Canada – Conservative MP’s bill on violence against pregnant women revives abortion debate

Activist groups believe bill could lend itself to a legal argument for fetal rights

Laura Osman · The Canadian Press
Posted: May 09, 2023

A private member's bill from a Conservative backbench MP is stirring up debate over abortion in Canada, even though the proposed legislation does not mention it once.

Conservative MP Cathay Wagantall's bill would encourage judges to consider physical or emotional harm to a pregnant victim as an aggravating factor during sentencing.

Continued: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/private-members-bill-violence-against-women-abortion-rights-1.6837875


Nearly 40 per cent of Canadian abortions rely on pill that is at centre of U.S. legal battle

'We don’t want people believing that what they’re hearing in the United Sates is the case here,' says UBC researcher

Sharon Kirkey
Published Apr 15, 2023 

Doctors in Canada fear the extraordinary legal battles over abortion pills unfolding in the U.S. could shake confidence in the safety of medical abortions here.

The country’s largest pro-life organization hopes the court rulings do just that, and lead to more “kitchen-table” conversations about a drug it considers a “human poison.”

Continued: https://nationalpost.com/news/nearly-40-per-cent-of-canadian-abortions-rely-on-pill-at-centre-of-legal-battle


Canada – Liberals urged to fulfill promise to cease funding to anti-abortion groups

Carly Weeks, Globe & Mail
July 11, 2022

Abortion rights advocacy groups are calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to defend reproductive rights in Canada by denying anti-abortion groups funding and revoking their charity status.

Dozens of crisis pregnancy centres and other anti-abortion groups received federal COVID-19 relief funds and continue to have tax exempt charity status. Mr. Trudeau has been highly critical of crisis pregnancy centres and has promised to revoke their charity status.

Continued: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-canada-crisis-pregnancy-centres-charitable-status/


Canada – New Glasgow police investigate alleged breach of bubble zone law after anti-abortion protest

A group demonstrated across from the Aberdeen Hospital on Oct. 3

Taryn Grant · CBC News
Posted: Nov 20, 2021

Police in New Glasgow, N.S., are investigating an alleged breach of a law banning anti-abortion protests near health-care facilities after a demonstration last month that was reportedly approved by one of their officers.

The Campaign Life Coalition held a protest on East River Road across from the Aberdeen Hospital as part of an annual day of "peaceful and prayerful pro-life witness" on Oct. 3.

Continued: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/new-glasgow-nova-scotia-police-bubble-zone-anti-abortion-1.6255416


Canada – I’m pro-choice,’ O’Toole says as abortion issue emerges on the campaign trail

The Liberals are raising questions about 'conscience rights' in the Conservative platform

John Paul Tasker · CBC News
Posted: Aug 19, 2021

Pushing back against Liberal claims that he's just "pretending" to support a woman's right to choose, Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole said today he's pro-choice and a government led by him would make sure abortion services are available nationwide.

O'Toole has been clear that women should be allowed to safely end pregnancies — a position that has drawn the ire of some socially conservative members of his party. His predecessor, Andrew Scheer, described himself as "pro life."

Continued: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/erin-otoole-pro-choice-conscience-rights-1.6146200


Canada – Oosterhoff’s extreme anti-choice views should be a ‘bridge too far’ in politics

Joyce Arthur, Rabble.ca
March 25, 2021

Sam Oosterhoff should be expelled from Ontario Premier Doug Ford's caucus because he opposes key human rights.

Oosterhoff is an elected member of provincial parliament (Niagara West), serves in the Ontario Progressive Conservative government as parliamentary assistant for the minister of education, and is vocally "pro-life." You may have heard about his most recent media scandal -- speaking at an anti-choice event even though one of the organizing groups had compared abortion to the Holocaust.

Continued: https://rabble.ca/columnists/2021/03/oosterhoffs-extreme-anti-choice-views-should-be-bridge-too-far-politics


Anti-Abortion Groups Quietly Installed Activists Into Top Positions Inside the Conservative Party of Canada

Nearly 40% of the Conservative Party of Canada's newly elected National Council members were endorsed by anti-abortion groups

by PressProgress
March 22, 2021

Anti-abortion groups are declaring victory after securing at least seven of 18 top spots on the Conservative Party of Canada’s powerful National Council.

The National Council has powers set-out in the Conservative Party’s constitution controlling the party’s budget, creating party bylaws and, importantly, setting rules for local nomination races and candidate selection.

Continued: https://pressprogress.ca/anti-abortion-groups-quietly-installed-activists-into-top-positions-inside-the-conservative-party-of-canada/


Canada – Abortion issue is off the table as Conservatives launch pre-election policy convention

'I think our voice is being suppressed,' says spokesperson for anti-abortion group Campaign Life Coalition

John Paul Tasker · CBC News
Posted: Mar 18, 2021

Conservative party delegates from across the country begin a three-day virtual policy convention today — likely their last before the next federal election. But some of the most contentious social issues won't be up for debate.

A larger list of policy proposals was narrowed down by electoral district associations (EDAs) to a relatively concise 23-page booklet earlier this month.

Continued: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/conservative-policy-convention-abortion-1.5954129


A social conservative group plans to force the Conservative party to change its position on abortion. Here’s how

By Alex Boutilier, The Star, Ottawa Bureau
Mon., March 8, 2021

OTTAWA—An anti-abortion group is planning an end-run around federal Conservative brass to force a vote on the party’s abortion stance.

In an email to supporters, Campaign Life Coalition (CLC) — an influential social conservative group — said it hoped to push the party to abandon its pledge that a Conservative government would not support a law regulating access to abortion.

Continued: https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2021/03/08/a-social-conservative-group-plans-to-force-the-conservative-party-to-change-its-position-on-abortion-heres-how.html


What the Overturning of Roe v. Wade in the U.S. Could Mean For Canada

Do Canadians need to worry about their reproductive rights?

By Corrina Allen
October 22, 2020

As if we weren’t already living through a pandemic-induced dystopian nightmare this year, Republicans south of the border are attempting to push through the confirmation of an anti-choice Supreme Court justice candidate who once served as a “handmaid” in a hierarchical male-dominated religious community and, in 2006, signed a public letter in favour of overturning “barbaric” Roe v. Wade, the legal foundation for access to reproductive healthcare rights in the U.S.

The appointment of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s seat on the highest court in the United States would tip the scales in favour of anti-choice organizations that have been chipping away at abortion rights for decades. Already, 90% of American counties lack their own clinic and 21 states stand poised to severely limit or outright ban abortions should Roe be struck down by a reconstituted, conservative-dominated court. American women are and should be scared that their access to safe abortion could largely disappear.

Continued: https://www.flare.com/news/politics-of-abortion-in-canada/