OTTAWA, Ontario, 8 March, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Status of Women Minister Rona Ambrose has said that she will likely vote against Motion 408, which condemns sex-selective abortion, calling the matter a “divisive issue”.
“The concern about Mr. Warawa’s motion is that the opposition has positioned it as an issue about abortion so it becomes a very divisive issue. I haven’t decided but I will probably vote with the cabinet which is going to be voting against it, only because it has been set up that way,” she told iPolitics today.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office has said that the Conservative government will oppose the motion, because the government “is opposed to opening this debate.”
Motion 408 was tabled by Conservative MP Mark Warawa (Langley) the very day Parliament rejected Stephen Woodworth’s motion to re-examine the definition of human life. The Motion seeks a simple statement from Parliament that it condemns “discrimination against females, occurring through sex-selective pregnancy termination.” It would have no effect on the law in Canada.
Minister Ambrose, who voted in favor of Woodworth’s M-312, defended her vote on Twitter at the time, saying that she has “repeatedly raised concerns about discrimination of girls by sex selection abortion: no law needed, but we need awareness!”
The Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada called for Ambrose’s resignation at that time, saying that she had “thr[own] women under the bus” by voting for a motion that would have “bestow[ed] legal personhood on fetuses in order to recriminalize abortion.”
Ambrose did not respond to requests for comment from LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) about Motion 408 before press time.
Georgette Forney, president of Anglicans for Life and co-founder of Silent No More Awareness Campaign, said she believes that too many politicians are too willing to “sell out our sisters for political and monetary gain.”
“Whether it’s the little woman in the womb being aborted, or her mother — who will likely deal with physical, emotional and spiritual consequences afterwards — we see less concern from women who are supposed to be champions for one another, because they have sold out to pro-abortion forces,” she told LSN.
Alissa Golob, Campaign Life Coalition’s Youth Coordinator, told LSN that Minister Ambrose “has an obligation to vote in favour of Motion 408 because her role is to represent the women of Canada, which means protecting their rights from the womb to the tomb.”
Golob called the practice that kills a baby girl just because she is a girl the “ultimate form of discrimination”, adding that any woman concerned about women’s issues should have “no problem getting behind the Motion.”
Diane Watts, researcher for REAL Women of Canada, pointed out that Minister Ambrose “claims to promote the full participation of women and girls in Canadian society.”
“Minister Ambrose claims that Canada led the international campaign to adopt the International Day of the Girl Child. She stated that ‘equal opportunity for girls is good for all of us’ but her ministry appears to be very selective in applying this,” she said.
Watts said that Minister Ambrose should “go beyond political correctness and support a motion to protect girls selected for elimination because they are girls.”
A 2011 Environics poll, commissioned by LifeCanada, found that 92 percent of Canadians wanted sex-selective abortions banned. A 2012 Angus Reid Poll found that 60 percent of Canadians believe Ottawa should enact a law outlining whether a woman can abort her child based solely on his or her gender.
Motion 408 is scheduled to be debated in the House of Commons on March 28.
Contact information:
Minister Rona Ambrose
Ph: (613) 996-9778
Email: [email protected]
Status of Women Canada
Toll-Free: 1-866-902-2719
Email: [email protected]