Conservatives Attempt to Outlaw Abortion in Canada
Read the story in The Canadian Press by Sue Baily HERE. or see it below.
OTTAWA - A Conservative MP brought the families of murdered women to Parliament Hill on Thursday to back legislation that would treat unborn babies as separate victims when their mothers are killed or attacked.
Ken Epp said his private member's bill is needed to legally recognize the unborn when they are slain or harmed by crimes against their mothers.
The Unborn Victims of Crime Act is narrowly focused to allow charges only where a fetus is hurt during a criminal act, he told a news conference.
But the bill, to be voted on March 5, has been assailed by critics who say it's a sneaky bid to slip fetal rights into Canadian law.
"It definitely is a back-door attempt to attack abortion rights," said Joyce Arthur of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada.
"It's trying to create a form of legal personhood for fetuses. And under the Criminal Code, you don't become a person until you exit the birth canal alive.
"If you give any kind of rights to a fetus - if you recognize it as a person, as this bill does - it automatically conflicts with a woman's established, constitutional rights."
It's an argument that has helped derail similar legislation in the past.
Epp insists the bill is about trying to right a legal wrong. He cited several cases where the killer of a pregnant woman was charged for her death - but not that of her fetus. That's because the law does not recognize the unborn as human beings until they are born alive.
"I'm very distressed that the issue of abortion keeps coming up when we're talking about an individual who has chosen not to go that route," Epp said. "The bill only takes effect for women who are victims of a criminal act."
It's not a crime in Canada for a woman to seek an abortion, therefore access to abortion is not affected, he stressed.
Mary Talbot's 19-year-old daughter, Olivia, was shot to death in Edmonton in 2005 by a delusional childhood friend. The killer is now serving a life sentence but was never charged in the death of Olivia's infant son.
"Imagine our amazement when we heard that the killer would not have any consequences for brutally taking the life of our grandson," said Talbot. "How could this be possible?"
Epp cited legal advisers who've told him the bill is constitutional and would not change the Criminal Code in any way that might undermine a woman's right to abortion.
Arthur vehemently disagrees. Exemptions in the bill may mean that it can't be used to restrict abortion, she said.
"But certainly it can be used as a bootstrap measure. We'll see further laws, further measures introduced that will cite this law as the basis.
"Obviously it's a wedge in the door to attack abortion rights."
It could also lead to the criminalization of pregnant women whose behaviour might be deemed harmful to their fetus, Arthur said.
A separate law isn't needed to ensure those who kill or harm unborn babies are punished, she added. Police, judges and parole boards can already take that into account when deciding on charges, sentencing and probation.
"What we really need are measures to protect women from domestic violence. We know that violence against women tends to increase during pregnancy ... and shortly after."
Private members' bills rarely pass and MPs privately say this one is not expected to win required support.
An early election would also force supporters back to square one.
Talbot isn't convinced it would be easy to find another Tory MP to take on the cause. The wider Conservative government is "terrified" to take on the contentious issue because it never fails to rekindle abortion debates, she said.
Liberal justice critic Dominic LeBlanc says he'll vote against the bill on March 5.
"I'm not convinced that it's constitutional," he said. "I think we're coming very close to indirectly legislating rights to an unborn child which have been held to be unconstitutional in abortion cases before the Supreme Court."
His opposition "takes nothing away from the horrible tragedy these families faced," LeBlanc stressed.
Such brutal circumstances "require severe criminal penalties," he said. "But I don't think this legislation is the best way to achieve that."
So again we see the prestidigitation at work within the Conservative Government. Always do they attempt to "slip matters under the public gaze". This Bill is exclusively to prevent abortion in Canada by a government that does not believe in Women's Rights. A pregnant female has no guarantee that the birth will be full-term. Many have miscarriages or even still birth. The unborn fetus is not a person and it never will be. A government wants to outlaw abortion to protect life while reintroducing the death penalty into Canada. Such is the logic of the Conservatives and all who support them. They do not belong in Canada, they should all move to Alabama.
