Thursday, October 12, 2017

Is Jagmeet Singh pro-life or pro-choice?

By all accounts the NDP's new leader Jagmeet Singh is a practicing Sikh: here, here and here.

And Sikhism is pretty much against abortion except in a couple of circumstances:
"While Sikhism denounces abortion, allowance in circumstances such as when the life or health of the mother is judged by competent medical authority to be in serious jeopardy, or when the fetus is known by competent medical authority to have serious defects that will not allow the baby to survive beyond birth. In all other cases such as unfit parents, rape, failed contraceptive, social and economic factors abortion is wrong. Those who are unable to raise a child because of number of different reason; adoption is a wonderful alternative that should be considered."
Sikhism is also against female gendercide through abortion:
"Unfortunately abortion is portrayed as a quick and easy process, however the reality of the operation is not covered. Abortion is not a benign procedure. It is the violent and unnatural destruction of a living human being. It not only harms the baby but psychologically impacts the mother.
It is common in Indian culture, to prefer the birth of boys over girls. As a result of this, families put pressure on women to abort females in pursuit of having boys. This is a great epidemic in particularly amongst the Panjabi community in India, however it is also practiced by people living abroad who will sometimes go back to India to have a sex scan if they are refused one in UK."
So. How does Jagmeet Singh reconcile these Sikh values with the NDP party's being officially "pro-choice"?

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