Pro-life organizations are welcoming a private-member’s bill to ban late-term abortion in Canada drafted by two Saskatchewan political candidates in this October’s federal election.
The bill, called the Protection of Preborn Children Act, will be submitted to Parliament if either Paul Mitchell or Laura-Lynn Thompson are elected in two Red Deer ridings for the People’s Party of Canada.
“To have federal candidates talking about an actual piece of legislation is a good step forward in this conversation,” said Tabitha Ewert, legal counsel for We Need a Law. “I think it’s really important that Canadians see what an actual piece of abortion legislation looks like.”
The Supreme Court of Canada struck down Canada’s abortion law in 1988 and encouraged Parliament to replace it with a new constitutionally sound law, but every attempt to pass new abortion legislation has failed.
“Canadians aren’t necessarily aware that Canada has no law restricting abortion nor how out of step this is with the rest of democratic world – most European countries restrict abortion after the first trimester,” Ewert said.
She urged Canadians to talk to their candidates about the issue. “This is a great opportunity for pro-life Canadians to talk to politicians about this issue and about the importance of passing legislation that protects pre-born children,” Ewert said.
Mitchell and Thompson held a press conference in Red Deer Aug. 7 to release copies of their bill, which would restrict abortion to 24 weeks of life. The legislation would allow exceptions in the case of rape and abuse, if the mother’s health was at risk, or if the baby had a lethal abnormality or no cognitive function.
Alissa Golob of the pro-life organization Right Now called the bill “a great piece of legislation,” but said “the PPC is polling so low, it’s highly unlikely it will be put forward by a member from their party since polling consistently shows none of their candidates have a chance of winning.”
Right Now is trying to persuade pro-life voters to vote strategically for pro-life candidates in the election. “There are over 100 extremely strong candidates running in key ridings that can actually win, and therefore pro-life supporters should devote all our resources, volunteer hours and most of all, our vote to them.”
Mitchell and Thompson called for non-partisan support from other politicians, calling their bill a reasonable attempt to find something Canadians – pro-life and pro-choice – can agree on.
Canada is the only democratic country without an abortion law, Mitchell said, and while he and Thompson would prefer more extensive limits on abortion, they opted for “a very reasonable type of a middle ground bill that would be in any other country considered acceptable.”
The Protection of Preborn Children Act is an attempt to find “something Canadians can find common ground on” when it comes to abortion, he said.
The bill has already received support from 30 PPC candidates across the country since it was launched. For more information and to see the bill visit Preborn.ca.
Based on data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information, the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada says 3.2 per cent of hospital abortions took place after 21 weeks in 2017 and estimates the percentage of abortions at 21+ weeks at hospitals and clinics is 0.66 percent.
However pro-life blogger Patricia Maloney, who has investigated late-term abortions using freedom of information laws, says very few late-term abortions are reported to the CIHI and the vast majority of reported abortions in Canada don’t include gestational age.
The number of late-term abortions reported also appears to be on the rise, from 549 in 2007 to 706 in 2017.
Mitchell pointed out that when the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the old abortion law in the 1988 Morgentaler decision, all the justices agreed the state has a compelling interest in defending the unborn, especially after the second trimester. The bill includes quotes from each of the justices, stating their views on the role of the state on the protection of the unborn.