Liberal MP Introduces Legislation to Ban Late-Term Abortions
By Carroll Rees

The abortion debate may finally have been unleashed in Canada. Paul Steckle, Member of Parliament for Huron-Bruce in Ontario, introduced a Private Member’s Bill on June 21, 2006. Bill C-338 An Act to amend the Criminal Code (procuring a miscarriage after twenty weeks’ of gestation) would ban all abortions after 20 weeks gestation which is recognized as the point of viability by the Canadian Medical Association. Viability refers to an infant’s ability to survive outside the womb.

Canada has been without any law on abortion since 1988 when the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the law in the Morgentaler case. Mr. Steckle says he is responding to the Supreme Court decision which said it is up to Parliament to decide at which point the unborn child should be protected. “In the 1988 decision striking down Section 287 of the Criminal Code, the Supreme Court clearly said that Parliament was well within its right to place reasonable limits on what the medical community can do by way of ending a pregnancy in favour of measure directed at protecting the unborn. For almost twenty years, we have failed to act upon that call and I am proud to say that Parliament will finally be debating this matter once again,” said Steckle.

The Bill includes an exception for abortions performed “to save the life of a woman whose life is endangered by a physical disorder, physical illness, or physical injury, …or to prevent severe, pathological, physical morbidity of the woman.” The bill would make those who perform an abortion after twenty weeks gestation guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment of up to five years, or else jail for up to two years and/or a fine up to $100,000.

There is no exception for rape or incest or fetal deformity in the Bill. Mr. Steckle’s press kit presents excerpts from experts who have worked with rape victims and a statement from Kathleen DeZeeuv, a victim of rape. She says, “I, having lived through rape, and also having raised a child ‘conceived in rape,’ feel personally assaulted and insulted every time I hear that abortion should be legal because of rape and incest. I feel that we’re being used by pro-abortionists to further the abortion issue, even though we’ve not been asked to tell our side.”

On the topic of fetal deformity Mr. Steckle says, “Making an exception based on qualities of the unborn childas opposed to exceptions related to the mother’s health-gives rise to the very dangerous notion that some lives are not worth living, that our society would be better off without them. Aborting a child because of a possible abnormality is an act of discrimination against people with disabilities.”

A number of pro-life, pro-family, Catholic, and evangelical groups have issued statements supporting Bill C-338. Some of the groups who have said they will support Bill C-338 are LifeCanada, Canadian Physicians for Life, Real Women of Canada, Campaign Life Coalition, Alberta Pro-Life, Priests for Life, Catholic Organization for Life and Family, Evangelical Fellowship of Canada and Focus on the Family.

“It’s better to save some lives than risk all in pursuit of a perfect law”, said Fr. Jim Whalen, National Director for Priests for Life Canada. The press release by Priests for Life goes on to say: “In The Gospel of Life, Pope John Paul II explained that one may support ‘imperfect’ legislation—legislation that, for example, does not ban all abortions but puts some control on a current more permissive law by aiming to limit the number of abortions - if that is the best that can be achieved at a particular time. In doing so one seeks to limit the harm done by the present law: ‘This does not in fact represent an illicit cooperation with an unjust law, but rather a legitimate and proper attempt to limit its evil aspects’ (no. 73). Bill C-338, should it pass, will limit the damage that is caused to Canadian society by abortion and will be a ‘step in the right direction’ in an effort to defend the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death, as the Catholic Church clearly professes”.

Feminist groups are lobbying against Bill C-338. They say, “this bill is significant in that it is the first private member’s bill to directly attack abortion rights by attempting to return abortion to the criminal code.” They are urging their supporters to contact Mr. Steckle to voice their opposition to his bill. It would be a shame if Mr. Steckle only heard from abortion advocates.

Carroll Rees is the Executive Director of LifeCanada