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Australian Democratic leader Senator Lyn Allison has taken a novel approach to explaining her pro-choice position. Last night in the Senate she said, "An estimated one in three women have had an abortion, and I am one of them."

Sen. Allison also noted that if she hadn’t terminated her pregnancy at 18 years old, she wouldn’t be in the Senate now.

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On her own ... colleagues have distanced themselves from the comments of Federal Liberal MP Danna Vale. (ABC)

Vale's Muslim comment 'off the planet'

Prime Minister John Howard has been urged to reprimand a Liberal Party backbencher who suggested Australia could become dominated by Muslims because of the abortion rate.

Yesterday Danna Vale expressed concern about suggestions Australia could become a Muslim nation within 50 years and said Australians are "aborting themselves out of existence".

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Australia is having a debate over RU486.

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[ 14 February 2006: Message edited by: fern hill ]

The logic seems to be to encourage "our" women to reproduce more than they seem inclined to do, and why? So that the immigrant hordes won't overwhelm the native population. *note: heavy sarcasm in the preceding paragraph*

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Originally posted by skdadl:
Which Quebec political leader got in trouble for comments like that a decade or so ago?

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That would be Lucien Bouchard. If I remember correctly, it was during the pre-referendum period, and I'm not sure if his comments were intended as a defense or a promotion of large family allowances. Women used to get huge baby bonuses here during the 1980s, and there was talk about bringing them back as an incentive to crank up the birth rate among Quebeckers. But his comments just came off as hopelessly quaint and out of touch, especially to the new generation of women who had just reached child-bearing age.

"Eastern Shore-Musquodoboit Valley Coun. Steve Streatch urged metro residents yesterday to consider having more children to stop the population decline - instead of relying on immigration, which could "dilute our population."

Streatch made the comments as the Halifax Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce presented a report on the economic future of the region, which included recommendations to increase immigration.

Ex-Maritime Life CEO Bill Black, who headed up the volunteers who produced the report, said unless the population increases "the old-fashioned way," metro's population will decline, making immigration crucial to improving the city's economy.

Streatch said residents should be encouraged to have more children."