Paul Tuns:
During an election campaign hyper-focused on Trump, tariffs, and affordability, People’s Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier said that he would introduce a late-term abortion ban if elected.
While the five largest parties and their leaders – the Liberals under Mark Carney, Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives, Jagmeet Singh and the NDP, the Bloc Quebecois and Yves-François Blanchet, and Elizabeth May’s Green Party – all promised to defend or expand the abortion status quo in Canada, Bernier said he wanted to restrict abortion after the first trimester.
During an April 16 campaign stop in Red Deer, Alberta, Bernier attacked the Conservative leader, saying, “Pierre Poilievre has repeatedly said he is pro-choice, and he doesn’t want to reopen this debate and change the law.” There is no federal law on abortion meaning that killing a child in utero is permitted for all nine months of pregnancy.
Contrasting his party with the Conservatives, Bernier said, “The People’s Party believes it is time for Canada to join the civilized world by enacting reasonable restrictions on abortion that balance the rights of the mother with the protection of unborn life.”
He added, “Canada is one of the few countries in the world that has no legal restrictions on abortion. As a result, abortions can legally be performed at any stage of pregnancy, including during the third trimester of a pregnancy. It’s legal to kill a fully developed baby who would be viable if born prematurely,” calling such a permissive regime “infanticide.”
Bernier said, “Instead of valuing and promoting life, Canada’s government allows, and even promotes, policies that bring death,” calling the Canadian status quo a “very influential death cult in Canada
Bernier vowed, “A People’s Party government will break the taboo surrounding abortion and encourage an open, respectful, and fact-based discussion on this issue.”
Official PPC policy is to support abortion in the first trimester.
Bernier also condemned Canada’s permissive euthanasia regime, promising to scrap the planned expansion of Medical Assistance in Dying to those suffering solely from mental illness that is scheduled to come into effect in 2027.
Campaign Life Coalition has given a red light to the other four major party leaders but has given a C+ to Bernier on life and family issues due to his mixed voting record and statements calling into question the immoral status quo of Canadian abortion and euthanasia law, as well as he reversal to now oppose gender ideology.
There are two Canadian pro-life parties and leaders, the Christian Heritage Party and leader Rod Taylor and the United Canada Party and leader Grant Abraham.
