Cathay Wagantall
On Feb. 26, Conservative MP Cathay Wagantall (Yorkton-Melville) introduced Bill C-233, the Sex Selective Abortion Act, a private member’s bill that, if passed, will create a new penalty for medical practitioners who commit an abortion when the only reason is the genetic sex of the pre-born child.
In a statement, Wagantall said, “Sex selective abortion is antithetical to our commitment to equality and needs to be prohibited as an unacceptable practice.” She noted that polls show more than 80 per cent of Canadians are opposed to sex-selective abortions. “Canada must act now to condemn this practice and to make it apparent to all that Canada values women and equality,” she said.
Jeff Gunnarson, national president of Campaign Life Coalition, told The Interim that CLC supports the bill. He said, “CLC is happy to support this bill as it does not discriminate by age or sex but rather includes, potentially, all babies who are at risk of being surgically aborted. It has the potential to reduce abortions for reasons that few sane people will argue.” He said CLC is encouraging its supporters to urge MPs to pass C-233.
Gunnarson said that C-233 will challenge feminists and their Liberal allies in government “to make a decision whether or not to support the deliberate killing of female babies.”
Gunnarson also explained, “All abortion is abhorrent and defies God’s commandment that says one should not kill another human being. The idea of sex-selective abortion serves only to compound the evil.”
This is the second pro-life law Wagantall has introduced since becoming a pro-life MP in 2015. In 2016, she introduced “Cassie and Molly’s Law,” which addressed violence against pregnant women that caused injury or death to a preborn child.
