Go Ahead. Reopen the Debate. Just Know You’re Gonna Lose.
A secretive pro-life Parliamentary caucus has decided, twenty years too late, that we need to reopen the debate on abortion. So far, however, it seems only one MP involved in the caucus, Conservative MP Rod Bruinooge, has come out of the closet and publicly voiced his pro-life opinions:
“Very few Canadians appreciate the fact that essentially until a child takes its first breath, it has less value than a kidney,” says Bruinooge.
“In Canada you can’t remove your kidney and put it on eBay and auction it off. That is illegal. Whereas you actually can end a beating heart of an unborn child the second before it’s delivered. Most Canadians would agree that is truly a poor bioethical position for our country to be in.”
Bruinooge, you fail at coming up with analogies. How, exactly, is selling a kidney on eBay analogous to abortion?
The Prime Minister’s Office issued a statement saying that the government has no intention of reopening the debate. The Conservative Party platform does not have a position on abortion, and while they do not officially support the procedure, they won’t submit legislation limiting it, either. The pro-life movement did managed to find a back door, however, in the form of Resolution P-207. This resolution would “ensure that individuals who commit violence against a pregnant woman would face additional charges if her unborn child was killed or injured during the commission of a crime against the mother.” It sounds a lot like Bill C-484, which would make killing a fetus a separate offense from the assault of a pregnant woman. Obviously, critics of the bill were quick to point out that, were this bill to pass, it would open the door for an abortion ban. It’s likely that if P-207 is proposed as a bill in Parliament, it will be met with the same criticisms, and the same fate.
Now, in the interest of being fair and democratic, I see no reason why the debate can’t be reopened. It’s definitely a controversial issue, and the are Canadians who want to see new legislation introduced; I can’t think of a good reason why we can’t discuss the issue, and I think that it’s important that all Canadians, even anti-choice Canadians, feel that their views are at the very least listened to. That being said, we in the pro-choice camp have a few things we’d like addressed, too, like ensuring that all women have guaranteed access to publicly funded abortions. At this time, there is no access to abortion in Nunavut or Prince Edward Island, no public funding for abortion in New Brunswick, and only partial funding in Quebec and Nova Scotia (source). This is a serious problem, and reopening the debate on abortion would mean that accessibility concerns would be addressed.
Anti-choicers point out that Canada has no laws governing abortion, and that the debate should be reopened to address what they see as a glaring legal omission. As far as I’m concerned, however, that point was decided in 1988, in R. v. Morgentaler. In that case, it was decided that abortion laws were a violation of Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantee life, liberty, and the security of person. Any abortion law that would be drafted, today, would be subject to that 1988 precedent, and struck down by the courts as a Section 7 violation. I’ve got no problem with reopening the debate, because the issue’s already been decided. Abortion is something that is to be decided by a woman and her doctor, and the government can stay the fuck out.
I am concerned, however, with the secrecy surrounding this Parliamentary pro-life caucus. Why is this caucus unwilling to release the names of its members? Why are the MPs, themselves, reluctant to voice their opinions on this subject? If you’d like to reopen the debate, then its time to show your colours.
