Liberals fail to pass motion

By Deborah Gyapong

Canadian Catholic News

OTTAWA (CCN) — A Liberal motion to force the federal government to include abortion and contraception in its maternal health initiative went down defeat March 23 by a 144 to 138 vote.

Perceived by the Tories and Parliament Hill journalists as an attempt to drive a wedge between pro-life and pro-choice members of the Conservative party, the motion backfired, even with the support of the New Democrats and the Bloc Quebecois.

Three pro-life Liberal MPs — Paul Szabo, Dan McTeague and John McKay — voted against it. As they stood, pro-life MPs from across the aisle applauded. In addition, more than a dozen Liberals failed to show up or abstained.

Moved by Liberal MP Bob Rae (Toronto-Centre), the three-paragraph motion never mentioned abortion. Instead it used euphemisms, such as insisting on “a full range of family planning, sexual and reproductive health options, including contraception.”

But Szabo said he had no doubt the motion concerned abortion, nor did the hundreds of people from his Mississauga South riding who emailed him, urging him to vote against it.

“I am a pro-life member of Parliament,” Szabo said after the vote. “This is a moral issue for me and I exercised the vote based on my conscience.”

Rae’s motion followed several days of Opposition hammering of the Conservatives over the issue of contraception, after Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon told a parliamentary committee the G8 initiative to help mothers and children would not include family planning.

The Liberals sensed vulnerability as the Tories awkwardly backtracked and insisted contraception would be part of the package.

Rumours flew among pro-life activists that the Conservatives might whip a vote in support of the Liberal motion. But early in the debate, International Development Minister Bev Oda announced her party would oppose the motion.

“This motion is a transparent attempt to reopen the abortion debate that we have clearly said we have no intention of getting into,” Oda said.

In Question Period, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff insisted on clarity. “First, he said no to family planning,” he said. “Then he said yes, maybe. Nobody actually knows where the government is.”

Harper accused him of “playing petty politics.”

After the motion’s defeat, Ignatieff continued to attack the Tories for improvising and said they should take a clear position. “This is about providing full access to reproductive health,” he said. But he refused to say “abortion” even though pressed by journalists for clarity from his side.

“Politicians seem to be so afraid to say this is what we’re going to do and that’s that,” said Campaign Life Coalition (CLC) national organizer Mary Ellen Douglas.

“I thought Harper’s plan at the beginning was crystal clear: providing the basic necessities of food, water and inoculations and training health professional to help pregnant women,” she said. “It was a wonderful thing.”

Douglas said the Liberals seemed determined to make sure abortion and birth control were part of the package. “They took something that was good and noble and made it into something dark and deadly.”

While Rae and Ignatieff avoided the word abortion, Liberal MP Keith Martin, a medical doctor, told the House abortion is part of a full array of family planning options.