OTTAWA, Sept. 26, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Stephen Woodworth’s pro-life motion failed in a recorded vote Wednesday, going down 91-203.
As promised, Prime Minister Stephen Harper voted against it, but there were also a number of surprise votes in favour.
Woodworth, a Tory MP for Kitchener Centre, had hoped to launch a special committee to re-examine section 223 of Canada’s Criminal Code, which stipulates that a child only becomes a human being once he or she has fully proceeded from the womb. But pro-life legislators must now head back to the drawing board.
Nevertheless, pro-life leaders have hailed the initiative as a success because of the overwhelming amount of media coverage and interest it sparked in the last few months.
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Jim Hughes, National President of Campaign Life Coalition told LifeSiteNews that the motion was “quite valuable” to the pro-life cause. “It’s been a tremendous effort right across the country,” he said. “It was a very sensible type of motion that unfortunately was ignored or dumped upon by people who don’t want anything at all that’s even remotely connected to abortion. We saw that with Rod Bruinooge’s bill on coercion and Leon Benoit’s on unborn victims of crime.”
The motion fared slightly worse than the most recent pro-life initiative before it – Rod Bruinooge’s Roxanne’s Law, which sought to ban the coercion of women into abortion. That bill was defeated 97-178 in a second reading vote on December 15, 2010.
The vast majority of the 91 votes in favour came from the Conservative benches, and the Opposition NDP opposed it unanimously. But there were four Liberal MPs who supported it: John McKay, Jim Karygiannis, Kevin Lamoureux, and Lawrence MacAulay.
All party leaders opposed Motion 312, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who reportedly pressured Conservative MPs to vote against it even though the party ultimately allowed a free vote for both backbench MPs and Ministers.
It did win support from a number of Tory Ministers, despite Harper’s pressure tactics, however. They included: Diane Ablonczy, Rona Ambrose, Peter Van Loan, Gerry Ritz, Julian Fantino (who had voted against Roxanne’s Law), Peter Penashue, Ed Fast and Jason Kenney.
Two Ministers who have been rated pro-life by Campaign Life Coalition voted against the motion: Gary Goodyear and Rob Nicholson.
“I’m calling on people across the country to take a very close look at how their MPs voted on this,” said Hughes. “We’ll be getting together with them to develop a strategy to replace those MPs.”
Though Woodworth framed the initiative as merely a scientific study into the humanity of the unborn, critics lambasted it as a “backdoor” attempt to renew debate on abortion and ultimately re-criminalize the deadly procedure.
In the second hour of debate on Friday, both Liberal and New Democrat opponents expressed incredulity that the issue was even being raised.
New Democrat MP Irene Mathyssen (London-Fanshawe) said she was “offended” by the motion, describing it as a “slap in the face” to women.
But Woodworth says section 223 is a 400-year-old law inherited from Britain and should be brought up to date with the medical advances of the last century.
“It would be a triumph of leadership to insist that our definition of human being must not remain frozen in time forever, immune from the light of advancing knowledge, immune from democratic governance, and immune from the spirit of open dialogue,” he said.
As it is, the law “decrees the dehumanization and exclusion of a whole class of people, children before complete birth,” Woodworth said.
Contact information for all those who voted for the motion:
[email protected] Twitter: n/a
[email protected] Twitter: @AlbrechtMP
[email protected] Twitter: @mpmika
[email protected] Twitter: @StellaAmbler
[email protected] Twitter: @MinRonaAmbrose
[email protected] Twitter: n/a
[email protected] Twitter: @DavidAndersonSK
[email protected] Twitter: @DeanAllisonMP
[email protected] Twitter: @vwriding
[email protected] Twitter: @CandiceBergenMP
[email protected] Twitter: @jamesbezan
[email protected] Twitter: @KellyBlockCPC
[email protected] Twitter: n/a
[email protected] Twitter: n/a
[email protected] Twitter: @brownbarrie
Gordon Brown – [email protected] Twitter: n/a
[email protected] Twitter: @MPLoisBrown
[email protected] Twitter: @rodbruinooge
[email protected] Twitter: @blainecalkinsmp
[email protected] Twitter: @RonCannon
[email protected] Twitter: @ColinCarrie
[email protected] Twitter: n/a
[email protected] Twitter: @Rob_Clarke_MP
Patricia Davidson – [email protected] Twitter: n/a
[email protected] Twitter: @mpdeandelmastro
[email protected] Twitter: @BarryDevolin_MP
[email protected] Twitter: @earl_dreeshen
[email protected] Twitter: @JulianFantino
[email protected] Twitter: n/a
[email protected] Twitter: @GalipeauOrleans
[email protected] Twitter: @cherylgallant
[email protected] Twitter: @PeterGoldring
[email protected] Twitter: @MPNinaGrewal
[email protected] Twitter: n/a
[email protected] Twitter: n/a
[email protected] Twitter: @HiebertRuss
[email protected] Twitter: n/a
[email protected] Twitter: @MPLaurieHawn
[email protected] Twitter: n/a
[email protected] Twitter: @BrianJean_MP
[email protected] Twitter: @RandyKampMP
[email protected] Twitter: @jimkarygiannis
[email protected] Twitter: @kenneyjason
[email protected] Twitter: n/a
[email protected] Twitter: @MikeLakeMP
[email protected] Twitter: @Kevin_Lamoureux
[email protected] Twitter: n/a
[email protected] Twitter: n/a
[email protected] Twitter: n/a
[email protected] Twitter: n/a
[email protected] Twitter: @TomLukiwski
[email protected] Twitter: @jameslunneymp
[email protected] Twitter: @L_MacAulayMP
[email protected] Twitter: n/a
[email protected] Twitter: @Phil4Brant
[email protected] Twitter: @JohnMcKayLib
[email protected] Twitter: @RobMerrifieldMP
[email protected] Twitter: @M2McMullen
[email protected] Twitter: @RobMoore_CPC
[email protected] Twitter: @RickNorlock
Tilly.O’NeillGordon – [email protected] Twitter: n/a
[email protected] Twitter: @TedOpitz
[email protected] Twitter: @LaVarMP
[email protected] Twitter: @PeterPenashue
[email protected] Twitter: @PierrePoilievre
[email protected] Twitter: @JamesRajotte
[email protected] Twitter: @brentrathgeber
[email protected] Twitter: @GerryRitzMP
[email protected] Twitter: @KyleSeeback
[email protected] Twitter: @CPCGailShea
[email protected] Twitter: @BevShipleyMP
[email protected] Twitter: @BevShipleyMP
[email protected] Twitter: @BrianStorsethMP
[email protected] Twitter: @markstrahl
[email protected] Twitter: @DavidSweetMP
[email protected] Twitter: @votetoet
[email protected] Twitter: @BradTrostCPC
[email protected] Twitter: @mervtweet
[email protected] Twitter: @bobzimmermp
[email protected] Twitter: @j_dup_mp
[email protected] Twitter: @AliceWongCanada
[email protected] Twitter: @WoodworthMP
[email protected] Twitter: @TerenceYoungMP
[email protected] Twitter: @rodneywestonsj
[email protected] Twitter: @MPmarkwarawa
[email protected] Twitter: @chriswarkentin
[email protected] Twitter: n/a
[email protected] Twitter: @JohnWestonMP
[email protected] Twitter: n/a
[email protected] Twitter: n/a
[email protected] Twitter: @MVellacott
**See the complete official vote that also includes all those who voted NO on the Parliamentary website here. Clicking on each name also brings up the full contact information for each MP
Contact information for all Members of Parliament.