I think politics must be about democracy and democracy is better when we are capable of respectful dialogue.

That is, as I explained in my rather long, nuanced answer posted on a blog which created this controversy, something that has been in dispute since Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas.

Now, my recent experience should be an object lesson for me in the political safety zone created by sloganeering and staying far away from nuance or suggestions of moral dilemmas.

nuance
(F. nuance, shade of colour, f. nuer, to shade, f. nue, cloud)
1. A slight or delicate variation or difference in expression, feeling, opinion, etc.
2. A shade of colour; a slight difference or variation in shade or tone.
3. A delicate gradation in musical expression.

No one “chooses” to have an abortion in an off-hand way. It is always a deeply difficult decision. It is not a form of birth control.

The status of a foetus before birth is debatable in terms of when the potential for life crystallizes as human life. That is, as I explained in my rather long, nuanced answer posted on a blog which created this controversy, something that has been in dispute since Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas.

I read May's letter and I'm still not sure what she is saying. And I truly mean that.

Is the Green Party strongly in favour of a woman's right to access a safe and legal abortion? Yes.

Am I personally strongly in favour of a woman's right to access a safe and legal abortion? Yes.

(In fact, I am concerned that there is progress to be made to ensure access through enhancing availability of abortion providers. More work needs to be done to ensure access.)

Have I ever suggested we should re-open a debate on the issue? No.

This is not the United States and the Green Party is not the Republican Party. Just because they push "counseling" as a kind of Trojan Horse for another agenda does not mean we cannot consider information like the recent article below that can better inform the "counseling" in Canada which by the way varies greatly in comprehensiveness and quality from situation to situation.

Abortion: Risk factor for “major depressive illness”

By StatGuy

A letter signed by fifteen psychologists, psychiatrists, and other health professionals and published in The Times of London reports on new findings published in a scholarly journal of psychology.

Research published in The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry in January has shown that even women without past mental health problems are at risk of psychological ill-effects after abortion. Women who had had abortions had twice the level of mental health problems and three times the risk of major depressive illness as those who had given birth or never been pregnant.

This research has prompted the American Psychological Association to withdraw an official statement denying a link between abortion and psychological harm.

Since women having abortions can no longer be said to have a low risk of suffering from psychiatric conditions such as depression, doctors have a duty to advise about long-term adverse psychological consequences of abortion.

The writers call on the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and the Royal College of Psychiatrists to amend their guidelines regarding what information should be provided to women considering abortion.

The new psychological research corroborates recent studies showing that women who have had abortions are more likely to suffer depression and other mental health problems.

A study published in the British Medical Journal said that while there is a correlation between abortion and depression, the strongest indicator for post-abortion distress was if it is a preexisting condition prior to pregnancy – i.e., abortion does not create the condition.

Abortion does not increase a woman’s risk for breast cancer, depression, or infertility. The minority office of the US House Committee on Government Reform reports that these myths are being spread by people who are completely aware of their untruthfulness.

Abortion, when performed by a trained provider, is a safe procedure that does not carry with it serious health risks.

Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry
Abortion in young women and subsequent mental health
David M. Fergusson1, L. John Horwood1, and Elizabeth M. Ridder1

Background: The extent to which abortion has harmful consequences for mental health remains controversial. We aimed to examine the linkages between having an abortion and mental health outcomes over the interval from age 15–25 years.

Methods: Data were gathered as part of the Christchurch Health and Development Study, a 25-year longitudinal study of a birth cohort of New Zealand children. Information was obtained on: a) the history of pregnancy/abortion for female participants over the interval from 15–25 years; b) measures of DSM-IV mental disorders and suicidal behaviour over the intervals 15–18, 18–21 and 21–25 years; and c) childhood, family and related confounding factors.

Results: Forty-one percent of women had become pregnant on at least one occasion prior to age 25, with 14.6% having an abortion. Those having an abortion had elevated rates of subsequent mental health problems including depression, anxiety, suicidal behaviours and substance use disorders. This association persisted after adjustment for confounding factors.

Conclusions: The findings suggest that abortion in young women may be associated with increased risks of mental health problems.

Check out comments 5 and 6

I’m not sure why the occasional smack on the mouth of a harpie wife should by extension mean that 100,000 babies can be murdered a year

Can you cut that guy off? I would. That's hate speech.

Liz has really done the women's movement a huge favour although I very much doubt she intended to do that. We get to see how much REAL support we have from so many people who have LIED to us for years about their real feelings and beliefs.

The recent flare-up over ad lib comments made by rookie Green party leader Elizabeth May to a bunch of nuns during the recent federal by-election in London underlines again why Canadians are fed up with camp-centred politics. In a rather rambling answer to a nun's question about abortion, May allowed that while her party has no intention of ever reopening the abortion debate and that she herself supports a woman's right to choose, she could never imagine a circumstance where she would opt to have an abortion. Choosing her words quite poorly, May has inflamed the blogosphere by saying "no one in their right mind would want to have an abortion- and that she doesn't think women "have a frivolous right to choose.-

Famed feminist and founder of lefty website Rabble.ca Judy Rebick shot back an open letter to May saying, "You have questioned the most important victory of the women's movement of my generationÉ. Since you have so little respect for me or for the women's movement that mobilized for so long to win this hard-earned right, I hope you will understand that I ripped up the cheque I had written to the Green party and you can no longer rely on me for support.- Perhaps Rebick hadn't read May's clarification of her comments in a blog post on the Rabble site a week before she tore up her cheque. In it she says, "I personally strongly support legal access to abortions for any woman (under whatever circumstances) who chooses to have one. What I was trying to suggest was that slogans distort the reality that there are moral dimensions to both positions."

It's a reasonable position and probably reflects what most pro-choice Canadians think: women must have the choice, but abortion often is a difficult psychological experience. It makes sense to say "Abortion is legal; now, how do we create a society where fewer women need to have one."

Rebick is having none of it, but her position, like partisan brinksmanship, strikes me as similar to the Bush doctrine of "If you aren't with us, then you are for the terrorists."

Say what you want about the Greens, and there is much to question about their supposed progressive credentials, but May gets the drift that we're at the end of the era of the slogan.

Leaving aside all the nuances of the argument that you clearly aren't getting in response to May's remarks; I find it the height of irony that while trying to prove how ridiculous slogans are Andrew Cash quotes Bush's slogan "If you aren't with us, then you are for the terrorists" and then goes on to finish up with another "working together gets stuff done".

Yes indeed Andrew you've done well in your effort to show how we need to leave slogans aside.

It is excessively clear to me that Andrew Cash has no clue as to what women's reproductive rights are about. The right to choose an abortion is a woman's and a woman's alone. It's what reproductive freedom means. And rights and freedoms do not come in halves or thirds; they're all or nothing. Either you have a right or you don't. Either women have full control of their reproductivity or they do not. Yes, it's that simple.

What I've noticed in the revived discussion is that few, including Cash, have the skill to think the issue through to its conclusion. Many accepted May's comments without challenge. Until Rebick returned. And thank goodness she did!