Trudeau is Gaslighting Canadians About Abortion

By Hendrik van der Breggen Published on October 4, 2022

On September 30, 2022, Canadians observed National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, a.k.a. “Orange Shirt Day: Every Child Matters.” Amen to that.

But two days earlier, Canada’s Prime Minister promoted the view that not every child matters. How? By his September 28 statement on International Safe Abortion Day.

How can Justin Trudeau get away with this blatant inconsistency?

Answer: By gaslighting Canadians. He’s telling us lies (some bigger than others) so we’ll doubt truth and instead believe his pro-abortion ideology.

Here are six “gaslights” from Trudeau’s statement.

Gaslight 1

Women have a “fundamental right” to choose abortion.

False. Abortion is not a right, according to Canadian law.

Yes, in 1988 Canada’s Supreme Court struck down abortion law that was unfair to women who couldn’t access therapeutic abortion committees. But the court did not grant a fundamental right to abortion.

Gaslight 2

Abortion is a choice women make “for their own bodies.”

Half true. In abortion there are two bodies: the body of the mother and the body of the pre-natal child. Abortion destroys the child’s body.

Gaslight 3

Abortions, “when performed following medical guidelines, are safe.”

Nope. Each abortion is the targeted killing of a pre-natal human being. Abortion suffocates, poisons, and/or tears apart the unborn human being. Only unsuccessful or “botched” abortions are safe for the unborn child.

Also, there can be complications for the mother. See Complications: Abortion’s Impact on Women (book published by DeVeber Institute for Bioethics and Social Research, 2018). See, too, Hush: A Liberating Conversation about Abortion and Women’s Health (documentary directed by Punam Kumar Gill, Mighty Motion Pictures, 2016).

Gaslight 4

Abortion is part of “sexual and reproductive health and rights.”

Nope. Reproduction, i.e., the creation of a child (pre-natal human being) by having sex, occurs before abortion takes place. The right to reproductive freedom (having sex) is exercised before abortion takes place.

The late Michael Bauman, Professor of Theology and Culture at Hillsdale College, observes:

When pro-choicers have unforced sex, they are choosing. That is freedom of choice. When they decide to kill the child conceived during that sexual encounter, that is freedom from choice. They chose; now they want to be free from the consequences of that choice, even if someone has to die.

In other words, justifying abortion via “sexual and reproductive health and rights” is a ruse.

Gaslight 5

Abortion is “an essential health service.”

Nope. Most abortions are not done for medical reasons. Hard cases — rape, incest, threat to mother’s life — account for fewer than five percent of all abortions.

In his 2015 book Beyond The Abortion Wars ethicist Charles Camosy reports that the number for the hard cases is two percent. (Camosy bases his number on research from the Guttmacher Institute, which is a pro-choice organization.)

Moreover — and more significantly — abortion is not even needed medically.

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Dr. Kendra Kolb (neonatologist): “There is no medical reason why the life of the child must be directly and intentionally ended with an abortion procedure.”

Yes, Kolb adds, treatments for ectopic pregnancies occur — but they’re not abortions per se, if we use language accurately.

Yes, treatments for heart disease or cancer can involve pre-term deliveries that might result in the child’s death — but they’re not abortions per se, if we use language accurately.

Medical treatments/procedures have different purposes. This should be made clear with language that accurately describes reality.

And consider this: The Dublin Declaration on Maternal Healthcare (signed by over 1,000 medical professionals) states: “As experienced practitioners and researchers in obstetrics and gynaecology, we affirm that direct abortion — the purposeful destruction of the unborn child — is not medically necessary to save the life of a woman.”

And consider this: Dr. C. Everett Koop in 1980 (when he was Surgeon General of the U.S.) stated the following: “In my 36 years in pediatric surgery I have never known of one instance where the child had to be aborted to save the mother’s life.” (C. Everett Koop, “Deception-on-demand,” Moody Monthly, May 1980, p. 27.)

Abortion is not an essential health service.

Gaslight 6

“Abortion is covered under our universal health care system.”

True. But Trudeau’s statement suggests it also should remain true. It shouldn’t.

Because abortion is a non-essential medical procedure, taxpayers have reasonable grounds for thinking tax dollars need not fund abortions.

If there are social and economic reasons for why mothers feel their only option is abortion, then tax dollars should be directed not to abortion as faux “essential health care” but instead to pregnancy care centers, mothers and families in need, foster care, and adoption agencies.

Surely, social and economic problems require social and economic solutions, not the killing of children.

Conclusion

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is gaslighting the Canadian public. Don’t let him, for the sake of the children. After all, every child matters.

 

Hendrik van der Breggen, PhD, is a retired philosophy professor who lives in Steinbach, Manitoba. Hendrik is author of the book Untangling Popular Pro-Choice Arguments: Critical Thinking about Abortion.

 

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