Ottawa, Canada (LifeNews.com) -- A bill in the Canadian parliament that would offer protection and justice for pregnant women and their unborn babies is about ready for a second committee debate. