Stephen Woodworth (second left) with pro-life youth from Manitoba.
MP Stephen Woodworth (CPC, Kitchener Centre) talked to a pair of pro-life groups in Brandon, Manitoba in January about his 2012 motion, M-312, that sought to have Parliament explore the scientific and medical evidence regarding preborn life and determine if that information had any human rights implications. When it was defeated in September 2012, Woodworth vowed to continue to highlight the injustice of treating the child in the womb as a non-person without any legal rights.
As part of Woodworth’s campaign, he spoke to Life Vision Brandon and the University of Brandon Students for Life. He addressed about 150 people at Life Vision’s annual gala dinner at the Ukrainian Reading Hall on Jan. 20. Two days later, he talked to about 30 students at the university.
Scott Hayward, a member of Life’s Vision Brandon, told The Interim that Woodworth talked at both events about M-312 and the history behind the motion, focusing on the genesis of the current medieval definition of preborn life, the International Declaration of Human Rights, and atrocities such as slavery and the Holocaust that illustrate what happens when, in Woodworth’s phrase, the “equal worth and dignity as human being” of every person is not acknowledged.
Hayward, organizer of the Defund Abortion rally in Manitoba last October, and treasurer of Manitoba Youth for Life, said pro-lifers at both events enjoyed Woodworth’s presentation and he heard numerous positive comments. On a personal note, Hayward said: “As a young person it is nice to hear an MP that has the moral courage to speak up for life as he did and we are appreciative that he came to Brandon” to share the message.
The Brandon Sun reported that Woodworth faced hostile questions from pro-abortion students that attended the university talk. They allege the MP is trying to dishonestly re-open the abortion debate. Former Brandon University Students’ Union president Carissa Taylor Woodworth, “have you ever been raped?” explaining, “the reason I ask is unless you’ve experience something like sexual violence I don’t understand how you can speak to people about abortion.”
Woodworth maintained his motion and campaign to inform Canadians about the lack of any legal acknowledgement that the preborn child is a human person is a matter of equality, not abortion.
