Conservative MLA clarifies his position on abortion
B.C. Conservatives are facing pressure to clarify their stance on abortion after controversial comments made by one of the party's MLAs.
The debate was ignited after MLA Bruce Banman last Wednesday made a statement in the legislature about Mother's Day and defined motherhood as starting “from the moment of conception.”
The New Democrats and Greens jumped on that phrase, calling it a “dog whistle' — or code words — to anti-abortion campaigners who want to restrict women's access to abortion and reproductive health care.
But on Friday, Banman told Postmedia News: “My stance is a woman has the right to choose what to do with her body.”
And he said it's shameful the NDP is trying to turn his Mother's Day statement into a political wedge issue, adding it's a clear attempt to distract from the governing party's failings on drug decriminalization and the affordability crisis.
Conservative Leader John Rustad did not return a request for comment on Friday.
In a statement on social media Thursday evening, Rustad said he will “not reopen the abortion debate.”
However he did not explicitly state his stand on abortion.
“The 1988 Supreme Court decision is clear,” he said.
“This is not a provincial issue.”
Kelli Paddon, the B.C. NDP's parliamentary secretary for gender equity, said it's not true that provincial politicians have no role in determining access to abortion.
Abortion is not just about the legal right, she said, but about how easily women can access reproductive health services, which is determined by provincial healthcare funding.
“A B.C. Conservative government or minister could easily reduce the access to abortion if they wanted,” Paddon said.
Paddon referred to New Brunswick, where the provincial government refuses to provide funding to private abortion clinics, limiting women to surgical abortions done at just two hospitals.
B.C. Green Leader Sonia Furstenau on Thursday called on the party leaders to affirm their support for reproductive rights in response to “growing concerns about potential federal encroachments on abortion access.”
Premier David Eby said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter: “We will always vigilantly defend a woman's right to choose. We've seen in the U.S. how these rights can be taken away after so long.”
B.C. United Leader Kevin Falcon said Thursday that, “Women have the right to choose. That's been a position of our party for a long time and that position has not changed.”