Abortion-Terrorism Comment Gets Canadian MP in Hot Water
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
June 8, 2004
Ottawa, Canada (LifeNews.com) — Conservative member of Canadian Parliament Cheryl Gallant has gotten herself in some political hot water for comments she made comparison abortion and terrorism.
Gallant is quoted in an article in the Western Catholic Reporter newspaper commenting about the murder of American Nicholas Berg at the hands of terrorists in Iraq. Berg was beheaded and video of the slaying was shown on a web site that backs al-Qaeda.
"She compared the killing to the abortions performed in Canada over 35 years and said it is ‘absolutely no different’," the article said
Conservative Prime Minister candidate Stephen Harper didn’t condemn Gallant’s comment but sought to distance his party from it.
"Cheryl Gallant is a very strong pro-life MP, and this is the rhetoric that the pro-life movement often uses," Harper told CTV. "It’s their business. I don’t think it’s particularly effective in changing public opinion."
Harper himself has been under fire for suggesting that he supports legal abortions, and funded with taxpayer dollars.
In April, Karen Hughes, an adviser for President Bush, drew the ire of abortion advocates when she said that Americans have a greater respect for life in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
In response to April’s pro-abortion march, where attendance was significantly less than the more than one million people organizers predicted would attend, Hughes said:
"I think after September 11, the American people are valuing life more and I think those are the kind of policies the American people can support, particularly at a time when we’re facing an enemy, and really, the fundamental difference between us and the terror network we fight is that we value every life."
"It’s the founding conviction of our country, that we’re endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights, the right to life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness," Hughes added. "Unfortunately our enemies in the terror network, as we’re seeing repeatedly in the headlines these days, don’t value any life, not even the innocent and not even their own."
But Planned Parenthood president Gloria Feldt criticized Hughes for invoking the terrorist attacks in the context of the abortion debate.
Yet others, including a member of Congress, rose to Hughes’ defense. Others pointed out occasions on which abortion advocates compared pro-life supporters to terrorists.
