The Editor,
Re: "Canada needs abortion law," Letters, June 20. An Angus Reid poll of 2008 found 49 per cent of Canadians want abortion to be legal in all circumstances, 27 per cent want abortions legal with some restrictions, 11 per cent want abortions only for rape, incest and when the woman's life is in danger and five per cent want no abortions at all.
An EKOS poll of 2010 found 52 per cent of Canadians are pro-choice, 27 per cent are pro-life and 11 per cent are neither pro-choice, nor pro-life.
Clearly, the vast majority of Canadians want abortion to be legal and the reason successive parliaments have not opened this debate is simply because the people who do want it re-opened are the ones who want it banned, not restricted.
Canadians feel it should be up to women to control their own bodies and not some religious leaders, who all happen to be older males, to get on their "hobby horses" and try to tell women what is best for them.
Ever since the invention of the birth control pill, women have enjoyed making decisions about if and when they will get pregnant, and do not need to be told by religious leaders that it is their duty to go forth and multiply at the expense of their health and well being.
Legalizing abortion is another step in the emancipation of women in having complete control of their own bodies.
Alan Halliday Richmond
