Last Updated:Friday - 09/24/2010

Alliance ducks abortion issue

Much of the attention in the spring leadership campaign of the Canadian Alliance focused on Stockwell Day's social conservatism - his supposedly "extremist" views on issues such as abortion, homosexual rights, capital punishment and other "moral" issues. Day consistently downplayed this social conservatism to emphasize his fiscal conservatism - small government, lower taxes and a more open climate for investment.

At the same time, Day's leadership campaign benefitted enormously from the support of pro-lifers and other social conservatives. His campaign manager, MP Jason Kenney, estimated that between a quarter and a third of Day's supporters were people concerned primarily about these social-moral issues.

Now that Day has won the leadership and the Alliance has unveiled its election platform, we know what the party stands for. And in the crucial areas of abortion and euthanasia, it stands for nothing. There is no mention of abortion, not even a commitment to hold referenda on controversial moral issues if petitioned by a sufficiently large portion of the electorate. The Alliance, in short, has jettisoned the social conservatism and populism of its predecessor - the Reform party.

About 120,000 pre-born children are being killed every year in Canada. This is a situation aided and abetted by successive federal Liberal governments over the last 32 years and a situation with which the Liberals, Progressive Conservatives and New Democrats seem to be well pleased. It is now clear that it is a bloodbath that the Alliance has no intention of trying to halt.

In the United States, presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush enjoyed the enthusiastic support of the pro-life movement for 12 years by making occasional statements against abortion but taking no action that would significantly slow the tidal wave of abortion in that country.

Some politicians, it would seem, are eager to accept the support of pro-lifers but reticent to do anything that would justify such support. Action would create controversy that could lead to the loss of other potential sources of support.

Although it is not widely recognized as such, the 120,000 abortions a year in Canada are the bloodiest stain on our nation's soul. Abortion is quietly performed in clinical settings. No machine-gun toting police take part in this slaughter; our friends and neighbours are not dragged away in the middle of the night, their dead bodies to be found later in roadside ditches and shallow graves. Once out of the womb, a person need not feel threatened.

The pallor of death does not hang over Canada as palpably as it has over other countries where violence was more open. But it is there, nevertheless. Our country is guilty of ongoing massive violation of human rights.

Yet to date there has been a refusal of the Canadian public to take this issue seriously. More than that, those who openly stand in favour of human life are often mocked for their concern.

Canada needs greater public awareness that every abortion is the taking of a human life. It also needs politicians who will name this evil for what it is. There is no political party that will take leadership on this issue. The way to get elected, it would seem, is to take the line of least resistance.

Those who had hoped that the Alliance would be a brighter light on this issue can now only be disappointed and work for the day when some political force will finally take the rights of the unborn seriously.

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