Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Canadian Women Support Roxanne's Law


One of them, Mrs. Kelly Block, a Conservative MP for Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, took the courage to speak in defense of the bill for the second time:
Mrs. Kelly Block (Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, CPC):
Mr. Speaker, since I stood in the House last month to speak in support of Roxanne's Law, I have heard from countless Canadians across the country, especially women, expressing their strong support for the bill, which would give Canadian women much needed protection against unwanted abortions.

The evidence completely dispels the notion expressed last month in this chamber that women do not want this protection. Nothing I have seen, heard or read could be further from the truth.

The sad reality is that abortion coercion does take place in Canada. We all know about Roxanne Fernando who was murdered by the father of her unborn child after refusing to end her pregnancy. A recent case involving abortion coercion in Calgary also had a fatal outcome. Melinda Morin was convicted of manslaughter for killing her boyfriend in a fit of rage after he attacked her during an argument about her pregnancy. He wanted her to have an abortion but she refused.

Those two examples tell us that if a women is feeling threatened into an unwanted abortion, she may be either the victim or the perpetrator of violence. Both are extreme and tragic examples of what can happen when others try to impose unwanted abortions on pregnant women. I am certainly not saying that all cases involving abortion coercion will end in violence but those stories do illustrate this tragic and deadly outcome that can result when we, as a society, do not take abortion coercion seriously and when we do not condemn it loudly and clearly, as Roxanne's Law would surely do.
It's a shame however that Kelly's female colleagues from the opposition, were too concerned about loss of funding for feminist groups and about vague threats that the bill might pose to the abortion industry than about the safety of their fellow women.

Not every coerced abortion involves severe beating or murder. Most often, a woman just gets dragged into an abortion mill - in broad daylight, in front of the passers-by who hardly realize what's actually happening. Thousands of women lose their babies and are left permanently scarred because someone else has made the fatal "choice" for them. But Canada's pro-abort MPs would rather turn a blind eye on their suffering than let abortion industry be threatened in any way.

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