PBP201H: Opportunities for Pro-Life Policies

Abortion is legal in Canada through all 9 months for any reason or no reason at all. Our vision is a vision zero for the abortion rate. What kinds of pro-life policies can we advocate for in order to reduce the abortion rate?

We're going to look at incremental federal and provincial policies, and also both the supply and demand side of the abortion equation, as attainable next steps to reduce the abortion rate on the way to upholding human rights for all human beings.

WeNeedALaw has identified three key federal initiatives for enacting incremental policies in Canada:

1. International Standards Abortion Law
2. Banning Sex Selective Abortion
3. Protecting Pre-Born Victims of Crime

https://weneedalaw.ca/initiatives/international-standards-abortion-law/

• Canada has no abortion regulations. This initiative calls for Canada to get in line with international standards in regulating abortion:
  • ban abortion after the first trimester
  • independent counselling requirement
  • 48h waiting period
• For example, France, Germany, and Spain all ban abortion after 12 weeks
• In Canada, 15% of abortions happen after the first trimester - 15,000 children every year
  • The Canadian Institute of Health Information (CIHI) reports that
    • 12.7% of abortions occur at 13 weeks or later
    • another 2.4% occur after 20 weeks, including when the baby would be viable outside the womb
• Canadians do not support late-term abortion
  • A 2013 Angus-Reid poll found that 45% of Canadians believe that current laws in Canada only allow a woman to have an abortion without restrictions during the first three months of pregnancy
  • A 2011 Environics poll of 2,000 Canadians found that 58% of Canadians think abortion should be generally illegal after the first trimester, and this jumps to 77% in the third trimester
  • Clearly, our laws are not lining up with the reality of what Canadians either believe or want, and we need to work to change this.
• In a 2010 study of Western European and North American abortion stats, it was clearly shown that counseling combined with a waiting period dramatically impact the abortion rates.
  • Canada, which has neither a waiting period or a counseling requirement, and no gestational limit, has an abortion rate of 241 babies aborted for every 1000 live births.
  • Germany and Belgium, which have counseling, waiting periods, and a gestational limit, have a rate of 163 and 152 per 1000 respectively. This is considerably lower than Canada!

For more, see Direction Matters and Draft Legislation.

https://weneedalaw.ca/initiatives/defend-girls/

Watch the full documentary

• It was screened at Amnesty International's seventh Amnesty Reel Awareness Film Festival in Toronto (Toronto Star)

• This is not just a phenomenon in India and China. Sex-selective abortion is happening in Canada too.
  • Watch CTV News (2min video)
  • This is referring to articles published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal:
    • Sex ratios among Canadian liveborn infants of mothers from different countries (2012)
    • Sex ratios at birth after induced abortion (2016)
  • CBC News also produced a 15min story on The National called Unnatural Selection
    • A CBC hidden-camera investigation finds that some private ultrasound clinics are revealing the gender of a fetus earlier than other hospitals and doctors
    • Watch the first minute of the news story as a teaser trailer
  • It's not only girls who need defending: Family Balancing
• A vast majority of Canadians oppose sex selective abortion
  • confirm stats
    • 92% of Canadians in ~2012 before Mark Warawa's motion
    • 84% more recent poll
• In February 2020, MP Cathay Wagantall introduced her private member’s bill, the Sex Selective Abortion Act (Bill C-233)
  • This bill would make it illegal to abort a child based solely on his or her predicted sex - it's an opportunity to raise the conversation with Canadians too

See also:

• https://defendgirls.com/
• Cathay Wagantall on Toronto March for Life 2020 Live Stream

https://weneedalaw.ca/initiatives/pre-born-victims-of-crime/

• When a woman is violently attacked by someone who knows she is pregnant, and the attack results in harm to, or the death of, her baby, there are no legal repercussions for the attacker as it relates to that baby.
  • In other words, the baby does not count legally because it was not yet born, regardless of whether the mother wanted that baby or not. This gap in Canadian law leaves women open to intimate partner violence without appropriate consequences for those who would abuse or victimize them, and sends the message that women who desire to carry their baby safely to term are unsupported in that choice.
• The Molly Matters campaign
• In 2016, Member of Parliament Cathay Wagantall introduced Bill C-225, The Protection of Pregnant Women and Pre-born Children Act, which was also known an Cassie & Molly’s Law.
  • While this bill was voted down in Parliament before reaching committee stage, tens of thousands of Canadians were supporting this bill.
  • Independent polling also found that approximately 70% of Canadians (and close to 75% of women) support tougher penalties for those who commit crimes against a pregnant woman. This indicates a desire for change in Canada to reflect the value of a woman’s choice to carry her baby and her right to do so in safety.

• Conscience Rights (more of a provincial matter, but there's a role that the federal government can play)
• Statistics are terrible

Healthcare

just get a list of initiatives for quick mention

This works:

• https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/new-data-show-the-u-s-abortion-rate-continues-to-decline/
• https://lozierinstitute.org/guttmacher-report-shows-pro-life-progress-continues-as-u-s-abortion-rates-decline/