PBP100H: Pro-Life Politics

This is an introduction to pro-life politics in Canada, with a focus on three areas: # Policy # Parties # Pro-Life Political Groups

Canada has no abortion laws, and is one of the only countries on the planet like that, if not the only country.

• 1869: Abortion was a crime at any time in Canada's first Criminal Code
• 1969: Pierre Trudeau's omnibus bill decriminalized abortion
  • Omnibus Bill: meaning there was no dedicated debate, but it was one of many changes in an omnibus bill
  • Therapeutic Abortion Committees regulating abortion: panel of three doctors needed to approve
• 1988: R. v. Morgentaler: 1969 law ruled unconstitutional on procedural grounds
  • therapeutic abortion committee provided unequal access (pro-lifers controlled some committees, pro-choicers controlled others)
  • Canadian Supreme Court asked Parliament to craft a new law, suggesting that restrictions later in pregnancy might be considered constitutional
• 1991: Bill C-43 fails, dies in a rare tie vote
  • pro-choice and pro-life movements opposed the legislation
    • pro-choice movement didn't want any restrictions
    • pro-life movement wanted more restrictions
• 1991+
  • A Canadian government has not attempted to pass updated abortion legislation ever since
    • Conservatives didn't touch it again in their last couple years in power
    • Liberal government from 1993 to 2006 left Canada lawless
    • Conservative government from 2006 said they weren't going to reopen the debate
  • Private Members Bills have been attempted, but none ever passed
    • e.g. Pre-Born Victims of Crime
      • Ken Epp?
      • Cassie and Molly's Law
    • e.g. against coerced abortion (Roxanne's Law)
    • e.g. M-312 to form a committee to study when life begins (Stephen Woodsworth)
    • e.g. Paul Steckle's 2006 late-term abortion ban (Liberal MP), 20 week ban
    • e.g. M-408 simply expressing an opinion that sex-selective termination of pregnancy is wrong, never came to a vote

What does the criminal law say about the pre-born child?

Section 223(1), (2):

“child becomes a human being within the meaning of this Act when it has completely proceeded, in a living state, from the body of its mother whether or not (a) it has breathed, (b) it has independent circulation, or © the navel string is severed. (2) 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”

Section 238.(1)

(1) Everyone who causes the death, in the act of birth, of any child that has not become a human being, in such a manner that, if the child were a human being he would be guilty of murder, is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for life

* This is never enforced, hundreds of children have been born alive and left to die and nobody is enforcing the law or investigating these cases

Other issues:

• conscience rights
• poor statistics and non-mandatory reporting for clinics

• NDP: Consistently pro-abortion, no free votes
  • Interesting side note: Joe Borowski, pro-life hero and former Manitoba NDP cabinet minister in the 1970s, brought a case to the Supreme Court in the 1980s to try to argue that pre-born children deserved human rights under the Charter, but Morgentaler ruling happened first and Borowski case was considered moot
• Liberal: Under Justin Trudeau, no free votes allowed and all members forced to vote pro-choice
  • Before Trudeau, Liberal party had 10-25% of caucus voting pro-life on various private members bills between Morgentaler and 2015
• Conservative Party:
  • Party policy
    • free votes
    • Conservative government won't reopen abortion debate
      • Government = cabinet (still allows private members bills)
      • Effort to delete this resolution narrowly failed at 2018 policy convention
    • is there a resolution opposing sex selective abortion?
  • Caucus
    • The last time a vote happened was M-312 in 2012
      • 50% of the Conservative caucus voted pro-life
      • 1/3 of cabinet voted pro-life
    • Big internal debate within the party, party divided on the issue
      • Many pro-life MPs
      • Many pro-choice MPs
      • contentious issue during leadership campaigns, etc
  • History
    • Mulroney PC party decimated in 1993 election
    • Reform Party, eventually Canadian Alliance, forms to the right of Progressive Conservatives
    • 2003 PC Party and Canadian Alliance unite into Conservative Party of Canada
      • coalition of big tent of conservatives
        • “Red Tories”: fiscally conservative, socially liberal
        • social conservatives
• Green Party: official pro-abortion, says they'd allow free votes
  • unclear how many Green candidates are pro-life, if any
  • leader Elizabeth May suggested pro-lifers not welcome as candidate or caucus not free to vote pro-life in 2019 election with attention to some pro-life Green Party candidates
• Fringe Parties:
  • Christian Heritage Party: 100% pro-life, but receives about as many votes as the Communist Party of Canada (<1% of the vote)
  • People's Party of Canada: 2019 election, leadership took pro-life talking points but leader Maxime Bernier was not pro-life, failed to win any seats

• Campaign Life Coalition:
  • oldest pro-life political group
  • strategic problems
    • opposes gestational limits
    • advocacy on wide variety of issues, not just abortion
    • tends to attack politicians who aren't perfect on the issues, doesn't have a working relationship with many politicians
• New pro-life groups emerged in past decade to take new strategic approaches
  • WeNeedALaw: lobby group, advocating for incremental pro-life legislation to shift momentum
    • Canada went from criminalized (1869) to regulated (1969) to unregulated (1988)
    • Goal is to shift from unregulated to regulated, as incremental step towards criminalization
    • proposing pro-life legislation that has a chance of passing, given public opinion
  • RightNow: nominate and elect pro-life candidates
    • formed by two ex-CLC staffers
    • working with pro-life politicians to get them nominated and elected so that there are enough votes in the House to pass pro-life legislation
    • working within political parties to advance pro-life policies (e.g. Conservative Policy, delete resolution that a government will not re-open abortion debate)