Note: The original article has been updated to include a comment on the 1990 Conservative government’s infamous Bill C-43.
ONTARIO, April 15, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — The leader of the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC), Erin O’Toole, said Monday that he would be voting against a bill being debated in parliament which would ban abortions based solely on a baby’s sex.
“As you know I’m pro-choice, and I will be voting against this private member’s bill. I will always as prime minister defend the rights — the human rights — of all Canadians to make this decision for themselves. I’ve been crystal clear on that and will be as prime minister,” said O’Toole.
O’Toole made the comments at a press conference in response to a question regarding CPC Saskatchewan MP Cathay Wagantall’s Bill C-233, which would make it illegal for any doctor in Canada to knowingly conduct an abortion merely because of the sex of the unborn baby.
Wagantall introduced Bill C-233, known as the “Sex-selective Abortion Act,” in February of 2020, saying that “sex-selective abortion is not permissible in a society that advocates for the equality of the sexes.”
“Sex-selective abortion is happening in Canada and because we have no law against it,” said Wagantall during a press conference on Monday. “Above all, I’m bringing this bill forward in defense of pre-born Canadian girls and boys who are aborted simply due to their sex.”
Wagantall said that “sex-selective abortion is a persistent and overlooked form of gender inequality” which deserves “urgent attention and a concerted legislative response.”
“If enacted, C-233 would amend the criminal code of Canada to make it an offense for a medical practitioner to perform an abortion, knowing that the abortion is sought solely on the ground of a child’s genetic sex.”
A 2020 Dart & Maru/Blue poll found that an overwhelming majority of Canadians, 84 percent, “oppose legalizing abortion if the family does not want the baby to be a certain sex.”
The same poll also found that most Canadians are opposed to both late-term and sex-selective abortion, and would be in favor of making both practices illegal.
Seven in ten Canadians “think that abortion should be generally illegal in the last three months of pregnancy.”
When asked Monday whether he would direct his shadow cabinet to vote against Bill C-233, O’Toole did not specify, only saying that if he were prime minister, “no” pro-life laws would be passed: “Being pro-choice means I will defend that right, and there will be no law passed that will restrict the rights of Canadians.”
O’Toole has said multiple times that he is “pro-choice,” doing so recently in March of this year.
The CPC elected pro-abortion O’Toole as the new leader of the party in August last year. At the time, he said he won the race for party leadership as a “pro-choice Conservative MP.”
Independent MP Derek Sloan, who ran against O’Toole for Conservative Party leadership and was later booted from the CPC, blasted O’Toole this week for saying he would vote against the sex-selection abortion bill.
“Once again, @erinotoole thinks the way to get more popular is by becoming more Liberal! But 52% of Canadians have said they’d be more likely to vote for a party that legally restricts sex-selective abortion, so who’s he trying to please here?” Sloan tweeted.
Campaign Life Coalition (CLC) President Jeff Gunnarson told LifeSiteNews in March that O’Toole’s “pro-choice” comments will “cause him to be anathema to dyed-in-the-wool pro-lifers,” and highlight the fact he is unfit to serve as party leader.
“Erin O’Toole describes himself as Catholic and has served in the Canadian Armed Forces. By rights, he should be a major force in the defence of mothers and their unborn babies. His self-labelling as pro-choice tells us he is not fit to lead a scout troop,” said Gunnarson.
The head of the U.S. Bishops' Pro-Life office, Archbishop Joseph Naumann, is under attack for consistently calling out Joe Biden for the serious sin of publicly promoting abortion.
A petition has been launched against Archbishop Naumann because he continues to preach the truth that "Catholic" politicians who promote abortion are endangering their souls and causing grave scandal to the faithful.
We must now come to Archbishop Naumann's defense.
Please SIGN and SHARE WIDELY this petition which urges the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops not to demote or remove Archbishop Naumann from head of the Pro-Life Committee, but rather, to follow his lead in urging Joe Biden to repent of the terrible sin of promoting the murder the unborn human beings.
