Canadian women’s groups say they feel threatened by abortion policies advocated at home and abroad by the Conservative government.
“It’s a threat we’ve been feeling for months …We feel that sexual and reproductive health is not really a priority [for the government],” Canadians for Choice executive director Patricia LaRue said.
At issue are several private members bills dealing with abortion. One introduced last month would make it a criminal offence to “coerce” a woman into having an abortion.
The Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada said the problem of coercion does not occur on a grand scale, and that bill C-510 “should be scuttled in favor of a bill prohibiting the much more common practice of coercing a women into childbirth.”
Another bill, C-484, approved last month in a second reading, makes it a criminal offense for someone to attack a woman with the intent of killing her unborn child. Proponents say the bill is designed to close a gap in the criminal code, but opponents say it is another attempt to give legal status to the fetus, recriminalize abortion and open the door to restricting access to the procedure.
“There have been five bills since the Conservatives have come to power, which call into question, either directly or indirectly, the right to abortion in Canada …Abortion is more threatened than ever before in Canada,” said Alexa Conradi, president of the Quebec Women’s Federation.
The debate was reignited when Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper introduced his G8 maternal health initiative, which aims to strengthen nutrition and health care systems in the developing world but does not include funding for abortions in those countries.
Women’s groups, opposition lawmakers and aid organizations have slammed Harper for the initiative, accusing him of hypocrisy and pandering to conservatives..
Last week, Conservative Senator Nancy Ruth told a group of aid advocates and women’s rights groups in Ottawa that they should “shut the f..k up on this issue.”
“We’ve got five weeks or whatever left until the G8 starts. Shut the f—k up on this issue,” said Ruth, who touched off a firestorm.
“If you push it, there’ll be more backlash. This is now a political football. This is not about women’s health in this country,” she said.
She went on to say that Canada was “still a country with free and accessible abortion. Leave it there. Don’t make this an election issue.”
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