BOTH pro-life and pro-choice groups are vehemently defending their positions in light of a new bill that is currently before the House of Commons.

Bill C-484, also known as the Unborn Victims of Crime Act would allow charges to be laid in the death of a fetus when a pregnant woman is the victim of a violent crime.

Pro-life groups are touting the bill as a step towards recognition of a fetus as a human being, which would put them under the protection of the Criminal Code. Meanwhile, pro-choice groups are seeing the bill as a step backwards to the recriminalization of abortion.

The Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada has started an online petition in protest of the bill. At press time, the petition had about 6,000 signatures, and according to Coalition spokesperson Carolyn Egan it will continue to grow because of the concern Canadians feel about the bill.

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Jim Hughes, national president of the Campaign Life Coalition disagreed. “It makes you wonder if they read the bill, because its wording says the unborn child is only recognized as a victim when the mother is also a victim of crime and that in no way does the legislation apply to a ‘woman’s right to choose,’” he said in an interview for the Campaign Life Coalition National News.

Polls conducted Canada-wide by Environics Research Group have shown that 72 percent of Canadians support some form of legislation which would make it a crime to injure or kill a fetus during an attack on the mother.

The bill has been debated twice within Parliament and will go on to a third reading soon; at press time the exact date was not available.

Within parliament the parties are split on the issue just as much as the public, with most Conservative MPs in favour of the bill and other parties supporting in varying degrees.

– Emily Bruins

April 2008