…and it’s that time of year when a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of… 
fetuses!!!
Yes: the anti-abortion gibberish that perpetually rattles around in the brains of our Parliament’s infamous “Pro-Life Caucus” has once again gelled and been squeezed out in the form of another sleazy little initiative meant to roll back womens’ rights in the guise of “protecting” us. Leading anti-choice MP Rod Bruinooge, feeling “inspired” by the awful story of a murdered woman from his home town, has tabled yet another fetus-focused private member’s bill, this time to ban “coerced abortion”:
This afternoon Conservative MP Rod Bruinooge, the chair of the pro-life caucus in the Canadian Parliament, introduced a private members bill seeking to stop intimidation and pressure on women to have abortions against their will. Bruinooge said he was inspired to draw up the bill based on the case of a woman from his home town whose boyfriend attempted to coerce her into an abortion.
Because who could possibly support the idea of women being forced to have abortions against their will? Not me, and probably not anyone who is pro-choice, since coercion is the antithesis of choice. Forcing women to not have children they want is as bad as forcing them to have children they don’t want.
The backstory behind Bruinooge’s latest salvo against abortion rights is certainly compelling:
“In early 2007, Roxanne Fernando’s boyfriend attempted to coerce her into having an abortion. After backing out on the decision to abort her baby, Roxanne’s boyfriend then chose to have her killed. When someone uses coercion, it can lead to violence. Roxanne’s Law will communicate to all Canadians that coercing a pregnant woman to have an abortion against her will is unacceptable in a nation that values human rights.”
Although this particular case is clearly a loathsome tale of intimidation and violence against women, “coercion” is sometimes in the eye of the beholder. Anti-abortion whackjobs like Bruinooge would like to think that most women are in some way “coerced” into having abortions — that the practice is so widespread, it calls for legislative correction. The coercion of women to have abortions is apparently rampant: if not by abusive partners or aggressively overprotective parents, then by hostile economic circumstances, or maybe just their own estrogen-driven insanity. Yes, I keed, but I seriously shudder to imagine the kind of cases that would start winding their way through the courts as the overzealous launched their War Against Coerced Abortion in the hope of incrementally banning it altogether.
Besides, isn’t bullying, intimidation and the act of coercion — to abort or do anything else one is desperately opposed to doing — already against the law? Why would abortion need its own coercion law, unless…
You got that right, baby.
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But when a pregnancy counselling service coreces, it’s all right? I don’t follow the logic. Why is it right for
anti-abortionists to use repressive tactics on women at a moment of great vulnerability to have a coreced pregnancy?
Bruinooge means “brown eyes”. Even his name tells you how full he is of it.
…. a nation that values human rights.
Does that goof even know what the hell he’s saying???
From the sound of it, that poor girl’s psychotic, violent boyfriend would have had her killed at some point regardless of whether or not she had his kid. I wonder what Bruinooge has done lately to combat domestic abuse. I won’t hold my breath for an answer.
Good morrow, all!
“Abortions against their will…”
As opposed to carrying a pregnancy to term, against her will? As opposed to becoming a single mother, against her will?
Something tells me that psycho boyfriend had serious control issues. That is really what this is all about.
Men who need to control women are men who fear women. Their masculinity (what there is of it) is threatened by women taking control of their own lives, their own bodies, their own choices in life. They blame Eve for not letting Adam finish watching the game. They have yet to grow up.
Real men do not fear real women. – CTZen
You are correct Dr. P. If he b-f would contemplate having here killed it sounds like it was just a matter of time before something else triggered his impulse.
No abortion, dishes left in the sink, rain on his favourite golfing day … all it needs is some idiosyncratic excuse and murder would be his option of choice.
Torontonian
Of course. It’s okay for them to lie, bully, cajole or coerce if the end result is an unwanted pregnancy carried to term.
sassy – According to “fetal rights” rhetoric, abortion is the next great human rights battle, the same as the civil rights movement
Except for the little factoid that black people were kept as slaves for the benefit of the economy, and that these slaves weren’t attached to their masters’ bodies. But hey.
Dr.Prole
Since Bruinooge is a conservative, I’m guessing that domestic abuse isn’t high on his list of legislative priorities (although I could easily be wrong).
The story said to have inspired this bill is pretty horrific, but it sounds like the kind of abusive relationship that would have ended badly one way or another. Reasonable people don’t suddenly decide to deal with a relationship problem by committing murder.
CTZen
That was one of my thoughts as I typed “who could possibly support the idea of women being forced to have abortions against their will?” — maybe the same kind of people who could support the idea of forcing women to bear children against their will? “Coerced abortion” is just the flip side.
croghan
The guy was obviously unhinged — normal people don’t deal with their disagreements by killing each other off — so it was probably only a matter of time before things spiraled into violence. The prospect of a lifetime of child support for a kid they both originally agreed they didn’t want probably didn’t do much to calm his psychotic tendencies
Thanks for the link to the Freaked Minions, JJ.
As usual, John “Sperm Holocaust” Pacheco offers some gynophobic gems.
The minute I read the story that Mr. MP is using, I went…”Huh??” His logic does not follow. An abusive man killed a woman because she didn’t do what he wanted. It wasn’t about abortion or not, or about anything except abuse & violence. The guy is not bright – Brunooge, I mean.
But hey, Great! He’s against Violence Against Women. Terrific! Then he’ll be the first to support actual effective laws both preventing & punishing it! Right?……….??????…
It’s awfully quiet in here.
You can BET that if no one else was working with him in the “secret caucus”, BradLEE Trost & the other Don Knotts creepy looking guy from Sk -oh yeah, Maurice Vellacott – were right there in the back of the backroom with him, praying for his success in the name of the Lifestie, the Evangelicals, & Tim LayHaye!
Great work, URH! and I loooove the graphic!!
deBeauxOs –
I hope his sexual frustration didn’t jump off the screen and start humping your leg, or at least I hope you had a newspaper handy to swat it away. I keep one by my side At All Times when reading his entries on FD.
CanNurse – The fetus fetishists are not altogether dumb. They’ve figured out that the best way to get what they want is to find the most extreme, violent or distasteful kind of stories, things that the average person who isn’t on to their game (or anyone, really) would find repulsive, and play them up. This story, the girl who was murdered that prompted Bill C-484, and the new issue of “sex-selection” for example. Getting their foot in the door is half the battle.