Battle looms over motion on sex-selective abortion
OTTAWA – A Conservative backbencher’s motion on sex-selective abortions caught the ire of opposition parties Wednesday, with the NDP and Liberal leaders claiming it was another attempt to outlaw abortion, while the MP behind the proposal called it a stand for human rights.
The volleys over Tory MP Mark Warawa’s motion are part of an ongoing tug of war between anti-abortion MPs who want to claim the motion for their cause, and advocates who want to keep the proposal distanced from the politically controversial abortion debate.
The last Tory backbencher to have an abortion-related motion, Stephen Woodworth, made similar arguments when his motion on reviewing the country’s legal definition of when life begins was voted down in September by a vote of 203 to 91, with 87 of the votes supporting him coming from the Tory caucus.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper voted against the controversial motion, but 10 of his cabinet ministers broke ranks and supported Woodworth in the free vote. Shortly after the vote, Warawa introduced his motion.
Warawa repeatedly told a press conference that his motion, and the online campaign he launched Wednesday to have Parliament approve the motion, was about condemning a practice that sees female fetuses aborted because of their sex — not about criminalizing abortion.
Warawa is asking the Commons to approve his motion to “condemn discrimination against females occurring through sex-selective pregnancy termination.”
Statistics published in April in the Canadian Medical Association Journal suggested parents from some cultural backgrounds terminate pregnancies because the fetus is female.
A January 2012 Angus Reid poll found that about two-thirds of respondents, including an almost equal number of women, were in favour of laws prohibiting abortion based on gender.
Despite what he saw as widespread support for his motion, Warawa said he wasn’t interested in having the Commons conduct any studies or draft legislation to outlaw the practice. Approving legislation would take months “if not years,” he said, and indicated he wanted to see something done now.