Is Now the Time to Have a National Conversation on the Questions Around Abortion?
Argumentative Essay
Is now the time to have a national conversation on the questions around abortion?
There is an elephant in the Canadian living room. Everyone knows it is there, but nobody is willing to mention it, except for those on the far edges of the issue. The elephant is named “Abortion”, and except for those radical believers on each side, almost everyone wishes the elephant would simply walk out of the room. But it hasn’t, despite the wishes of many people. And it won’t, despite our all-too Canadian strategy of not mentioning things that are distasteful. And what can be more distasteful than an issue which cuts across so many of the pluralities that live in Canada – religion, women’s issues, poverty, and – did I mention religion? The elephant which is the abortion issue won’t leave the room, and so it is time to take our collective heads out of the sand, look it straight in the eyes, and finally have a national conversation about it. Now.
The nay-sayers will immediately respond by declaring that this is not the time. They will tell you that we’re still in a recession, and that with our economic growth slowed to only 1% we shouldn’t get embroiled in this issue now. And they will submit that now is not the time since we, like the rest of the world, are still poised on the edge of a fiscal cliff. And all the reasons they give are true – but they have nothing to do with the issue.
And there are plenty of nay-sayers. The official opposition in the House of Commons doesn’t want to discuss it. They’ve hitched their wagon to the belief that abortion is a women’s reproductive issue and an question of a woman’s right of control of her own person. Nothing else comes into the NDP picture. To have a national conversation about abortion now – or at any time – may raise questions about a bedrock firm policy on abortion which they have made – it’s a women’s issue. Period. Besides, as long as things remain as they are, with Supreme Court decisions supporting a
Is now the time to have a national conversation on the questions around abortion?
There is an elephant in the Canadian living room. Everyone knows it is there, but nobody is willing to mention it, except for those on the far edges of the issue. The elephant is named “Abortion”, and except for those radical believers on each side, almost everyone wishes the elephant would simply walk out of the room. But it hasn’t, despite the wishes of many people. And it won’t, despite our all-too Canadian strategy of not mentioning things that are distasteful. And what can be more distasteful than an issue which cuts across so many of the pluralities that live in Canada – religion, women’s issues, poverty, and – did I mention religion? The elephant which is the abortion issue won’t leave the room, and so it is time to take our collective heads out of the sand, look it straight in the eyes, and finally have a national conversation about it. Now.
The nay-sayers will immediately respond by declaring that this is not the time. They will tell you that we’re still in a recession, and that with our economic growth slowed to only 1% we shouldn’t get embroiled in this issue now. And they will submit that now is not the time since we, like the rest of the world, are still poised on the edge of a fiscal cliff. And all the reasons they give are true – but they have nothing to do with the issue.
And there are plenty of nay-sayers. The official opposition in the House of Commons doesn’t want to discuss it. They’ve hitched their wagon to the belief that abortion is a women’s reproductive issue and an question of a woman’s right of control of her own person. Nothing else comes into the NDP picture. To have a national conversation about abortion now – or at any time – may raise questions about a bedrock firm policy on abortion which they have made – it’s a women’s issue. Period. Besides, as long as things remain as they are, with Supreme Court decisions supporting a