Choice Joyce at Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada has researched which MPs are anti-choice, pro-choice, or unknown using their public statements during campaigns, their position on the awarding of the Order of Canada to Dr. Henry Morgentaler, and how they voted on Bill C-484, the Unborn Victims of Crime Act, at Second Reading in 2008.
Con MPs who voted in favour of Bill C-484 but have no other known public position on abortion are possibly still pro-choice, says Joyce, and therefore are not included in the anti-choice stats. Members of the Bloc and NDP are presumed to be pro-choice. Details on individual MPs are listed below the chart.
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40% pro - 39% anti - 21% unknown - the support among federal MPs for the right of women to control what happens to their own bodies.
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According to Joyce's calculations, one quarter of the Libs are anti-choice.
SoCon Liberal MP Paul Szabo, Chair of the Ethics Committee, spoke at Fetus Festivus on the Hill last week :
"We will be back to reconsidering the question in the House . . . We’re taking incremental steps, small steps. It’s just a question of knowing when it’s the right time."
In March, a Liberal motion to include abortion in Harper's G8 maternal health initiative failed 144-138 because 3 Blue Dog Libs voted against it, 2 abstained, and 12 Libs skipped the vote.
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Last fall, Con MP Brad Trost initiated a petition, signed by 30 MPs, demanding an end to the Canadian International Development Agency's $18 million in annual funding for Planned Parenthood. Six months into 2010, Planned Parenthood is still without funding.
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2 comments:
Thanks for this, Alison. Excellent summary & info! Out here in Sask., we're trying to keep a close eye on Trost, his best buddy Maurice Vellacott, & their StepCon Wife, Kelly Block. They really are an evil triumverate - esp. the Boys, who are certified evangelical nutbars!
You know who stirred up this newest round of abortion bushwa?
Iggy.
Iggy with his motion that accused Harper of "advancing the failed right-wing ideologies previously imposed by the George W. Bush administration in the United States."
And then after waving his red flag at the Cons, he let the motion fail.
Incompetant?
Maybe.
Or maybe he thought it was smart politics to reopen the whole abortion debate.
It was Iggy who did this.
Ian
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