A Canadian on Politics

A fetus’s gender should not be revealed until after 30 weeks of pregnancy, says an editorial in the Canadian Medical Journal.

This change in procedure for a fetal ultrasound, where the sex is usually disclosed to parents at 20 weeks, would help prevent female feticide, says Rajendra Kale, editor-in-chief of the CMAJ.

In Canada, doctors rarely perform abortions after 22 weeks of pregnancy unless the baby has a lethal fetal abnormality or the mother’s life is in danger because of the pregnancy.

Kale says that in countries such as India, China, Korea and Vietnam, female fetuses are commonly aborted because of a preference for sons. Though by no means widespread, the practice is carried out by some immigrants to Canada, Kale says.

His editorial cites a small U.S. study of about 65 immigrant Indian women that found 40 per cent had terminated earlier pregnancies, and 89 per cent pursued abortions in their most recent pregnancies after learning they were having girls. Previous Canadian research has suggested that sex selection is occurring in Canada in certain groups when families have had girls and are seeking a son.

The practice has created a gender imbalance in these communities.

“A pregnant woman being told the sex of the fetus at ultrasonography at a time when an unquestioned abortion is possible is the starting point of female feticide from a health-care perspective,” writes Kale.

Okay, how about this.  How about we DON’T take away the power of choice from women, and put them further under someone else’s control and opinions (and thereby take away the power of choice from all pregnant people) and instead, we work toward improving the value of girls?  And maybe, while we do it, we can try and be inclusive of all contexts and issues and you know.  Not be jackasses about it.  As we often are.

Stopping potential parents from knowing the sex of their baby (what on earth do you do when they ASK, what with the availability of information in books and oh the internet?) does not raise the value of an unwanted girl, or improve her life beyond the womb.  All this does is control women by denying knowledge.  When has that ever worked for empowering anyone?

Repealing a ban on women drivers in Saudi Arabia would result in ‘no more virgins’, the country’s religious council has warned.

A ‘scientific’ report claims relaxing the ban would also see more Saudis - both men and women - turn to homosexuality and pornography.

The startling conclusions were drawn by Muslim scholars at the Majlis al-Ifta’ al-A’ala, Saudi Arabia’s highest religious council, working in conjunction with Kamal Subhi, a former professor at the King Fahd University.

Their report assessed the possible impact of repealing the ban in Saudi Arabia, the only country in the world where women are not allowed behind the wheel.

It was delivered to all 150 members of the Shura Council, the country’s legislative body.

The report warns that allowing women to drive would ‘provoke a surge in prostitution, pornography, homosexuality and divorce’.

Within ten years of the ban being lifted, the report’s authors claim, there would be ‘no more virgins’ in the Islamic kingdom.

And it pointed out ‘moral decline’ could already be seen in other Muslim countries where women are allowed to drive.

In the report Professor Subhi described sitting in a coffee shop in an unnamed Arab state.

‘All the women were looking at me,’ he wrote. ‘One made a gesture that made it clear she was available… this is what happens when women are allowed to drive.’

First of all: Daily Mail, stop being a jackass and make a more accurate headline.  K?  ”Saudis” is misleading.

Second of all:

Oh for god’s sake.

daskannnichtsein:

mollydruwho:

The UN states that any country restricting a woman’s access to abortion and/or contraception is, in doing so, violating a woman’s human rights.

….finally.

So, we’ve got extremely reputable cancer-related organizations saying abortion doesn’t cause cancer or increase your risk.

We’ve got extremely reputable reports declaring post-abortion depression to be a hoax.

We’ve got extremely reputable reports showing how many women die from lack of safe, legal abortions.

And now we have the UN stating that ANY and ALL restrictions to the right to choose, to have knowledge, and to have contraception is a violation of human rights.

Your move, Anti-Choicers. Try not to use slavery, the Holocaust, or the Bible.

Boo.  Effin’.  Yah.

(via stfuconservatives)

hey guys, remember this? (it’s okay if you don’t)

Well:

Canada will fund an organization that provides family planning services around the world — but only in countries where abortion is illegal in most cases, CBC News has learned.

International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda has decided to approve a proposal by the International Planned Parenthood Federation to provide sex education and contraception in five developing countries.

