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TORONTO, Ontario, March 27, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Canada’s New Democratic Party has elected a new leader who backs the party’s official pro-abortion stance.

Montreal MP Thomas Mulcair, 57, was elected to head up the federal party at the leadership convention in Toronto on Saturday, and has now taken over as leader of the official Opposition in the Canadian Parliament.

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Mulcair replaces interim leader Nicole Turmel, who took over in the summer after the death of long-time leader Jack Layton. Layton’s charismatic personality was credited with the party’s meteoric rise in the May 2011 election from fourth party status to the Opposition.

During that election, the NDP pledged that they would work to promote even greater access to abortion across the country.

In a statement to Campaign Life Coalition, the political arm of Canada’s pro-life movement, the NDP said they are committed as a party to “universal access to abortion services and guaranteed reproductive freedoms for all Canadian women, regardless of income or where they live.”

They went on to emphasize that this position is demanded of all NDP candidates.  “All New Democrat candidates agree to adhere to these principles when they agree to accept the nomination from their riding association,” said the statement.

Notably, in 2010 every NDP Member of Parliament, except four who did not vote, opposed Bill C-510 (Roxanne’s Law), which would have protected women who choose to keep their unborn babies from being coerced into abortion.

In Mulcair’s own proposal on “women’s equality” for the leadership campaign, he also affirms “the right to reproductive choice.”