AGAINST PRO LIFERS

When Pro choice means against pro lifers

The Ottawa Citizen (The Citizen's Weekly) - May 28, 2000
Abortion wars
By Leonard Stern

 … One wonders how many Canadians are pro-choice by default -- pro-choice not because they've thought deeply about abortion but because they are wholly alienated from the people who oppose it. There must be atheists and non-Christians who have misgivings about abortion but just can't stomach the package of supplementary attitudes espoused by pro-lifers. Social liberals would sooner defend abortion, even if their gut said it was wrong, than lend their voice to the pro-life campaign, aligned as it is with the cultural right whose members will denounce, ironically, the kind of social action (universal day care, education subsidies) that could persuade pregnant, unwed women not to have abortions. Right-to-lifers look unreasonable when they rail against birth control. Inflexible and sometimes hypocritical, they are not always a likable lot. …