Planned Parenthood, which provides an array of sexual and reproductive health services, including abortions, abortion counselling and training for providers, is getting the federal funding after Oda let the agency’s previous request sit on her desk for a year without a response, and after a Conservative MP told an anti-abortion group that the government wouldn’t be giving the organization any money.

Oda’s decision to approve Planned Parenthood’s proposal comes more than a year after Canada was embroiled in controversy over whether to fund abortions as part of a G8 commitment to improve maternal health in developing countries.

The proposal gets around the thorny issue of abortion by asking for money for sex education and contraception services, and does not include abortion services.

The funding is worth $6 million over three years for Planned Parenthood to work in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Mali, Sudan and Tanzania, where abortions are illegal except in cases where the mother’s life is at risk.

Oda’s spokesman said he wouldn’t comment on an application under review.

It looks like Planned Parenthood has not heard this from CIDA, but have a meeting with them at 10:30am.  This request has been outstanding since 2010.

Dmitri Soudas, spokesperson for the Government has said in the past that funding abortion is not included in the criteria for maternal health.  Officials have also said that Canadian funds have never been used to directly fund abortion abroad.

I am not sure why this is meant to be reassurance.

If Canada permits abortion (as it does) within its boundaries, then we should also support that abroad.   Why offer women elsewhere any less rights than we want for our women at home? And if the law says it must be offered, than do we not apply the same criteria (in this case, regarding a human right) elsewhere?

I want to clarify that I don’t think it’s appropriate for Planned Parenthood to go into other countries that prohibit abortion and then … offer abortion.  There does need to be respect for state autonomy, as well as the safety of international and at home workers.  And honestly, I would hope that the very presence of Planned Parenthood and other organizations would help create an environment where abortion can become legal.

However, I am uncomfortable with the idea that requesting funding specific only to certain countries (in which abortion is legal) as being described as getting around a “thorny issue”.  Not when it’s my government making it thorny.

MONTREAL - After numerous frustrating phone calls with bureaucrats, Sunshine Rose will exist in the eyes of the Quebec government and her mother will not have to show her vagina to anyone to prove the 5-month-old infant is hers.

Heather Mattingsly, who gave birth in March, has spent her time since trying to convince the Directeur de l’état civil that even though she engaged the help of an unlicensed midwife to give birth at home, the baby is indeed hers.

Days after the birth and as required, she provided the government agency in charge of issuing birth certificates with an ultrasound, a doctor’s letter and an attestation of birth, but none of that was good enough. This week, the agency said she’d have to get a vaginal examination – a procedure that doctors and midwives alike agreed would prove absolutely nothing.

“They’re saying ‘we’re not doubting the pregnancy, we’re doubting that you birthed a live child’,” said Mattingsly, who is collecting maternity benefits and breastfeeding. “How is a vaginal exam going to prove that?”

But late Friday, after many calls from the media, the agency’s director called Mattingsly and said after reviewing her file personally, he decided she didn’t need to go for the examination. But, he said, she still had to provide an ultrasound, but unlike the first one she submitted, this one had to be signed by a doctor.

Marie Godbout, a spokesperson for the agency, said she couldn’t discuss Mattingsly’s case, but said anyone who gives birth without a doctor or licensed midwife present has to prove the biological link between mother and child.

“It’s done in the public interest and to protect the child,” Godbout said. “And it’s to prevent things like trafficking in children.”

I am pretty sure that vaginal examinations will do absolutely nothing to help children trafficking, though it may make a few people feel ever so much better about all the awesome things they do to prevent drug trafficking.

This is a case of Bad Decisions Made By People So Far Removed From The Results That They Do Not Care About The Consequences™ (the title needs work).

stfuconservatives:

dionthesocialist:

41 ways in which gender roles are unequal and/or oppressive toward women.

This is the link I just mentioned, and #1 - “men are the default and women are the Other” - happens to me all the time.

Just yesterday I saw someone reblog me and be like “whatever he thinks he’s so smart with all his sarcasm” or some shit. I have to constantly remind people that I’m a woman. Joe helps out around here, and he is a man. But any post NOT signed by him and tagged #postsbyjoe are written by me.

I say that I’m a woman in my blog description. But when people don’t know that, they automatically assume I’m a man.

Quite a few of these resonated me - apparently this list changes frequently, but as of this writing, namely it is 5, 6 and 36.  Which ones resonated with you?