VANCOUVER, March 14, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Most Canadians are in favour of proposed legislation that would make it a separate crime if a fetus dies when a mother is attacked, a new Angus Reid Strategies poll has found.
In the online survey of a representative national sample, 70 per cent of respondents support the Unborn Victims of Crime Act, while 19 per cent express opposition.
Critics of the bill have stated that it could become a way to restore limits on abortion in Canada because it legally recognizes the existence of the fetus as a victim. However, the survey found that most Canadians disagree with this view. More than half of respondents (53%) think the Unborn Victims of Crime Act simply intends to punish offenders who knowingly harm a fetus in an attack against the mother. One-in-four (24%) see the bill as a veiled attempt to recriminalize abortion.
The Unborn Victims of Crime Act-which has been approved by the House of Commons but heads to committee for further discussion and examination-was introduced by Conservative Member of Parliament Ken Epp and is backed by Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
In the survey, 52 per cent of Conservative Party voters express strong support for the bill, while the proportion is lower among New Democratic Party (NDP) voters (47%), Liberals (37%), Greens (34%) and Bloc Québécois supporters (33%).
Only 17 per cent of Conservative Party supporters think the Unborn Victims of Crime Act is really about re-criminalizing abortion in Canada, while the number increases among respondents who would vote for the NDP (22%), the Liberals (25%), the Greens (34%) and the Bloc (37%).
Women (74%) are slightly more in favour of the proposed legislation than men (66%). Female respondents (19%) are also less likely than male respondents (29%) to perceive the Unborn Victims of Crime Act as an attempt to recriminalize abortion in Canada.