By Patrick B. Craine
OTTAWA, Ontario, April 21, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Catholic Civil Rights League announced Thursday their support for a private member’s bill introduced April 14th by MP Rod Bruinooge (Winnipeg-South) that would make it a criminal offence for anyone to coerce a woman to abort her unborn child.
Bill C-510, also known as 'Roxanne's Law,' is named in memory of a pregnant Winnipeg woman who was murdered by her boyfriend after she refused to have an abortion. Working as the chair of the multi-party parliamentary pro-life caucus, Bruinooge, a staunch supporter of the pro-life position, said he has heard of several cases of intimidation of young pregnant women to have an abortion, and hopes making it a crime will curb such instances.
“The League is in favour of legislation that would recognize the sanctity of all human life, from conception to natural death,” said Joanne McGarry, League executive director, in a press release. “We supported the unborn victims of violence [bill] in the last parliament, and support this measure that aims to prevent women from being forced to have abortions against their will.”
Bruinooge has told reporters that the bill seeks to prevent intimidation of pregnant women. “”It's not just as simple as feeling pressured to get an abortion; there is a lot of discussion of sex-selection abortion these days, as well,” Bruinooge said, according to the Winnipeg Free Press, referring to the scenario where a woman is pressured to abort once the sex of the fetus is determined. “It's part of the overall topic of intimidation that goes towards a pregnant woman.”
In an interview with LifeSiteNews, McGarry acknowledged that the bill faces an uphill battle, since it is opposed even by Bruinooge's own Conservative party. “But what's good about it is it gets people talking, it gets them to realize, and perhaps learn about, how much coercion does go on,” she said. “It keeps people aware that this is a moral issue, that we need to do what we can to improve respect for life.”
She said that politicians who claim to be “pro-choice” would belie that label should they oppose the bill. “He or she probably would oppose it just on principle because … he or she would just consider it the thin edge of the wedge, [but] what it's really about, the way I've read it anyway, it is choice, to make sure it's the woman's choice.”
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Canada's Evangelicals Back Bill Outlawing Coercive Abortion
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/apr/10042008.html