Ignatieff wants me to pay for foreign abortions?

I have a strong suspicion that Donolo and Ignatieff were sitting in a closed door strategy session deciding how they could possibly get conservatives talking about abortion. Iggy suggests "I have a great idea, let's demand that the government spend Canadian tax dollars on foreign abortions during an economic recession!" Then comes the fist pumps and self adulation. I don't care if you are pro choice or pro life, is it now our role to pay for foreign abortions?

"If you're going to invest in women, you've got to invest in the full gamut of reproductive health services,"  Ignatieff said

There is a very high probability that the entire purpose of this Ignatieff statement and press release is to goad certain people into making loud public statements about their beliefs on a divisive issue. Don't take the bait. The appropriate response to the direct challenge that we advocate the western tax payer funding of third world abortions, whether you are pro choice or pro life, is the rejection of the idea that this is something we should be spending money on. I know how excited Iggy is to spend money if he could attain power; yesterday with the national day care, today with subsidized foreign abortions, tomorrow who knows?

With each passing day, his statements grow more familiar to those of the NDP. Iggy is beginning to sound like the NDP in his policy statements, which strongly suggests that he is preparing a legislative coalition with Layton when Parliament resumes. He is lining up their freaking talking points! The difference between the two parties is blurring, either because Iggy wants to repeat Dion's mistake and woo the NDP's right flank; or they are merging agendas ahead of a possible seizure of power to smooth the synergy.

I can be pro choice and not want my tax dollars to pay for abortions in foreign countries. My own feeling on abortion is that I am pro choice, but I am more uncomfortable with the idea the larger the fetus grows. How did I come to my opinion? My mother is pro choice, and having grown and birthed four children in her belly, I defer to her expert opinion on the subject of lives in belies. My mother and my sisters have given birth to 8 children between them, and they are all pro choice. Is the baby brother with no children going to tell them that they are wrong?  I also do not believe that a woman who is raped should be forced to have the child, and if you make rape a pre-condition to abortion you are creating a moral hazard similar to Pandora's Box.

But it is a belief, and I have no objection to people who believe it is wrong to kill a living human being, regardless of whether or not it has attained consciousness. What you believe is a choice, and I would not object to having a national referendum on the matter to settle the argument. My only apprehension is that the left would exploit it as an opportunity to attack the Tories alleging a secret agenda to remove freedom of choice.

To all my fellow Tories looking at polls, there are a lot of people who are pro choice who don't want to subsidize foreign abortions. Focus on that when responding to Iggy's goading statement today. He might have over-swung on this one, sneak in a quick upper cut. Team Igg are trying to enflame divisions in beliefs among Canadians on a divisive issue at a time when they sense an opportunity. They are throwing out all these NDP policies because they sense an advantage, even if just the vague outline of an oasis in a hot difficult dessert.

"Life isn't fair. It's just fairer than death, that's all."

-William Goldman, "The Princess Bride"