4 - Friday, March 20, 1992 - North Shore News NDP abortion | arpacu HUNTER TURNER funding is contemptible LIFE AND death are very close to me this week. So is contempt, which I find a much more agreeable attitude than anger. I have deep and intractable con- tempt for the Mike Harcourt New Democratic Party government. As this week’s throne speech made certain — though there's never been any doubt about NDP ‘*philosophy’’ on the matter — British Columbia doesn’t have money for this. And it doesn’t have money for that. And it has none for the other thing. The government will have to cut back on expenditures in areas where it made expansive election promises last fall in order to wres- tle down that huge $2.4 billion deficit. But, yes, somehow it’s found it in its heart and in its (public) wallet to spend more for one thing. Abortions. The **moderate”’ Harcourt and the '‘moderate’* NDP — all the wisehead media opinion-shapers, have solemnly pronounced the Harcourt government moderate” — will immoderately snuff out more and more young life in the next three or four wretched years of the government's existence. Ic will provide ‘‘core funding” — wonderful, the language of bu- reaucracy —- for abortions in clinics outside of hospitals, so that females will be relieved of the cost of paying for their own lite holocausts on their fetuses. With exquisite timing, this evil pronouncement — and have no doubdt of it, abortion is evil — comes right on the heels of two truly sickening stories. One: There were about 92,500 abortions in Canada in 1990, the figures being incomplete because provinces have different ways of reporting them and some per- formed in private clinics aren’t in- cluded, That figure is almost one- ’ quarter of reported live births — in the United States the figure is a revolting 40%. Under the euphemisms, the equivocations, the flannel-mouth- ed assertions of timorous politi- cians graveiy acknowledging “rights,” the learned decisions of judges defining them, the liberal lobbies demanding more of them, and the pedantic arguments over when life “‘begins” — under all that load of moral rubbish, the fact is that human life is being killed. This is the Killing Fields of Canada. The second story is even more repulsive. This was the concern, raised by a consultant for the Royal Commission on Reproduc- tive Technologies, that the amount of available fetal tissue could decline. You see, other means of fore- stalling birth, such as the abortion pill, could cut off the current *‘ample supply’’ of fetal tissue from “‘therapeutic”’ abortions. Get that? A speculation that ‘*we” may need what is actually being called ‘embryo farming”’ for purposes of the biomedical and pharmaceutical industries. How close to Nazism can you get? How close to what the histo- rian H.R. Trevor-Roper once called, in another context, ‘‘the posthumous triumph of Hitler from the grave?’’ That, I say in the deepest sin- cerity, is the slippery slope on which civilized society put its foot when it gave sanction to the two (sometimes one) parties who con- Trevor Lautens GARDEN OF BIA SES fronted an ‘‘unwanted" result by getting rid of a third party — an innocent without, as the Supreme Court of Canada solemnly decid- ed, a shred of legal right. Less than a beaten dog. Less than a spotted owl, } want to be scathingly clear on this, to dispel any hypocrisy on my part: as I’ve publicly said be- fore, the Tempter has visited me too, as cunning!y and coaxingly as his wicked art allowed. I have five children. Not one of them came into this world **con- veniently.”" The first came when I was ‘too young.” The youngest came when I was *‘too old."’ The others came when | didn’t have cnough money, cr enough time, or a big enough house, or a smal! enough temper. Yet I love those children most dearly, between annoyance at their many interruptions of the majestic flow of my prose and even the majestic flow of my sleep, to say nothing of my indignation that they demand more olives meant for my martinis than | care to give them, : Not even a plastic let alone plaster saint resides behind this column. But every one of those five is precious beyond description, and the thought that any of their be- ings could have been destroyed fills me with a great and terrible . horror. And that is only the mild posi- tion on the matter. For the pow- erful one, ask their mothers. Furthermore: Who knows if the Tempter will show up again, 00z- ing even greater charm, in- gratiating himself with even more sympathetic ‘‘reasonableness,’” even slyer rationalizations? Unlikely, perhaps: as I confided to my notebook some time ago, as one grows older one is faithful not so much to one’s mate as to one’s children. But if that faltering should happen, I would hope — even pray, I don’t mind saying, and I without a church of any kind — that I could distinguish without hesitation between the responsible and the innocent. And, having said so much, I'd say one thing more — knowing that these words will be read not only by the virtuous and the perfectly behaved of either sex but, yes, by the older and wiser woman too, the woman who may have her own sad memory or long-repressed secret: I wouldn’t make, or re-make, abortion criminal. I’d sooner make self-respect compulsory. And, when that falters or fails, the acceptance of birth a joy, the only investment on this earth that matters. And a snap of the fingers in the faces of both the ‘‘progressives’’ and the prudes. = March is kidney month in Canada. $ THE KIDNEY FOUNDATION OF CANADA Barristers & Solicitors Personal Injury AFTER HOURS FREE INITIAL CONSULTATION FAX Criminal Matters Only 986-4366 986-9286 926-3181 #300-1401 LONSDALE, NORTH VANCOUVER, BC. We can’t live without you. IT’S BUDGET TIME With it, comes the challenge of providing value for dollar for our taxpayers, while meeting short and long term needs of the community. That’s why, before we roll up our sleeves and get into the details of balancing revenues and expenditures, we'd like to invite your involvement in the budget process. Join Council and staff in Council Chambers at Municipat Hall, 355 West Queens Road, at 7:30 p.m. Don't feel you have to be an economist to participate — we're not going to be focusing on the facts and figures. The meeting is more a forum for discussion of how priorities are integrated into the budget, for the overall well-being of the District. 987-7133 For more information, contact the District of North Vancouver .. ‘¢ MONEY BACK GUARANTEE* *. | | JOIN US AND YOU WILL BE WELCOMED TO A RELAXING EVENI OF POWER HYPNOSIS. You will get comfortable as ROMANE hypnotizes you severai times. Thousands have experienced: NO CRAVINGS NO WITHDRAWAL NO WEIGHT PROBLEMS So simple a child can do it! 3-4 pack a day smokers have quit easily with ROMANE! When you are hyp- notized, you will feel totally relaxed and absorbed by ROMANE'S GIFTED VOICE. You will HEAR Music specially composed for hypnosis. You will FEEL as if you are floating on a cloud as you hear ROMANE'S mesmerizing suggestions. You will enjoy a wondrous dreamlike journey to special places in your mind. This is where hypnosis WORKS LIKE MAGIC to change habits. ony 949% Altend another seminar without charge if you ever need help again. We're there if you need us! What will you do with that EXTRA MONEY? What new HEALTH BENEFITS will you experience? Over 350,000 Canadians have already attended Romane's winning seminar. ‘ GO FOR IT! YOU'LL BE GLAD YOU DID! There’s an EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT RESERVE YOUR TICKETS TODAY! UNABLE TO ATTEND? Order the comptete seminar on audio cassettes by calling $-(604) 538-1111 | L : "I THE ORIGINAL ecvane™ SEMINAR, IMITATED BUT NOT EQUALLED! Final Seminars. }e - before this fall! - NORTH VANCOUVER internatianal Plaza 1999 Marine Dr. WED. MAR. 25, 7 PM SURREY . Sheraton inn Guildford’ 152nd St. & 104th Ave. THURS. MAR. 26,7 PM ADVANCE: Only $49.99 Door: $59.95 Plus G.S.T. and agency fee if applicable. | Registration begins 1 hr. belore start time. BE GUARANTEED A SEAT PURCHASE YOUR TICKET TODAY! It's like getting THREE seminars tor the price of one... SMOKING, WEIGHT and STRESS CONTROL are ALL INCLUDED. In hypnosis, you are NOT ASLEEP. You are SUPERALERT, SUPERAWARE, YOU ARE IN CONTROL. After hypnosis, you will feel REFRESHED, ALERT, FULL OF ENERGY and confident. + | FREE. ", LIFETIME ' PASS" Tickets at CHARGE BY PHONE 280-4444 (Your tickets will be waiting at the door)