Editor:
In Suzanne Diamond's letter advertising the recent march (organized with the assistance of the Knights of Columbus) protesting what she calls "gendercide," she asserted, "It may come as a surprise that it is legal in Canada to have an abortion simply because the baby is the wrong gender," a rather bizarre perception since, in Canada, there are no legal restrictions connected to the motive for having an abortion.
Thus women seeking abortions are not required to stipulate the reasons for their decisions. There is some statistical evidence suggesting that abortions motivated by gender preferences do occur in Canada, but in a country with a 20 per cent child poverty rate, one might question whether that's really the issue we should be wringing our hands over.
Diamond is correct in asserting that legal barriers could reduce or eliminate this practice in Canada, but one effective barrier - prohibiting determination of the sex of the foetus prior to a late stage in pregnancy - was defeated not by irresponsible godless fornicators, but by the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, presumably with good reason.
It's interesting to note that, while the Netherlands has free abortion on demand, it has the lowest abortion rate in the world, perhaps because it's accompanied by widely accessible contraceptives and good sex education.
It's also worth noting that the Knights of Columbus are active in lobbying for laws that uphold the Catholic Church's positions on public policy and social issues, in violation of the principle of separation of church and state (see The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood or the massive violation of women's rights in countries controlled by religious governments).
According to the World Health Organization, every year about 80,000 women die from dangerous illegal abortions, highlighting the irony of someone from a so-called "pro life" group attempting to implicitly encourage the recriminalization of abortion in Canada.
George Kosinski, Gibsons
