A Con backbencher wants to pass a motion to debate the beginning of life. But Harpo swears, again, this isn't about reopening the abortion debate. But at least soon nobody will stop the trade in human ova and surrogacy!
The pro-choice movement scored a significant victory last week in the Parliamentary debate over anti-choice Motion 312. It could prove to be a watershed moment, one that could end the abortion debate in Canada forever -- or at least until Christian fundamentalists stage an improbable coup and enslave Canadian women into a version of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale.
A new international report on women's rights versus fetal rights has arrived just in time to help demolish Motion 312, Conservative MP Stephen Woodworth's attempt to give legal protection to fetuses in Canada by including them in the Criminal Code definition of "human being." The report, Whose Right to Life? Women's Rights and Prenatal Protections under Human Rights and Comparative Law, comes from the U.S.-based Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR), a global legal advocacy organization.