Archbishop Naumann has come under fire, from people who plainly know or care little about Catholic moral teaching, for stating the obvious in a recent interview with LifeSiteNews:
It is the responsibility of the Bishops of the United States to defend the most fundamental of all human rights, the right to life, and to protect the integrity of Catholic moral teaching. We cannot abdicate either of these responsibilities, even as we are eager to work with everyone to promote the common good...
We must continue to speak to President Biden, as well as all Catholics, and even all Americans, about the truth of what abortion is. Abortion is not something to be celebrated, and it is not healthcare. It is the intentional killing of a child. To participate in abortion or to promote abortion is a grave evil.
And, in an even more pointed statement made in an interview with Catholic World Report, Archbishop Naumann defended the Holy Eucharist against Biden's attack on human life, suggesting that Biden should not present himself for Holy Communion:
When Catholics receive the Eucharist, they are acknowledging the Real Presence of Jesus, and also belief in the teachings of the Church. President Biden doesn’t believe in the Church’s teachings on the Sanctity of Human Life, and he should not put the priest in the situation where he has to decide whether or not to allow him to receive the Eucharist. He should know that after 78 years as a Catholic.
But, again, by calling out Joe Biden for his public promotion of abortion, Archbishop Naumann is not doing anything out-of-the-ordinary.
He is only saying what the bishops should have all been saying, with a unified voice, since Biden won the nomination during the election campaign.
Indeed, in an open letter published on inauguration day, Archbishop José Gomez, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), warned that Biden’s pledge to pursue anti-life and anti-family policies would advance “moral evils” in the areas of “abortion, contraception, marriage, and gender."
Please SIGN and SHARE this petition to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops not to demote or replace Archbishop Naumann as head of the Pro-Life Committee, but rather, to follow his lead in urging Joe Biden to repent of the horrific sin of promoting the murder of the preborn.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
'EXCLUSIVE: Bishop Naumann – US bishops must address scandal of ‘Catholic’ Biden championing abortion' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/exclusive-bishop-naumann-us-bishops-must-address-scandal-of-catholic-biden-championing-abortion
'Bishops need to ‘correct’ pro-abortion Biden for ‘acting contrary’ to Catholic faith: Abp. Naumann' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/bishops-need-to-correct-pro-abortion-biden-for-acting-contrary-to-catholic-faith-abp-naumann
As it stands, the CPC’s official party policy regarding abortion is that a CPC government would not regulate abortion.
An official House of Commons E-Petition on the issue of sex-selective abortion sponsored by Wagantall had over 10,000 signatures before being closed to signatures. The petition is being presented to parliament this week.
Abortion was legalized in Canada in 1969 when then-Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau (current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s father) passed a heavily criticized Omnibus Bill which amended the criminal code to allow abortions to be done in hospitals under permissive circumstances, with the approval of the hospital therapeutic abortion committee (TAC).
This law remained in effect until the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the 1969 law as unconstitutional on a technicality in the 1988 Morgentaler decision. The court ruled that it violated a woman’s Charter right to security of the person since the law could not be applied equally across the country.
“In 1990, the Conservative government under Prime Minister Brian Mulroney introduced Bill C-43. It was the government’s attempt to bring in a pro-abortion law in pro-life clothing,” said Jim Hughes, President Emeritus of Campaign Life Coalition. “It would not have saved even one single child,” Mr. Hughes continued. CLC worked with Senator Stanley Haidasz and others and were successful in having Bill C-43 defeated by a tie vote in the Senate.
Contact information
MP Erin O’Toole
Leader of the Conservative Party of Canada
Leader of the Opposition
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON
Canada
K1A 0A6
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 613-992-2792
Fax: 613-992-2794
Conservative Head Office
Tel: 1-866-808-8407
Email via submission form
MP contact page: https://www.ourcommons.ca/Members/en/addresses