Courageous Mothers Thanked

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LFP, June 4. Letter to the Editor

This one by Jack Curran states the obvious.

Morgentaler honour only rekindles furor
"Among the many fine institutions that have contributed to the betterment of our society, the UWO deserves special mention.
Without discussing the pros or cons of Dr. M.'s activities, it would seem the decision by the university’s elite committee to confer honours on M. is creating the undesirable effect within our society of rekindling flames of controversy in the matters of abortion.
To think Western could not have anticipated this reaction is unbelievable, as one would expect reactions on controversial issues.
Institutions of higher learning should respect the sensitivity and opinions of all graduates, be they pro or con on controversial matters, and always remain diplomatically neutral."
 
Two more letters in the LFP protested the protesters wearing armbands at a recent athletic event. While in one line the principal is chastised for involving the children in the next line the writer applauds the president of UWO. Talk about a double standard. At least the principal allowed his students to volunteer while pres. Paul Davenport hijacked his students graduation day.

Both letters will be posted on the thread “Should children be allowed to protest” poll.
 
London Free Press, June 5, Letter to the Editor

A fitting honour
"I am compelled to write in regard to a deep concern about the controversy over the honorary degree to be conferred on Dr. Henry Morgentaler.

The University of Western Ontario has seen fit to honour this man who, at great personal risk, faced jail, demonstrators, ridicule and death threats to come to the rescue of women who needed his help to secure an abortion. I support Western’s decision.

Morgentaler refused to abandon women to the dangers and despair of back street abortionists. As a mother, wife, sister and daughter, I am grateful that Morgentaler had the courage to advocate for the women who needed him."

Betty Williams
 
Betty Williams should be told how women are still facing dangers and despair. Taking a butcher out of the back street and putting him into a so-called clinic changes nothing. Morgentaler himself doesn’t have such a pristine record but he always manages to avoid the negative publicity with silence clauses in law suits brought against him by injured parties.
 
No news found in today’s Free Press; no letters on this issue either. It isn’t because they don’t have letters either; there must be a backlog. Nonetheless, it is necessary to keep up the pressure on the intellectual elite who wrongly assumed Canadians are fine with the status quo.
 
lifesite.net/ldn/2005/jun/05060607.html

Honorary Degree for Abortionist Morgentaler Sparks Letter Outlining Ridiculous Choice

LONDON, Ontario, June 6, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The University of Western Ontario’s decision to honour abortionist Henry Morgentaler has sparked an onslaught of letters, petitions and protests – one letter from Ontario lawyer Joseph P. Hamon to UWO VP of communications Ted Garrard, copied to LifeSiteNews.com, makes clear how ridiculous a choice Morgentaler really is.

**Take, for example, that in 1998, Morgentaler’s Nova Scotia clinic was ordered by the court to pay $395,000 in damages for failing to properly counsel patients regarding post-abortion dangers – a decision upheld by a court of appeal. **

In 1973, Hamon pointed out, a foreign student was admitted to hospital for 6 days after a botched abortion by Morgentaler. She later testified that the pre-abortion interview with Morgentaler consisted primarily about whether she could pay the $150 fee. A disciplinary hearing by the Professional Corporation of Physicians of Quebec ruled later to suspend Morgentaler’s medical licence in 1976 for a year. The committee stressed that “the suspension was not only for doing illegal abortions but for doing them badly: for not holding a valid interview before the abortion, for failing almost completely to gather a case history of his client, for failing to perform the necessary pregnancy test or blood test, for not obtaining pathological examination of the ‘tissues’ removed and for failing to follow up the state of health of his patients afterward.” The panel declared that Morgentaler’s behaviour reflected “an attitude which is primarily directed to protecting his fees.”

Based on his testimony before the Professional Corporation of Physicians of Quebec that he had committed 7,000 abortions, Morgentaler was ordered to pay $354,799 in unpaid taxes for the years 1969-72. “The disciplinary medical board deplored his practice as one which ‘confers a mercenary character on the doctor-patient relationship,’ and said it was ‘incapable of reconciling [Morgentaler’s] behaviour with the humanitarian concern that [he] invoked throughout his defence.’”

