“Yet another regressive turn-back-the-clock move by the Conservative government is this backdoor initiative that threatens to take away hard-fought Canadian women’s rights over their bodies…” – Joyce
For Immediate Release
April 26, 2012
OTTAWA– The Harper Conservatives are adding to their list of anti-woman policies by attempting to re-open the abortion debate, said Liberals today.
“Despite his promise not to re-open the debate on abortion Stephen Harper is allowing Conservative MPs to begin debating what Canadian women can and cannot do with their bodies,” said Liberal Leader Bob Rae. “As they attempted with other contentious issues, this Conservative government is once again using a backbench MP to further their agenda.”
Today, Parliament will debate Conservative MP Stephen Woodworth’s motion to recognize the rights of the unborn, which, if passed, clearly opens the possibility of re-criminalizing abortion. This is just the latest in a long line of anti-women policies advanced by the Harper Conservatives since coming to power in 2006, including: killing the life-saving gun registry, cancelling the Court Challenges Program, weakening pay equity rights, cancelling funding for research and advocacy by women’s organizations, removing “equality rights” from the mandate of Status of Women Canada, scrapping the long-form census used by policy makers to analyze gender representation, and recent devastating budget cuts to First Nations, Métis and Inuit women’s groups and the Canadian Women’s Health Network, among others.
“Canadian women have struggled long and hard in the fight for equality, and this Conservative motion seeks to take women’s rights back decades,” said Liberal Women’s Caucus Chair, Dr. Carolyn Bennett. “While Canadians have not seen the backward public debates on women’s rights that have occurred in the US Republican primaries, this latest Conservative endeavour demonstrates without a doubt that this government is bringing the ‘war on women’ to Canada.”
Background:
The Liberal petition telling Stephen Harper to keep his hands off our reproductive rights, which has received over 30,000 signatures, can be viewed here.
Contact:
Press Office
Office of the Liberal Leader
613-947-5100
