Liberals, NDP call Conservative bill a 'veiled' attempt to roll back abortion rights

As thousands of protesters descended on Ottawa Thursday to demonstrate over abortion rights, the Liberals and the NDP used the opportunity to keep the issue at the centre of public debate.

During the March for Life protest Thursday, more than two dozen Liberal MPs, including some cabinet ministers, took part in shooting a video posted to social media in which they state their support for abortion rights.

Minister for Families Karina Gould put out her own video on Thursday. "I'm pro-choice and I don't actually need to justify it to anyone," she says in the video.

"I believe in your right to choose and I will stand up for it. I will defend it and I will protect it." 

A Conservative MP's private member's bill working its way through Parliament has become a lightning rod in the abortion debate — even though it doesn't mention abortion.

Conservative MP Cathay Wagantall's Bill C-311 encourages judges to consider physical or emotional harm to a pregnant victim as an aggravating factor during sentencing.

Private member's bills rarely become law — but this one has revived abortion as a wedge issue.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's spokesperson told the Canadian Press this week that he plans to vote in favour of the bill. Poilievre has in the past identified as pro-choice and has said he would not introduce legislation to limit abortion rights in Canada.

Wagantall opposes abortion but said this week the legislation has nothing to do with abortion rights and is entirely focused on violence against women.

The Liberals and the NDP disagree.

A 'veiled' attack on abortion rights

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh spoke out against the bill at a pro-abortion rights rally in Ottawa Thursday. He said that the legislation is a veiled attack on access to abortion.

"What we've seen from Conservatives again and again is, while they don't openly often go after choice, they find ways to go after choice in hidden techniques," he said.

Singh called the bill "a veiled attempt — and not very veiled" to limit abortion rights through indirect means.

Responding to a question from one of his own MPs about Bill C-311 on Wednesday in the House of Commons, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that in Canada, abortion is health care.

"It's so disappointing to see another thinly veiled attempt by the Conservative Party of Canada to restrict a woman's right to choose," Trudeau said.

Singh also accused the Liberals of failing to ensure access to abortion in Canada, especially in rural regions where access is limited.

"While the Liberals often say the right thing, and I'll acknowledge that, they don't back it up by ensuring that they follow through on their own commitments," he said.

Bill C-311

The Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada is urging MPs to vote against the bill on the grounds that it promotes fetal rights, even though there is no mention of fetal rights in the text of the bill itself.

Coalition executive director Joyce Arthur said some groups opposed to abortion view the bill as a positive step because they feel it would legally recognize "pre-born children" in the context of violent crimes.

"On the surface, it might not seem like an objectionable bill, but there's all kinds of associated reasons that we're very suspicious of it," Arthur told the Canadian Press this week.

CBC News reached out to Poilievre's office for reaction to the Liberal and NDP attacks on Bill C-311 and has yet to receive a response.

The bill is the latest iteration of similar legislation proposed by Wagantall in 2016.

In the 2016 version, Wagantall sought to make it a separate offence under the Criminal Code to injure or kill a fetus while committing an offence against the mother.

During the parliamentary debate in 2016, Bill Blair, who was the parliamentary secretary to the minister of justice at the time, pointed out that abusing pregnant women was already considered an aggravating factor for sentencing purposes.

The Criminal Code also prohibits causing the death of a fetus in some circumstances, although it does not acknowledge an unborn fetus as a human being.