Pubdate: Wed, 07 Nov 2012
Source: Vancouver Courier (CN BC)
Copyright: 2012 Vancouver Courier
Contact:  http://www.vancourier.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/474
Author: Fiona Hughes

THE U.S. ELECTION'S POSSIBLE INFLUENCE ON CANADA

As of 1 p.m. Monday, the day before yesterday's U.S. election, the Tea
Party was working hard to secure a win for Republican U.S. Senate
candidate Richard Mourdock. News junkies -and regular watchers of The
Colbert Report - will know Mourdock for his rigid stance on abortion.
". even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it
is something that God intended to happen."

Isn't it rather presumptuous of anyone to talk so knowingly of God's 
will? To quote Susan B. Anthony: "I distrust those people who know so 
well what God wants them to do, be-cause I notice it always coincides 
with their own desires."

Mourdock joined a handful of Republican politicians on what Stephen
Colbert termed Team Rape, which also included pro-life Republican
politician Dr. Scott DesJarlais who told his mistress (a patient of
his at the time) to get an abortion to salvage his marriage, and
Republican Todd Aikin who said this year that victims of "legitimate
rape" rarely experience pregnancy because "the female body has ways to
try to shut that whole thing down."

All I can say is I hope the good folks of Indiana are living in the
21st century and not the Middle Ages and will make sure Mourdock never
holds political office - despite Mitt Romney's ringing endorsement of
the medieval man.

The recent political discourse surrounding rape and abortion within
the Republican ranks in the lead-up to the marathon American election
has been nothing short of bizarre. Who are these "grey-faced men with
$2 haircuts," as Tina Fey described Mourdock, to tell women about what
rape is. Stunning really. I can only hope Romney, who has flipflopped
from his previous pro-choice stance when he was governor of
Massachusetts, fails to make it into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. and make
good on his promise of getting the Supreme Court to overturn Roe vs.
Wade thus allowing states to set their own abortion laws.

Apparently people like Mourdock et al, who don't accept abortion in
any situation, would prefer to see women of childbearing age (mothers,
sisters, cousins, aunts) die in back alley abortions or develop
chronic gy-necological problems as is the fate of tens of thousands of
women across the world.

This is a touchy issue - always will be. I can safely predict that if
Romney becomes the next American president, abortion rights in Canada
will become an election issue with Prime Minister Stephen Harper
ultimately reneging on his promise not to re-open the debate on
women's access to abortion. Harper is miles above Romney in the
intellect department, but his list of broken promises is extensive.
And signing a secret deal (FIPA) with a totalitarian state (China)
without Parliamentary debate doesn't exactly inspire confidence in
someone's "promises" of government accountability and
transparency.

As I read somewhere once long ago: if you don't believe in abortion,
don't have one. Yet somehow, privileged members of 49 per cent of the
population who will never face such a decision still feel they should
have a say in what a woman does with her body and life.

It's long past time everyone gathered their energies and resources to
reduce abortions through education and affordable access to
contraceptives. Paramount, however, is a women's right to choose.

On another election note - though one less emotionally charged - is
the vote Tuesday on whether to legalize marijuana for adult use in
Washington, Oregon and Colorado. A similar proposition was put forward
in California two years ago and was narrowly defeated. It has been
claimed that those who were against legalizing pot were the marijuana
growers themselves - particularly in the "Emerald Triangle" of
Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity counties - who helped bankroll the No
campaign. It makes sense. Why would they want to see their huge tax
free profits disappear?

In an interview about Proposition 19 and Tuesday's vote, Allen St.
Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform
of Marijuana Laws (NORML), told Mint Press News the "sellers of
marijuana have joined with narks, pee testers and beer testers." Will
the "gangapre-neurs" have an influence on the 2012 votes in
Washington, Oregon and Colorado? We'll have to wait and see. If the
vote is in favour in legalization, will it signal a change north of
the 49th parallel and end the futile war on drugs?
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MAP posted-by: Matt