Like it or not, abortion is legal in Canada and the current government has indicated on several occasions it has no desire to relight the firestorm by revisiting that decision. One of those occasions was last year when a Member of Parliament wanted a debate on “when life begins”, in other words, re-open the abortion debate under a different name. Didn’t happen.
On yesterday’s CBC News site was an item that three Honourable Members, two from western Canada and one from the Toronto area, had signed a letter to RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson asking that the Mounties investigate abortions that take place after 19 weeks as possible homicides. This letter invokes the Criminal Code of Canada, specifically Section 223 (2) , which says a person commits homicide when he causes injury to a child before or during its birth as a result of which the child dies after becoming a human being. According to the item, when contacted, the RCMP had no comment.
This is how the Criminal Code defines life: a child is a human being when it emerges completely from the womb — whether or not the umbilical cord has been severed, it is breathing on its own or has “independent circulation.”
This letter from these three Members – all belonging to the governing party – is nothing more than a back door attempt to get Parliament to debate once again last year’s defeated motion on when life begins or to re-open the abortion debate itself in direct contravention of their leader’s public statements. Abortion is legal in Canada. Whether you are a private citizen or an elected Member of Parliament, you don’t have to agree with that fact, but it is the law of the land and has been for years. And the government has, as they’ve stated, no desire to discuss it again.
Cat.
Catseyeview 