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TORONTO, Ontario, May 23, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau says he would not even advise a woman against aborting her unborn baby simply because she’s a girl because, as he said, the “Liberal Party is the party standing up for people's rights.” The comments have outraged some women’s rights advocates.

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Sun News reporter Marissa Semkiw asked Trudeau about his position on sex-selection abortion. Semkiw refused to allow Trudeau to avoid the question.

On her third attempt at asking if Trudeau would discourage a woman from aborting a baby because the child in utero was found to be a girl, Trudeau replied, “I will leave discussions like that between a woman and the health professionals that she encounters.” (see full transcript below)

“I don't think the government should be in the business of legislating away people's rights. And that's why the Liberal Party is steadfast in this position,” he said.

Reggie Littlejohn, founder and president of Women’s Rights without Frontiers, called Trudeau’s position hypocritical.

Sex-selective abortion the “ultimate violence against women,” Littlejohn told LifeSiteNews.com. “Aborting a baby just because she is a girl is the ultimate act of gender discrimination. It says that women are so worthless they don’t deserve to be born. No one can say that they stand for women’s rights without standing against the sex-selective abortion of future women.”

Responding to Trudeau’s remarks she said, “To say that you stand for women’s rights and, at the same time, to support the sex-selective abortion of future women is hypocrisy.”

It’s no longer a secret that sex-selection abortions are happening in Canada that specifically target girls.

sting investigation by CBC in 2012 found that almost three quarters of the twenty-two “entertainment ultrasound” businesses they visited in Canadian cities were willing to do a scan solely to determine the sex of an unborn child.

The CBC sting confirmed a warning issued earlier that same year by Dr. Rajendra Kale in the Canadian Medical Association Journal who said research in Canada confirms sex selection abortions take place especially among those of Asian background.

Conservative MP Mark Warawa filed a motion in September 2012 for the House of Commons to “condemn discrimination against females occuring through sex-selective pregnancy termination” but it did not go forward.

2012 Angus Reid poll found that 60 percent of Canadians (66 percent women to 54 percent men) believe a law should be enacted on sex-selection abortions. An Environics poll in 2011 found that 92% of Canadians thought sex selection abortions should be illegal in Canada.

Littlejohn criticized those who have a naive view of sex-selection abortion, saying that the practice is “strongly related to forced abortion.”

“Some say sex-selective abortion is protected by a woman’s right to choose to terminate a pregnancy for any reason. This view ignores the crushing social, economic, political and personal pressures that trample women carrying girls in cultures with a strong son preference. All too often, women in these cultures do not ‘select’ their daughters for abortion. They are forced.”

Trudeau’s laissez-faire attitude toward sex-selection abortion comes three weeks after issuing an edict that candidates for the Liberal party “will be expected to vote pro-choice on any bills.”

Numerous Catholic leaders across Canada have denounced the abortion edict in homilies, open letters, and articles submitted to mainstream media:

• Bishop Christian Riesbeck of Ottawa, May 8: “Every person is called to stand for life. Although now we are told, as we heard in the news yesterday, that if you want to be an MP in the next election and you are pro-life you will be screened out and won’t be allowed to run. So much for democracy!”

• Thomas Cardinal Collins of Toronto, May 14: “I am deeply concerned about your decision that citizens who, in conscience, seek to assure the protection of the most vulnerable among us are not acceptable as candidates in your party. […] I urge you to reconsider your position.”

• Archbishop Terrence Prendergast of Ottawa, May 14:  “A person who takes a position in contradiction to the teaching of the Catholic Church on the value and dignity of human life from the moment of conception to the moment of a natural death, and persists in this belief, is not in communion with the Church’s values and teaching, which we believe faithfully transmit for today the teachings of Christ.”

• Bishop Fred Henry of Calgary, May 21: “[Trudeau] pledges open nomination races and at the same time: ‘I have made it clear that future candidates need to be completely understanding that they will be expected to vote pro-choice on any bills.’ Apparently, logic isn't his strong suit. […] Regrettably, our Members of Parliament are content to play a political game with life refusing to even discuss the question. Furthermore, their cowardice and silence is inconsistent with scientific facts and places them in compliance with the destruction of thousands of human lives.”

• Archbishop Richard W. Smith of Edmonton, May 21: “A pro-abortion stance is irreconcilable with Catholicism. Period.”

• Bishop Christian Riesbeck of Ottawa, May 21: On Trudeau receiving communion from CBC Radio’s As It Happens: “But, someone who persists — who obstinately persists — in teachings contrary to the clear and unchanging teachings on the core issues of life — if he obstinately persists in that — then, they can be denied Communion according to the Law of The Church. But again you would want to have a discussion, a conversation with him about that.”

Full Transcript of Trudeau’s pro-sex-selection abortion stance:

MARISSA SEMKIW: A woman comes to you. She says she's pregnant with a girl and she wants to terminate the life of the child because it's a girl. What would you say to her?

JUSTIN TRUDEAU: My position has been very clear. The Liberal Party is the party standing up for people's rights. And the Liberal Party will always be the party of the Charter. So we will continue to stand up for people's rights and not legislate them away.

MARISSA SEMKIW: So to be clear, you wouldn't discourage her from having an abortion because it's a girl?

JUSTIN TRUDEAU: My role as the leader of the Liberal Party is to make sure that Canadian legislation respects peoples rights and that's what I will continue to do.

MARISSA SEMKIW: Yesterday you said you were happy with the status quo on abortion. But right now the status quo is that it's perfectly fine to abort a child because it's a girl. Do you have no qualms with that?

JUSTIN TRUDEAU: I will leave discussions like that between a woman and the health professionals that she encounters. I don't think the government should be in the business of legislating away people's rights. And that's why the Liberal Party is steadfast in this position.