MP’s bill clashes with Scheer’s pledge not to reopen abortion debate

Saskatchewan Tory proposes law banning sex-selection procedures

OTTAWA—Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer appears to be backtracking on a campaign commitment to stop efforts to reopen the abortion debate, with a Conservative MP allowed to introduce a bill seeking to ban abortions for the purpose of choosing a child’s sex. Saskatchewan MP Cathay Wagantall put forward the proposed law on Wednesday, saying it reflects Canada’s commitment to gender equality.

“It is true that the majority of Canadians agree with having access to abortions,” she said. “It is also true that 84 per cent of Canadians stand against sexselection abortions.”

There is evidence suggesting women in Canada are sometimes choosing to terminate pregnancies based on the fetus’s sex.

A 2016 paper in the Canadian Medical Association Journal found in some communities, women who became pregnant after having an abortion were more likely to give birth to a boy, odds that rose even higher if the woman already had daughters. Using data from Ontario, the researchers found the correlation pronounced in women who had been born in India.

Similar findings have been reported elsewhere, with researchers noting while the data doesn’t prove women terminated their pregnancies because of the sex of the fetus, it is a reasonable conclusion.

Past efforts to debate the issue in Parliament have failed.

In 2013, a Conservative motion condemning the practice was blocked and the Conservative prime minister of the day, Stephen Harper, barred the MP sponsoring it from discussing the matter in the Commons. Harper’s move was linked to his repeated declarations that he wouldn’t allow the abortion debate to be reopened.

How Scheer would handle similar issues was a persistent question put to him during the election campaign.

It took weeks before he acknowledged his own anti-abortion view, which he qualified by saying:

“I’ve also made the commitment that as leader of this party, it is my responsibility to ensure that we do not reopen this debate, that we focus on issues that unite our party and unite Canadians. And that’s exactly what I’ll do and that’s why I’ll vote against measures that attempt to reopen this debate.” Asked Thursday how that statement squares with Wagantall’s bill, a spokesman for Scheer said parliamentarians are free to bring forward business of their own choosing.

“As leader of the Conservatives, Mr. Scheer has always discouraged members of his caucus from introducing items that will open this debate,” Simon Jefferies wrote.

Jefferies said Conservatives would be able to vote how they wished on the bill, but wouldn’t say how Scheer himself would vote.

“Like the overwhelming majority of Canadians, Mr. Scheer finds the practice of getting an abortion specifically to avoid having a baby girl abhorrent,” Jefferies said.