended on January 28, 1988. In my "Thank You Dr. Morgentaler" post of last year, I said:

"I'm adamantly pro-choice for one reason: my reproductive life is nobody's goddamn business but mine. I'm totally capable of making the right decisions about it and every other aspect of my life, and believe all women are equally competent. There's no "discussion", there's no "debate", there's only "fuck off and mind your own business"."

That's the crux of the so-called "debate". And further:

Reproductive freedom is a hard-won human right. I fought for it the first time around, and if the rabid anti-choicers want to start sniffing our crotches or humping our legs (or even biting us) again, we'll slap them down again. As long as women have a right to control their own lives, abortion on demand is here to stay. Thank you, Dr. Morgentaler!

Reproductive freedom is here to stay, one can avail oneself to it or not, that's the essence of Choice. It's the individual's decision, not the decision of the state, or the church, or Lifesite, or "R.E.A.L. Women", or the assorted fetus fetishists, zygote zealots and embryo enthusiasts who prowl around clinics "counseling" pregnant women by calling them sluts and hell-bound whores.

I am mine. And that's where it ends.

UPDATED: to add picture of Supreme Court Justice Bertha Wilson, and a link to LGM, where you can read her elegant phrasing of the decision.

Bite me, Frum

It's Bizarro-World... one of the Bush Administration's chief warpig propagandists, David "Axis of Evil" Frum, pontificated recently in the National Post about how a legal decision giving women the right to abortion "cheapened the worth of human life". Typing was no doubt difficult with hands still sticky from the dried blood of Iraqi children, but nonetheless Frum managed to peck out a screed against the Morgentaler Decision, saying:

"On January 28, Canada marks the 20th anniversary of what may be the most astounding decision in the nation’s legal history: R. v. Morgentaler, the case that struck down Canada’s abortion laws.

The Morgentaler case was followed the next year by Daigle v. Tremblay, which clarified and amplified the Morgentaler ruling.

The result of the two decisions was to give Canada the western world’s most radical abortion regime. The mother’s ownership of the pregnancy is absolute and final, and she may end it at any moment, for any reason. Neither the father of the child-to-be, nor the government, nor the child itself has any rights in the matter at all."

"The western world's most radical abortion regime" -- gee Dave, you say that like it's a bad thing.

In fact, that radical freedom of choice is something many women, including myself, take as a point of pride. "Most radical?" -- in a world of repressive, sexually-twisted authoritarians who'd gladly dictate every aspect of our personal lives, maybe so. But one could also characterize Canada's "abortion regime" as the western world's most respectful of a woman's right to privacy and self-ownership. Thanks to Dr. Morgentaler, we have unrestricted reproductive choice. Thanks to Chantal Daigle, nobody can fuck with that choice by using (abusing) the legal system to force women to be unwilling incubators. Remember "freedom is on the march" and "let freedom reign" and "they hate us for our freedom"? Freedom is good!

Frum went on to damn late-term abortions -- no zygote zealot worth his salt will forget to give disproportionate time and space to the less than 1% of crisis abortions performed late-term. He ended:

"... the answers offered by R. v. Morgentaler will look more and more inadequate, shallow, short-sighted, and obsolete."

On that much we can agree. A woman's right to reproductive self-determination, including the choices of contraception and abortion, should be explicitly enshrined in the Constitution. Maybe then the Frums and the other anti-choice nitwits of the world will finally mind their own business and... (you know what's coming) get their snouts out of our crotches!

(h/t TGB)

Still standing: Happy birthday, Roe v. Wade

It's hard to believe you're 35 years old today... you haven't changed a bit.

In spite of being attacked with depressing regularity by authoritarian forces that would happily eliminate you or at least limit your power, you're still standing, still protecting the right to reproductive self-determination of American women. In spite of being used as a political football in one election campaign after another, you're still standing. In spite of actual acts of terrorism committed by those who oppose you -- still standing.

And unfortunately for your opponents, so too are the women whose rights you defend still standing, in greater numbers and with more resolve than ever before. Congratulations, American sisters. Never stop defending that which defends you.

PS -- Canada's turn is next week. January 28th is the 20th anniversary of the Morgentaler Decision, and we're gonna party like it's 1988!