Pro-Choice? Then How About Supporting THIS Kind Of Choice?

Bill C-510, a bill to ban coercing women to have an abortion, was introduced on Wednesday by a Conservative MP Rod Bruinooge.

OTTAWA, April 14, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - This afternoon Conservative MP Rod Bruinooge, the chair of the pro-life caucus in the Canadian Parliament, introduced a private members bill seeking to stop intimidation and pressure on women to have abortions against their will. Bruinooge said he was inspired to draw up the bill based on the case of a woman from his home town whose boyfriend attempted to coerce her into an abortion.

“We hear stories of women being pressured and threatened and intimidated into having abortions against their will,” explained Bruinooge. “When a woman submits to ending the life of her unborn child because someone else pressured her into, then that abortion is coerced.”

Bruinooge warned that, “Coercion can escalate into violence. Many women have been forced into unwanted abortions; others have been injured or killed for resisting, like Roxanne Fernando, in whose memory I have named this bill.”

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The bill makes it a crime to coerce or attempt to coerce a woman to have an abortion against her will. It specifically excludes physicians that, in their best medical judgment, propose an intervention which may result in loss of a baby, as a necessary step to avoid serious threat to mother's health. And it has NOTHING, absolutely nothing about personhood of the unborn, or about the legal status of the abortion itself.

Section 3 of the bill defines coercion as follows:

(a) committing, attempting to commit, or threatening to commit physical harm to the female person, the child or another person;

(b) committing, attempting to commit or threatening to commit any act prohibited by any provincial or federal law;

(c) denying or removing, or making a threat to deny or remove, financial support or housing from a person who is financially dependent on the person engaging in the conduct; and

(d) attempting to compel by pressure or intimidation including argumentative and rancorous badgering or importunity;

(Source)

Is there any reason why any of the above mentioned actions should not be prohibited?

Again, we're not talking about criminalizing or restricting abortions in any way. We're not talking about trying in any way to legislate personhood of the unborn baby. We're not talking about preventing physicians from recommending an abortion to those women who seek it. The bill merely ensures that if a woman chooses abortion - that's actually her choice, not her parent's choice, not her lover's choice, not her employer's or landlord's choice - her choice.

So there's absolutely no need for Stephen Harper to try to distance himself and his government from bill C-510. If anything - a bill like that should be accepted unanimously by all 4 parties. Because if the Liberals, the NDP and the Bloc declare themselves "pro-choice" - they should also support a woman's choice not to have an abortion.