In 1985, a Toronto woman claimed that after telling Morgentaler of her last minute decision to keep her baby, he “shoved a sanitary napkin in her mouth and did [the abortion] anyway.”

A call into the UWO media relations office was not returned by press time.

Read more of the same at the “Morgentaler Files” at:
 
June 7, London Free Press, Opinion Pages

Righting a wrong never an easy fight by Rory Leishman

"It seems that every generation is fated to confront one overwhelming moral wrong.

In the lifetime of Sir William Wilberforce, that wrong was slavery. To his everlasting credit, Wilberforce led the campaign that culminated with the adoption of a parliamentary resolution in 1833 that abolished slavery throughout the British Empire.
The victory did not come easily. It required almost 50 years of unremitting effort by Wilberforce and fellow members of the Clapham Sect, a group of evangelical members of the Anglican Church. For his efforts, Wilberforce was widely denounced as a religious fanatic and moral absolutist who was out to cripple the British economy.

Today, there is virtually unanimous agreement throughout the Western world that Wilberforce was right. Everyone, with the exception of some obtuse bioethicists who would not recognize an absolute moral rule if they tripped over it, firmly understands slavery is, was and will forever remain a wrong that can’t be justified.

Let us now suppose, that we are living in Britain at the beginning of the 19th century and that some British university has resolved to confer an honorary doctorate on a prominent slave trader? Would we want to make a financial donation to that university? Surely not.

Why, then, would we now want to make a financial donation to the University of Western Ontario? Why would we want to have a child enrol at a school that is conferring an honorary doctorate on abortion advocate Dr. Henry Morgentaler.

Abortion, like slavery, is, was and will forever remain a grave moral disorder that can never be justified, yet anyone who upholds this truth is bound to be widely derided as a religious fanatic and moral absolutist.

Granted, people who understand that abortion and slavery are always wrong might reasonably be described as moral absolutists. But these people do not all believe in God. Take, for example, Nat Hentoff, the prominent New York intellectual. He proudly describes himself as a “Jewish, atheist, civil libertarian, left-wing, pro-lifer.”

On the basis of reason alone, he understands that the deliberate destruction of an innocent human being can never be justified.

Eric Cohen is an authority on Jewish law. Like Hentoff, he deplores not only abortion, but also the deliberate destruction of human beings for medical research.

Writing in the current edition of First Things, Cohen notes: “As Jews, we know well what it means to treat some human lives as less than human, or some human beings are there for experimentation. We know the moral hazards of justifying such dehumanizing violations on the grounds that embryos are ‘going to die anyway,’ just the way some Nazi doctors justified their inhuman experiments.” Cohen then emphasizes: “Embryo destruction is not the moral equivalent of the Holocaust, but the lesson of the Holocaust should give us the wisdom to oppose making embryo destruction the new foundations of modern medicine. That . . . is the heart of Jewish wisdom.”

Morgentaler has grasped at least part of that wisdom: specifically, that late-term abortions are wrong. In an interview last year, he told CTV News that when a woman seeks an abortion at one of his clinics after 24 weeks, “we usually counsel the woman to continue the pregnancy and put it up for adoption if she is unable to care for it.” Why, then, can Morgentaler not accept the self-evident truth that from day one, all babies in the womb have an inalienable right to life?

The London and Area Right to Life Association is planning a mammoth demonstration outside Alumni Hall in the morning of June 16, the day Morgentaler is slated to receive his honorary degree. Let that demonstration be peaceful. Let the demonstrators pray for Morgentaler. And let them present a compelling witness to the truth that abortion, like slavery, is a wrong that can never be justified."
 
Doctor witnessed tragic results of back-street abortions

LFP June 7, letter to the editor by RSM Eberhard, MD, Internal medicine/gasterenterology, ***. prof., department of Medicien, UWO, Faculty of Medicine

"I am rather tired of the rant of the right-to-lifers and their sanctimonious bleating.

