...Though Chong's clear intent with this bill is to give more power to the MPs and reduce the power of the Prime Minister and other other party leaders, I believe that possible consequences of this bill are that certain MPs may gain the power to reopen the abortion debate with a view of criminalizing abortion. This should be a wake-up call to the Liberals, NDP, Conservatives and all Canadians who support a women's right to choose.
Please consider the following:
On Sept. 26, 2012, Stephen Woodworth, a Conservative MP, tabled a private member's bill in the form of a motion intended to strike a 12-member, all-party committee to study the definition of when a newborn can legally be considered a human being. At the time this motion was defeated 203-91.
Currently the Criminal Code declares that a child is a human being when it emerges alive from the mother's womb.
If this motion had passed and if Parliament had then passed a follow-up bill amending the Criminal Code to say that life, for example, commenced after 12 weeks in a womb, then any woman and doctor engaged in an abortion after 12 weeks of pregnancy could be held criminally responsible for killing a human being. For Woodworth and his bill's supporters to suggest that his bill was not an attempt to criminalize abortion is an insult to everyone's intelligence.
Read the whole column in The Huffington Post
