News

Thursday May 13, 2010


Cardinal Ouellet to Canadian Gvmt: Take Stand For Life at Home Too

By Patrick B. Craine

OTTAWA, Ontario, May 13, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Archbishop of Quebec and Primate of Canada, applauded the Conservative-led Canadian government at the March for Life on Parliament Hill today, for its refusal to fund abortions in the developing world. At the same time, however, he called on the government to replicate this policy at home.

“We support this stance of the government not to finance abortion in countries of the Third World,” he told the cheering crowd of over 12,000. “But we would like some more courage, some more courage to do something more in Canada.“

Following several months of pressure from the opposition parties, the government announced last month that their initiative to promote maternal and child health as president of this June’s G8 summit would not include support for abortion.

They appealed in particular to the March 23rd defeat of a Liberal motion in parliament that called on the government to “include the full range of family planning, sexual and reproductive health options” in the G8 initiative. The motion’s defeat, in a vote of 144-138, came as a shock to politicians and observers, and only happened because 13 Liberals were absent or abstained and three – Paul Szabo, Dan McTeague, and John McKay – opposed it on principle.

Despite the government’s exclusion of abortion from their G8 initiative, however, they have continued to insist on upholding the domestic status quo of taxpayer-funded abortion-on-demand throughout all 9 months of pregnancy. Just recently the prime minister’s office denounced a private member’s bill from Conservative MP Rod Bruinooge that seeks to protect women from being coerced into abortion, and even refused to state whether the Conservatives would allow a free vote.

Cardinal Ouellet thanked the attendees at the march for defending the unborn and called on all to speak out also “in defense of life until the end.”

“I thank you for standing up in defense of the unborn – those who cannot come to life, those who cannot develop and enrich our country because their right to be born is negated,” he said. “The battle for life, the right for life, is a spiritual battle, so we pray. It is also a cultural battle, and it is a juridical battle, so that’s why we come together and we ask for justice.”

“Thanks for coming out and sending a message of conscience to our country,” he added.