In the late '60’s, I was an intern in a Vancouver hospital. At least once a week, usually Sunday, some desperately ill woman would be brought to the emergency room, bleeding dangerously or suffering life-threatening abdominal infection due to a perforated uterus as a result of a criminal abortion.

At the time, a physician would lose his or her licence to practice for performing an abortion, so it was usually done by some back-street abortionist.

These were not usually teenagers who had been “caught,” but housewives and single mothers who couldn’t afford another mouth to feed.

My chief of gynecology would say, “If you want to know how much they have bled, check the bottom of their feet. They always clean themselves up as much as possible to look presentable, but always forget the bottom of their feet.”

Many people, including most doctors, find therapeutic abortions a sad and even repulsive part of medicine, but also recognize the realities of unwanted pregnancies and a woman’s right to choose.

Unlike the antics of the right-to-lifers, the pro-choicers have not stood at street intersections holding up tasteless pictures of women, dead from a criminal abortion.":hmmm:
 
Rosalinda said:
** How many people wrote a letter or plan to protest an honorary degree on the grounds that life is sacred spend 10 minutes contemplating that one out of every six humans has no safe water to drink, and that 2.2 million people a year die because of it?**
Click to expand...

The illogic of these writers is astounding. This is the old criticism of the Church for not doing more to end poverty. Ok. Let’s examine this. How many religious orders dedicate themselves to easing the misery of the unfortunate? How many collections go to same? A big whole hunka load of them.

On the other hand, I have not noticed Leftwing Whiners for Rwanda making many headlines. That’s because they don’t exist. The ungodly have a big agenda for Catholics. Just like Judas Iscariot. But will they become Catholics? Will they become part of the solution? Not on your life!

That would mean that they would have to take time out from their little Riverdale gardens to think, to question, to stick their necks out, to give of their petty, empty little lives. And heavens! There aren’t enough minutes in the day to do that! Better have the neighbours in for another barbecue.

Secondly, when everything comes out, Judy Rebick did a neat little sidestep with federal funding didn’t she? For what? For the poor? Or for her own profit? Braaten already has her number on that count:

mkbraaten.com/?p=129

Rebick herself admits that Alternative’s ‘hired’ her:

freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1411571/posts

Maybe all that is a bit complicated. Let me make it simple:

Mother Teresa

Judy Rebick.
 
Another letter off to the LFP. To date not a single of my letters has been allowed to enter this debate although my town is in proximity to London with numerous subscribers who read this as their morning paper and are following the debate as their children attend UWO. I’m beginning to feel like the widow in scripture who would give the judge no peace.

London Free Press
Letters to the Editor

In response to Dr. Eberhard’s letter (June 7) berating protesters for displaying the abortion photos his anger is misplaced.

Had the atrocities not been inflicted on the unborn children and their mothers - whose destinies are inextricably linked - prolifers wouldn’t need to show these distressful images in the first place. However unsettling the photographs, they must be seen. As long as the pro-death movement continues to cloak itself in the lie about women’s rights; to deceitfully frame the debate in such terms, the weakest and most vulnerable members of the human family, will continue to face this brutal reality without defense as they are deprived even the sanctuary of their mother’s womb.

Civil rights movements have a successful history of permeating the culture of their day with such illustrations to bring injustice to the foreground of public attention. Let it be seen. There is nothing ennobling or empowering about a woman, so isolated, helpless and afraid, that she feels her only option is to destroy the life of her unborn child.

If these powerful images rouse a few guilty consciences out of their torpor so be it.
 
