http://imprint.uwaterloo.ca/pdfarchive/1972-73_v13,n23_Chevron

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Eleanor Pelrine on abortion “King Pierre has held the carrot in front of the Canadian electorate on yet another issue.” Trudeau, Eleanor Pelrine told about 40 people at UW tuesday, after many promises of an imminent parliamentary debate on the abortion issue and the ‘reform’ law, is now crying “murder” and “no concensus.” Pelrine, author of a book called “Abortion in Canada”, places the blame for the chaotic situation surrounding the abortion issue squarely on the government. Since her book was published two years ago, she has travelled the country speaking to interested groups and calling for the repeal of all abortion laws. She bases her argument on the premise that abortion is a matter of individual choice and individual decision. “It wonders me?” Pelrine says gently, “that those women who have the traditional role in society of raising children do not have the choice of having them.” A large, attractive woman who speaks smoothly and intelligently, she stood for election in the recent federal election in the Eglinton riding in Toronto, where she opposed Mitchell Sharpe, “self appointed chief apologist for Pierre Trudeau”. Although she believes that needed social reforms are possible through the electoral system of party politics, she has plenty of criticism for her own party, the NDP as well as for the governing Liberals. While sticking fairly strictly to her abortion topic, she admitted to “paranoia” about ‘ ‘King Pierre’ ’ and his powerful cohorts. She hopes to convince the NDP’s upper echelon in Ottawa which is now in the position of holding the balance of power in Parliament, that abortion is a major national issue. She notes, however, that the party leadership is none too close to her own views on the matter, even though NDP policy favors repeal. NDP governments in Manitoba and Saskatchewan were criticized for their lack of action on the issue, though Pelrine holds higher hopes for B.C. Pelrine noted that the government attempts to place the blame for the failure of the abortion law on the “conservative medical profession”, when, in fact, “the law was not working at all”. The

Canadian Medical Association, Psychiatric Association, and various provincial and community have all come out in support of repeal. The present law, said Pelrine, “places an impossible burden on women and the medical profession”. Referring to the bureaucracy involved in obtaining a therapeutic abortion through the hospital boards, she denied the necessity for the medical paperwork involved as well as -the damaging psychological ordeal for the women who waits for the fate of her unwanted pregnancy to be decided by three unknown people, in many cases, men. . She estimates that only half the hospitals in Canada with at least a one-hundred-bed capacity have set up therapeutic abortion committees. “Many hospitals refuse to establish committees because they are ‘religious’ hospitals, even though they are publicly finanted.” Those hospitals which do have the structures usually also have quotas limiting the number of abortions done in any given period. Also the standards for approval of therapeutic abortions vary with the individual committees. Pelrine notes that of an estimated 100-150,000 women who will seek to end unwanted pregnancies in Canada this year, only 50,000 will receive legal abortions here. Some will travel to the states or elsewhere, others will turn to illegal, often dangerous methods, and still others will go through with nine months of pregnancy to give the child up for adoption or keep it and try to deal with the backlog of resentment imposed by the unwanted responsibility. The lengthy question period which involved a discussion with two of the few men in the audience on the question of life and the

fhe

University of Waterloo Waterloo, Ontario volume 13, number 23 friday, 10 november, 1972

foetus elicited a comment from Pelrine “people who split hairs with me about when life begins are inevitably male”. She agreed that she was advocating “snuffing out potential life, and I make no apology for that.” Abortion in the first twelve weeks of pregnancy, she said, is safer than tonsillectomy and ends that “potential life” before it is capable of independent survival or even bears much resemblance to the human form. It is important, she said, to consider the woman involved, .her family and other children, and the economic and social environment into which that unwanted child-would be born. Repeal of the abortion laws, Pelrine feels could lead to the establishment of clinics specifically designed to perform abortions in safe and sterile medical conditions on an outpatient basis. She recognizes the need for an effective program of birth control education and availability, but in the final analysis, the decision of when to bear a child belongs to the woman involved and to her alone. -liz

willick

East withdraws

New

student union

OTTAWA (CUP+On november 5, delegates from about 40 Canadian universities and community colleges established a new national student union, but not before representatives from Quebec and the Atlantic provinces had walked out. Creation of the National Union of Students Association Nationale des Etudiants (NUS ANES) followed three days of protracted, and sometimes tedious debate on a constitution proposed by a fourmember steering committee, set up at a previous conference at Windsor last May . But the fledgling organization’s

future is uncertain because potential members must conduct referendums on their campuses before being allowed to join. Although a few student councils have already authorized their delegates to join the new union, only Simon Fraser University has conducted the necessary referendum. Delegates authorized the “central committee” or executive of the NUS to solicit grants from potential members to finance its formative stages. The only committment made at the conference was a grant of $1000 from the University of British Columbia student-council. The Quebec-Atlantic provinces walkout occurred after delegates reached a bitter impasse over methods of membership in the new union. Quebec representatives, who came from the English-speaking universities and some English and French CEGEPS, demanded representation based on region. Loyola, which introduced the proposal wanted all NUS delegates to be appointed by regional student unions, with all five regions of Canada having equal voting power. They were especially adamant that their representation come from the growing Front des Etudiants du Quebec (FEQ), rather than from individual institutions. The Loyala proposal drew on the example of FEQ where Quebec is divided into six regional government bodies. The regions elect a maximum of 100 delegates to a general assembly, but representation is not based on population. Montreal has about 60 percent of the students but only 30 assembly delegates and other regions have at least eleven. The Quebec delegates contended that the method prevents one power bloc from controlling the organization. Each region must meet before an assembly meeting to develop positions scheduled for discussion at the assembly. -continued

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Results of Federation Presidential Election 2,222 students voted, representing 19 per cent of the student body. Shane Roberts 1129 votes (50.3 per cent) John Chisamore 1093 votes (49.7 per cent) Breakdown cent]

by

faculty

Roberts

Eleanor Peirine listens attentively to a questioner Women’s Coalition for Repeal of the Abortion

during Laws.

a discussion

on abortion

sponsored

by the K-W

Env. St. Arts I.S. Science St. Jer. Eng, (in and out term) Renison Math

[per

Chisamore

67 61 83 60 46 50

33 39 40 54 50

50 35

50 65

17

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