This article is excerpted from the May CLC National News
Re-published with permission
TORONTO, Ontario, April 28, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Rod Bruinooge (C, Winnipeg South) has introduced C-510, a private member's bill formally entitled An Act to Prevent the Coercion of Women to Abortion. The bill would protect pregnant women from intimidation and pressure to have abortions against their will.
We applaud Mr. Bruinooge, who serves as the chairman of the Parliamentary Pro-Life Caucus, for this initiative that would amend the Criminal Code in order to protect women from being coerced into having abortions. The bill is also called Roxanne's Law, named after the Winnipeg woman (Roxanne Fernando) who was murdered by her boyfriend in 2007 after she refused to abort their baby. Bruinooge said Fernando might be alive today if there were legal avenues for her to file a complaint against the coerced abortion.
Sadly and hypocritically the pro-abortion movement is opposed to this bill with Joyce Arthur, coordinator of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, calling the proposed law “a basic fear tactic” designed to get around existing abortion laws. As The Interim noted on its website, Canada's pro-abortion movement is ironically self-identified as “pro-choice and anti-anti coercion.”
Unfortunately, the Harper Government is unwilling to back the Private Member's bill with PMO spokesman Dimitri Soudas refusing to say whether the Prime Minister will allow a free vote. Mr. Soudas told LifeSiteNews.com “the Government's policy is that we will not initiate or support legislation that reopens the debate on abortion.” That has been the standard Government line to avoid any discussion about the issue. We consider this a common-sense bill that would punish those who use physical violence and intimidation or the threat of withholding financial support to press women into having abortions they would not otherwise have.
The bill is not perfect. Most of them are not. For instance, it does not seek to address the coercion of women to take the morning after pills, which prevent the newly conceived child from implanting in the uterine wall. These newly created human beings are not detectable and thus not protected by the proposed legislation.We believe that these chemical abortions make up a significant number of the total overall abortions.
Also section 4 of the legislation could be tightened up regarding women's “health' or else unscrupulous pro-abortion doctors could go under the radar.
All in all though, it's exhilarating to see an MP take a pro-active step to stop any form of coercion of women. Please pray for all our elected representatives that they may have the courage to propose legislation to address this Culture of death mentality and restore a Culture of Life here and abroad.