As if readers of the LFP haven’t been hammered over the head already with this argument, here is yet another letter called, "Save the children already suffering"

**On post #15 in the “Big Picture Lost in Debate”, May 18, Rev. Leaf Seligman used this identical line of reasoning. To date, not a single criticism or rebuttal has been published refuting her nonsense and yet they dare to reiterate this artifice again. **
The following by Robby Smink:
Regarding the letters and articles written about Henry Morgentaler’s honorary degree, from all those so concerned with the "sanctity of all human life from the moment of conception."
Isn’t it ironic that their righteousness in protecting other women’ts unwanted fetuses in our world rarely manifests itself when it comes to helping the millions of already existing unwanted children around the globe.
Tens of millions of those children are dying yearly from lack of love and simple resources such as adequate food, clean drinking water and the dearth of any medical attention.
Civil wars, natural tragedies, abject poverty and outright abandonment leave millions more rotting away in orphanages, particularly in the Third World.

How many of those pro-lifers have done anything to alleviate these appalling conditions for children already born, and I wonder how many of these protesters have actually adopted even one of these poor, wretched, unwanted children.

Regardless, they still want more of them to exist. Go figure."
 
**The June edition of the Knights of Columbus magazine printed an article by freelance writer Wayne Tryhuk of Milwaukee, Wis. about a young man who may interest letterwriter Robby Smink. A remarkable story of Scott Binet who at one point enjoyed an acting career in New York as a major soap opera star which he left to study medicine. During his third year as a medical student, an experience with a woman who had miscarried forced him to ponder his life even further and he realized he was called to be a priest. **
**He deeply felt the Lord wanted him to be both a priest and a doctor. It was tough finding an order which could understand this dual vocation but today he is a Camillian priest who has cared for the sick and the poor in Honduras, Haiti, El Salvador, the Philippines, Indonesia, Kenya, Uganda and Sri Lanka. **

**The point is, there are a lot of Christians, not as famous as Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who quietly give generously of their lives to “save the children already suffering”. Just because the proabortion camp wishes to ignore them does not mean they do not exist. **
It was a false assumption on which to base an argument just as it was equally disingenuous of Robby Smink to assume there are millions of “unwanted children” in the third world. Robby labelled them unwanted: not their parents.
 
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/LondonFreePress/News/2005/06/09/1078271-sun.html**Morgentaler was passed over **At least twice before, UWO had rejected giving him an honorary degree.
JONATHAN SHER, Free Press Reporter

UWO selected Dr. M. to receive an honorary degree 2x before by the school claims Don McDougall, chair of the board of governors…

The selection polarized the university and the community…launching campaigns of letters, petitions and demonstrations.

Pres. Davenport defended the selection…

The board of governors which oversees non-academic matters, played no role…

The secrecy of deliberations has made it difficult to weigh competing versions of how M. was selected and whether the process - which led one committee member to resign – was the same in years past.

McDougall has accused Davenport of breaching customary protocol…

Also silent on details was committee member Gerald Killan, principal of King’s University College, a Catholic affiliate of UWO whose board expressed regret for the school’s selection.

Killan thought the process was fair. “If I had thought something was wrong, I would have resigned,” he said.

Still, Killan’s understanding of the process seemed at odds with a description given by Davenport, who says only a majority of the committee is needed to select a candidate.

Asked if a one-vote majority would suffice, Davenport said he wouldn’t answer because it was a “hypothetical situation,” but later agreed any majority would be enough as that is the standard in the rules of UWO’s senate.

But Killan drew a different conclusion, saying, “I can’t imagine (a candidate would be selected) with a vote that was that close.”
 
Morgentaler supporters change plan-

A Celebration of his UWO honour is advanced a day to avoid protesters
canoe.ca/NewsStand/LondonFreePress/News/2005/06/10/1080092-sun.html

The coordinator of Women’s Issues Network out of respect and concern for the graduating students will not be rallying on June 16 at the same time as the prolife assemblage. Celebration of Choice has invited feminist and publisher, Judy Rebick, of the now infamously caustic, anti-Catholic rabble website to speak about “reproductive freedoms and safe abortions.” This too marks a remarkable change of plans from last week when the promise was there would be nothing too political: just fun,food and music. The organizer likewise insinuated concern about violent prolifers.

