Abortion debate will not be reopened: PMO
Last Updated: Tuesday, December 30, 2008 | 2:06 PM ET
CBC News
The Prime Minister's Office has reaffirmed its position that the government has no intention of reopening the abortion debate following a Conservative MP's comments that the issue needs to be addressed.
"Throughout his political career, the prime minister has been clear on this issue," Dimitri Soudas, a spokesman for the prime minister, told the National Post. "We will not introduce or support legislation on abortion."
Although the issue has come up during election campaigns, Harper has insisted that it will not be part of a Conservative government agenda. While he has not been specific about his own views, Harper has said they fall somewhere "between the two extremes."
Earlier this week, Winnipeg MP Rod Bruinooge told reporters a pro-life caucus will be pushing for a debate on whether or not abortion should be legal right up until the moment of birth.
Bruinooge, who is the new chair of the secretive anti-abortion parliamentary caucus, said people need to be better educated about Canada's abortion stance, which he says puts the country in a "class of its own."
"Very few Canadians appreciate the fact that essentially until a child takes its first breath, it has less value than a kidney," Bruinooge told the Canadian Press.
"In Canada you can't remove your kidney, and put it on eBay and auction it off. That is illegal. Whereas you actually can end a beating heart of an unborn child the second before it's delivered. Most Canadians would agree that is truly a poor bioethical position for our country to be in."
Pro-choice advocates argue that Canadian doctors only perform such later-term procedures if there's a serious threat to the health of the mother or if it's virtually certain the baby wouldn't survive past birth.
With files from the Canadian Press
