get ready to fight: fetal rights debate coming soon to canada's parliament

In case you missed it:
Tory MP Stephen Woodworth wants human rights for unborn children

A Conservative MP is defying his party’s leadership with a move to rewrite Canadian laws to extend human rights to unborn children.

Kitchener MP Stephen Woodworth is taking aim at a section of the Criminal Code that defines a child as a human being only when it can breathe on its own and is severed from the umbilical cord. He says the law was first drafted in Britain in the 1700s but is based on “limited medical knowledge” that needs to be updated.

“Don’t accept any law that says some human beings are not human beings. Nothing justifies it,” he told reporters Monday.

Woodworth filed a motion in the House of Commons asking for a special committee to review medical evidence about when a child can be considered a human being separate from the mother. He also wants that committee of seven Tory MPs, four New Democrats and one Liberal to examine the legal impact of denying full human rights to an unborn child. ...
Even the Canada Press headlines are biased against reproductive rights. "Unborn children" is a judgment. A prospective parent may refer to their pregnancy that way, but the media should be using the correct word: fetus.

Stephen Harper has promised to not re-open the abortion debate in Canada. He can appear to keep his promise while allowing his backbenchers to do the dirty work of driving this wedge, letting the Prime Minister appear more moderate. Do we really believe a control-freak like Harper isn't orchestrating this from behind the curtain?

Remember, vehement anti-choicers hold positions of great power inside The Harper GovernmentTM.



Heather Mallick:
The most dire word in the English language is “committee.” I know, you thought it was “empowered” or “Bündchen.” But it is committee, particularly a “special” one you join or come up with, especially when the Prime Minister, the canniest man in Canada, is out of town in China for like a total week and you are an MP and you want a fast decision on when human life begins.

Yes, you are Conservative Kitchener-Centre MP Stephen Woodworth, born and raised in Kitchener where you lawyered for 30 years before heading to the big city to regulate the lives of women and end abortions.

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