Note, this university has denied prolife students status on campus because they are too one-sided yet there was no announcement by organizers about an invitation to a prolife speaker to debate Judy Rebick. (On another thread I have posted the cancellation of a prolife speaker for just that reason) Yet another example of creating obstacles for one group while facilitating the other.
 
Banning abortions won’t solve problem
London Free Press letter, June 10 by Marvin L. Simner, professor emeritus UWO
"Regarding the vox pop, UWO’s dishonourable Morgentaler decision (June 1).

While I appreciate Dr. Will Johnston’s concern over the possible negative consequences of abortion, I fail to appreciate the logic of his argument.

He, like many others who support the pro-life movement, believe that if abortion is made illegal, women will no longer seek an abortion. That belief is simply false.

According to statistics compiled by the World Health Organization, in countries where abortion is illegal, countless scores of women continue to have abortions and, on average, 20 to 25 per cent of maternal mortality in these countries is directly attributable to abortions performed by unqualified practitioners.

On the other hand, in countries where abortion is legal, abortion mortality averages less than one death per 100,000.

The issue here is not about endorsing versus not endorsing abortion. Morgentaler is not being honoured by the University of Western Ontario as an advocate of abortion. Instead, he is being honoured because of the many hardships he has endured over the years to ensure that women, who continue to seek abortion at any cost, will have available to them facilities that are safe and non-injurious to their health and well-being.

It is most unfortunate that protesters such as Johnston refuse to recognize this reason for his award."
 
LFP letter by Catharine McLandress (highlights by Rosalinda)

Abortion with us throughout history

"I want to commend Dr. R. S. M. Eberhard, Doctor witnessed tragic results of back-street abortion, (June 7), and A. K. Riley, There are no easy answers in abortion debate, (May 10), for their statements supporting safe, therapeutic abortions, without a bias for or against the reality of abortion.

We kid ourselves if we think the problem will go away if abortion clinics are not available, or abortions were not legal.

Most people, as Eberhard suggests, wish that abortion didn’t happen, but it does, and has been happening in every society throughout history.

When abortion was illegal, that meant an unsafe procedure for most women. Wealthy women with connections have always had access to safe, quiet abortions.

I am neither pro-life nor pro-choice. It just seems such a waste of time and energy to fight something that is going to happen anyway.

Providing a safe way to have the abortion doesn’t make it better or worse, easier or harder, right or wrong. It is just accepting what is."
 
**LFP letter, June 11, by Joan and Ken Blamires

****A refreshing view

"Regarding the letter, Doctor witnessed tragic results of back-street abortions (June 7) from Dr. R. S. M. Eberhard.

At last a viewpoint from someone who has “been there and seen that.” Nobody could put forth a better argument for pro-choice. It says it all."

**
 
**The LFP today had in interesting article found in the Lifestyle section about a writer and novelist, Joan Barfoot who it would seem -in a last minute effort for redemption- is to receive a “medal of distinction” from the UWO at the convocation on Tuesday. Ms. Barfoot, it will be noted, in post #5, May 16 was congratulated by Dr. Mary McKim for her letter to the editor supporting the infamous Dr. M selection for an award. She will enter into her speech to students a comment about the Morgentaler decision. To date there will be four high profile Canadians propagating the myth of a “women’s choice over her own body” at the university without a single announcement or invitation to a high profile prolife Canadian. The inequity of the situation increases daily with not even a semblance of pretense to balance the debate. **

#1. Dr. Henry Morgentaler- honorary doctor of laws degree
#2. Doris Anderson - honorary doctor of laws degree
**#3. Judy Rebick - Celebration of Choice speaker **
**#4. Joan Barfoot - medal of distinction **
**As for Rev. Malloy’s honorary doctorate he is not Canadian and there has been no official announcement that he will give a strong condemnation of the shabby theatrics staged by the elite to prop up their store-front mannequins dressed in black surgical garb. I refer of course to Dr. M as his alter ego Doris Anderson. **
 
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