Conservative MP vows to reopen abortion debate

The newchair of a secretiveanti-abortion parliamentary caucus is pledging to rekindle the abortion debate in Canada.

Although Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said he's not interested in reopening the divisive issue, Conservative MP Rod Bruinooge told the Canadian Press that people need to be better educated about Canada's abortion stance, which he says puts the country in a "class of its own."

"Very few Canadians appreciate the fact that essentially until a child takes its first breath, it has less value than a kidney," says Bruinooge, of Winnipeg.

"In Canada you can't remove your kidney, and put it on eBay and auction it off. That is illegal. Whereas you actually can end a beating heart of an unborn child the second before it's delivered. Most Canadians would agree that is truly a poor bioethical position for our country to be in."

Pro-choice advocatesargue thatCanadian doctors only perform such later-term procedures if there's a serious threat to the health of the mother or if it's virtually certain the baby wouldn't survive past birth.

20 years since abortion legalized

As Canada marks 20 years since a Supreme Court decision struck down Criminal Code restrictions on abortion, some advocates are worried the Conservatives will reopen the debate.

At the party's convention recently in Winnipeg, Conservative delegates voted to resurrect a proposal that would create specific criminal charges that could be laid against a suspect who kills or injures a fetus during a crime against a pregnant mother. A bill that would have done that died on the order paper when the last federal election was called.

Critics argue such a law would reopen the abortion debate by recognizing fetal rights.

"I think the debate is ongoing," Bruinooge says. "We need to have a starting point of debating whether or not abortion should be legal right up until the moment of birth."

Bruinooge wouldn't say how many MPs are formally part of theanti-abortioncaucus, but said there are supporters from every party. It's up to individual members to "present their personal philosophy on this issue," he says.

'People are happy with status quo': advocate

Joyce Arthur, co-ordinator of the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada, says it's not surprising that theanti-abortion movement is feeling "energized lately." The majority of the Conservative caucusis "publicly anti-choice," she says, and many people are lobbying intently against a woman's right to choose.

"It's something that the Conservative party is out of touch with because Canadians don't want to go back to the abortion debate," Arthur says. "People are happy with the status quo. It's working well."

Erin Leigh, acting executive director of Canadians for Choice, says the anti-abortion caucus has been around for years, trying to work behind the scenes to resurrect the abortion debate.

But she says the "silent majority" of Canadiansis pro-choice, and realizes it's important for women to have a safe, accessible alternative to pregnancy.

"If a woman is pregnant and she doesn't want to be, she'll find ways to terminate that pregnancy, legally or illegally."