Writing in the Western Standard in defence of Alberta’s Bill 207 (“conscience rights”), John Carpay equated providing a woman with a referral for legal healthcare to being morally akin to a referral for female genital mutilation. .“Providing a referral is active participation. This is why the Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario prohibits doctors from performing female genital mutilation (FGM) and also prohibits doctors from referring for this medical service. If it’s wrong to remove portions of a young girl’s genitals, then it’s also wrong to refer her to another doctor who will provide that same service. As in Ontario, Alberta’s College states that ‘no physician should perform such procedures, irrespective of cultural norms in other societies, and no physician should be complicit in allowing such procedures to go ahead.’ To refer for FGM is to be complicit in FGM. Requiring doctors to refer for a service they believe to be wrong is to violate the conscience of doctors.”.In no universe – even some esoteric legal one – should a teenage girl looking for an Intrauterine Device (IUD) referral be equated to men violently cutting off her clitoris..In no universe – even some esoteric legal one – should a victim of a violent rape be lectured about how god wants her to have her rapist’s child when she asks for an effective referral to a doctor willing to prescribe the morning after pill..In no universe – even some esoteric legal one – is a woman’s sovereignty over her own body secondary to the religious freedoms of a doctor who’s paid by the taxpayer to act as the gatekeeper to our universal healthcare system. .John’s remarks came in a Western Standard Debate feature where Cory Morgan – a strong UCP supporter – presents the argument that the existing balance struck by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta is adequate, and that Bill 207 could derail conservative hopes across the country. .“Politically, the damage caused by this bill may be catastrophic. If enough government members support this pointless bill to become legislation, the election of conservative governments across the entire nation will become much more difficult. How can we federally campaign against hidden agenda accusations when a provincial government just passed backdoor legislation to hinder abortion? How can we say (and we did) that a conservative government will never change or legislate on these things?”.If Carpay’s support of Bill 207 is the best religious conservatives can come up with, then this bill deserves to die in committee. Should this bill pass, then Carpay’s comments will forever be linked to this bill and conservatism in general, and the leftist media will repeat it at every opportunity..I’ve long believed that the answer to bad speech, is more speech. To compare women’s reproductive rights to female genital mutilation is vile, particularly given how many women in less secular parts of the world are so maimed in the name of religious purity. I don’t think Mr. Carpay should be censored, fired or deplatformed; but I do think he should issue an apology.
