Wednesday April 14, 2010
Bill to Ban Coerced Abortion Introduced into Canadian Parliament
By John-Henry Westen
OTTAWA, April 14, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – This afternoon Conservative MP Rod Bruinooge, the chair of the pro-life caucus in the Canadian Parliament, introduced a private members bill seeking to stop intimidation and pressure on women to have abortions against their will. Bruinooge said he was inspired to draw up the bill based on the case of a woman from his home town whose boyfriend attempted to coerce her into an abortion.
“We hear stories of women being pressured and threatened and intimidated into having abortions against their will,” explained Bruinooge. “When a woman submits to ending the life of her unborn child because someone else pressured her into, then that abortion is coerced.”
Bruinooge warned that, “Coercion can escalate into violence. Many women have been forced into unwanted abortions; others have been injured or killed for resisting, like Roxanne Fernando, in whose memory I have named this bill.”
“In early 2007, Roxanne Fernando’s boyfriend attempted to coerce her into having an abortion. After backing out on the decision to abort her baby, Roxanne’s boyfriend then chose to have her killed. When someone uses coercion, it can lead to violence. Roxanne’s Law will communicate to all Canadians that coercing a pregnant woman to have an abortion against her will is unacceptable in a nation that values human rights.”
Developing …