OTTAWA—A Conservative MP is calling on Canadians and her fellow MPs to rally around an effort to stop abortions based on the sex of a child after introducing a private member’s bill in the House of Commons Feb. 26.
“In a country which seeks to foster equality between men and women, the practice of using abortion for sex selection needs to be prohibited,” said Yorkton—Melville MP Cathay Wagantall.
“Eighty-four percent of Canadians are against sex selective abortion. Legislators have the responsibility to ensure that it is prohibited by law. Sex selective abortion is antithetical to our commitment to equality and needs to be prohibited as an unacceptable practice.”
Wagantall’s effort to raise the issue of abortion for debate in the House of Commons is being praised by pro-life groups.
“Canada is the only democratic country in the world that has no abortion law. We know that this complete lack of restrictions means abortion is used for sex selection, which is inherently discrimination. As a society that values equality of the sexes, we have an opportunity here to take a stand against the inequality manifest in deciding a child’s wantedness based on their sex,” said Tabitha Ewert, legal counsel for the organization We Need a Law.
According to Wagantall, the legislation she proposes would create a new penalty “for medical practitioners who knowingly perform an abortion when the sole reason is the genetic sex of the pre-born child.”
This is Wagantall’s second effort at changing the law in Canada on abortion. She introduced a private members bill in February 2016 called the “Protection of Pregnant Women and Their Preborn Children Act” that was eventually defeated in the House on Oct 19, 2016, by a vote of 209-76.
“It is true that the majority of Canadians agree to having access to abortion,” Wagantall said, but she said it is also true that the vast majority of Canadians are against sex selection as a reason for an abortion and that “we have a responsibility to widely condemn this practice that is going on in Canada.”
“If we truly want equality, then we must stand in defense of equality,” she said.
Wagantall’s proposed bill is not the first time this specific issue has been raised by an MP in the House of Commons. In 2012, a motion to “condemn discrimination against females occurring through sex-selective pregnancy termination” was put forward by Conservative MP Mark Warawa.
Numerous motions and proposed private members’ bills have come forward since the late 1980s from members of the Conservatives, Liberals and former Reform and Canadian Alliance parties, none of which have received the required support in the House of Commons to change Canadian law.
Wagantall said sex-selective abortion, which often targets females, goes against what all Canadians stand for.
“Our silence condones and possibly perpetuates the practice of sex selection,” she said. “Canada must act now to condemn this practice and to make it apparent to all that Canada values women and equality. If there is even one female pre-born child who is terminated because of her sex, we need to act.”
We Need A Law hopes Wagantall’s fellow MPs will act too. “We support her efforts to engage her colleagues in the ongoing abortion conversation in Canada, and hope to see hearts and minds changed through the debate around this bill,” said Ewert. The organization is distributing petitions in support of the bill.
Pro-life organization Right Now has an online petition available on its website.