A private members bill from a Conservative Party MP out of Saskatchewan has sparked abortion debates in Ottawa.
Known as Bill C-311, the bill would encourage judges to consider physical or emotional harm to a pregnant victim as an aggravating factor during sentencing.
Cathay Wagantall, the Conservative MP out of Yorkton-Melville, said the violence against pregnant women act, which she authored, is solely focused on protecting pregnant women.
“(The bill is) to ensure that the act of knowingly assaulting a pregnant woman and causing physical or emotional harm to a pregnant woman are considered aggravating circumstances during the sentencing process,” Wagantall said.
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But the Liberal Party and abortion rights groups feel the bill has an underlying motive, and nowhere in the bill itself mentions abortion.
The Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada is calling on MPs to vote it down.
“How people can get abortion restrictions in place is if a fetus is defined as a person, so that’s where we have issues with this bill,” said Paige Mason with the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada.
The coalition also called the bill redundant, saying it’s not necessary since judges already have the discretion to apply greater penalties for aggravating circumstances.
The Trudeau government holds a similar view.
“How frustrating it is to see that the Conservative Party fully supported by Pierre Poilievre is reopening the debate on abortion and going after a woman’s right to choose,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said.
“We are not a government that will trick people into places that would limit the access to women across our great country to get an abortion,” echoed Marcy Len, the minister for women and gender equality.
The abortion debate was sparked in the lead up to the bills second reading which was eventually delayed.
“There is no reason for anyone in the House of Commons to not support this,” Wagantall said.
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