Thanks to Justin Trudeau, the national conversation about abortion and pre-born human rights is heating up in Canada. It has been more than two weeks since the leader of the Liberal Party declared that pro-life candidates would not be allowed to run for his party. In spite of Trudeau going farther than any other party leader with his statements the ensuing debate has proven that Canadians are not as content with the status quo as some may have thought.
What is troubling from Mr. Trudeau is that he continues to misinterpret the Charter of Rights and Freedoms by stating that women have a Charter right to abortion when in fact, the Charter does not grant abortion as a right. Additionally, it should be noted that the Supreme Court decision in R. v. Morgentaler (1988) found that it was Parliament’s jurisdiction to bring in legislation that would protect the fetus.
Trudeau is taking hits from all sides of the political spectrum and rightly so. Margaret Wente, who writes for the traditionally left Globe and Mail said in this article, “The idea that governments shouldn’t legislate abortion, as Mr. Trudeau asserts, is downright idiotic. Abortion is legislated nearly everywhere.”
In his interview this week, not only has Trudeau remained steadfast in his wrongful assertions, he is continuing to distance himself from the majority of Canadians. In an exchange with Marissa Semkiw, reporter with Sun News he was asked if he supported the status quo which says it is perfectly fine to abort a child because it is a girl. “Do you have no qualms with that?” asked Semkiw. Mr. Trudeau responded by saying, “I will leave discussions like that between a woman and the health professionals that she encounters.” Ms. Semkiw pressed with further questions, but Trudeau refused to condemn sex-selective abortion and again referred to abortion as a Charter right.
Two years ago, most Canadians had never heard of sex-selective abortion. Gendercide, as it is commonly referred to, is the systematic targeting of pre-born girls for the purpose of abortion simply because they are girls. For the most part this was believed to be a problem in a few countries, but certainly not something to be concerned about in the progressive nation of Canada – an international leader when it comes to human rights.
Then in June of 2012 CBC, Canada’s national broadcaster aired a documentary in which it was revealed that our country was not immune to the practice of gendercide. CBC had conducted a private investigation in which they found that 15 out of the 22 ultrasound clinics they investigated where were willing to share the sex of the child prior to 20 weeks. Some of these clinics also discussed the possibility of abortion after learning the pre-born child was female.
After this became national news, all the political parties were quick to condemn this practice as totally unacceptable in Canada. At the same time the Canadian Medical Association Journal published two articles detailing the results of a study revealing that the female to male ratio among children born to non-Canadian mothers was much higher than that of those mothers born in Canada.
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As a result of the revelation that sex-selective abortion is a global problem, also effecting Canada, there have been many calls for legislative measures to restrict or outlaw this misogynistic practice. The subsequent surveys indicated that Canadians were not happy about this development. A 2012 Angus Reid poll found that 66% of women believe “there should be laws which outline whether a woman can have an abortion based solely on the gender of the fetus.” In 2011 Environics conducted a poll on behalf of Life Canada which found that 92% of Canadians believed sex-selective abortion “should not be legal.”
Justin Trudeau aspires to be the Prime Minister of Canada and yet he is out of touch with the people he hopes to lead. He not only supports sex-selective abortions he will not even condemn the practice. I pray his aspirations are not rewarded.
