By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on June 19, 2023.

OTTAWA—A Conservative private member’s attempt to revive the abortion debate by conferring unique legal status on pregnant women was clobbered in the House last week.

The governing Liberals united with New Democrats and the Bloc Québécois to defeat Bill C-311 by almost a two-to-one margin.

Opponents of the bill introduced by Saskatchewan Conservative MP Cathay Wagantall numbered 205. Supporters mustered only 113 votes.

Under most circumstances, that should be the end of the story. But with the Conservatives leading in national public opinion polls, and their strong support for the bill, it will only be a matter of time before the question of the legal status of fetuses ends up being litigated when a future Wagantall bill is passed.

Witness the debate concerning the Violence Against Pregnant Women Act in Parliament to understand why this legislation could represent a threat to legal abortions in the country.

The United States is already experiencing a wave of anti-women and anti-gay legislation as a result of a Supreme Court ruling that put legal abortions at risk in parts of their country.

Canadian pundits said this could not happen here, but another item in the news last week paints a different picture.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith named her cabinet, including a health minister with a strong bias against legal abortions. Adriana LaGrange served as education minister in the United Conservative Party government of former premier Jason Kenney. In that role, she presided over one of the largest public sector cuts in Alberta history, firing 20,000 educational assistants, substitute teachers, bus drivers and maintenance staff.

With LaGrange at the helm and Smith’s well-documented ruminations on private medicine, it likely won’t be too long before the new government moves to start charging for more health services.

Even more concerning is the minister’s opposition to legal abortion in the province. Her maiden speech in the Alberta legislature four years ago was entitled, “The lord leads me where he needs me.”

While she was a school trustee, LaGrange served on the provincial board of Alberta Pro-Life. In her first provincial election, she was backed by RightNow, an activist anti-abortion organization.

As education minister, LaGrange introduced a controversial piece of legislation requiring parental notification when any student joined a gay-straight alliance club. The original protection from parental notification was designed to protect those students who could face danger if their parents became aware of their sexual orientation. Students were also denied the right to use the word ‘gay’ or ‘queer’ in describing after-school clubs, and administrators were permitted to keep their inclusivity policies secret.

If LaGrange was controversial in education, there is no reason to think she won’t repeat that history in health. Those who think that access to abortion is safe across the country need to face facts.

Wagantall in Saskatchewan and LaGrange in Alberta are only the tip of the iceberg. When the bill on pregnant women was introduced, the Conservative party was pretty much unanimous in support, starting with the leader.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has said that he will not introduce legislation on abortion, but he has also stated that other members of his caucus are free to do so.

He is the only leader ambivalent about his support for the LGBTQ2S+ communities, refusing to attend Pride parades or showing visible support for those struggling with a wave of homophobia across the country.

With a raucous parliamentary session coming to close, Poilievre’s popularity continues to outstrip that of the governing Liberals.

Abacus Data released a poll last week in which 35 per cent of the respondents said they would vote Tory if an election were held today. That number had increased three percentage points since the previous month, while the Liberals were down two points at 28 per cent.

The appetite for electoral change is there and the Conservatives are the beneficiaries. Approximately 80 per cent of those polled said it is time for a change in government.

Polls move, and most would agree that both Poilievre and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are stellar campaigners. The fight may come right down to the wire in a tight election in 2025 (or whenever it happens).

If there is a Conservative majority win, do not be surprised if limitations on women’s reproductive rights and rights for those in the gay community resurface.

Premier Smith did not hide her intention to move toward health privatization.

Her party has many abortion opponents sitting in the legislature. A key one is now occupying the health minister’s chair.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.

By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on May 15, 2023.

OTTAWA—Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre claims he is in support of LGBTQ issues and a woman’s right to reproductive choice.

But his parliamentary record tells a different story.

As a young MP, Poilievre’s first intervention in the House was a speech to explain why he believed that people seeking medical help for gender reassignment should not receive any public funding.

His proposed ban involved provincial health-care systems but apparently, he felt it was such an important issue that it dominated his maiden speech in the House of Commons.

The Conservative leader has the same credibility issues regarding reproductive choice.

Last week, the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada arrived on Parliament Hill to promote the view that abortions and medically assisted dying should be banned in Canada.

To coincide with their annual march in May, the Conservative MP from Yorkton-Melville, Sask., introduced the Violence Against Pregnant Women private member’s bill, ostensibly dealing with the “legal void around abortion in Canada.”

Cathay Wagantall introduced a previous bill on sex-selective abortion that was defeated two years ago. Her party claims the current bill has nothing to do with abortion, but Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada disagrees. Coalition executive director Joyce Arthur said some groups who oppose abortion view the bill as a positive step because they feel it would legally recognize “pre-born children” in the case of violent crimes, which is not the case now.

Wagantall also links her bill to an anti-choice website, which states that “pre-born children should be considered victims.”

Last month in Parliament, Wagantall stated “Canada has no abortion law and it is still a huge discussion in our country.”

Montreal Liberal MP Rachel Bendayan refuted Wagantall’s claim during a passionate speech in defence of abortion rights.

“Where is this still a huge discussion in our country. … It’s only the Conservatives that want to discuss abortion law in our country because there is certainly no doubt that it is the Conservatives reopening this debate.”

Jurists believe that this is a bill that could be interpreted to give legal status to the fetus. How else to explain why a sentence should be tougher for the murder of a pregnant woman than a defenseless child or an eighty-year-old wheelchair-bound victim?

Bill opponents see the legislation as a backdoor legal argument for giving legal status to a fetus.

And Wagantall’s communications strategy reinforces that thinking.

While publicly, Conservative caucus members were claiming this issue had nothing to do with abortion, the member’s web links told a different story.

It was certainly no accident that the bill was up for debate during the same week that opponents of abortion gather in Ottawa for their annual protest.

The Conservative leadership had to agree on the timing of the private member’s debate.

If the legal status of fetuses is reinforced by legislation that differentiates between pregnant women and all other crime victims, the door will be open to a judicial decision to limit access to abortion based on the rights of the fetus.

In the United States, Donald Trump does not hide the fact that his appointments to their Supreme Court paved the way to a recent ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, the judicial decision that legalized their abortions.

Just last week, in his bid for re-election, Trump took credit for the court’s anti-abortion ruling and garnered huge applause from the majority Republican audience in a televised townhall on CNN.

Canadian observers claim no one is about to reverse Canada’s position on reproductive choice, but a court decision on fetal rights could have the same effect as the reversal being witnessed in the United States.

Poilievre says he supports legal abortions, but courted those Conservatives who opposed reproductive rights in his bid for the Tory leadership.

Wagantall says Poilievre also plans to vote in favour of the legislation, sending a signal that a fetus will have legal standing in a Conservative government.

Poilievre is treading carefully on the question because he doesn’t want to lose the support of the majority of Canadian women who support reproductive choice. He is already having more difficulty in bringing women onside and support for this bill would exacerbate his problems.

The Republicans are facing the same dilemma as traditional female supporters deserted them in the last mid-terms because of the abortion issue.

Last week’s woman-led debate in the House was very heated.

But it is nothing compared to the heat faced by any Conservative who thinks they can deny women’s right to choose.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.