Stephen Harper and the Canadian government made it crystal clear this week they will not capitulate to Michael Ignatieff's demands to include the promotion of abortion in this country or any country as a legitimate initiative to improve the health of women and children. This is easily the right decision for at least two reasons.
So desperate are Ignatieff and the Liberals for some issue to garner them votes they are quite willing to reopen one of the most divisive debates ever seen in Canada. In bowing to pressure from the Women's Caucus in his party and becoming a mouthpiece for pro-abortion activists, Ignatieff continues to give Canadians reasons not to make him prime minister.
Immunization, access to clean water, better nutrition and training of health care workers are legitimate initiatives. Abortion is not and millions of Canadians have never and will never equate taking the lives of the unborn with health. Maternal mortality rates were cut in half in El Salvador and Poland after both countries recriminalized abortion.
Ignatieff is on record as having said, "The right to abortion is too ‘sacred’ to become a political football." To this we reply it is life that is sacred and in a civilized and humane society the rights of the unborn must be protected.
Gerald Hall, Parksville, B.C.
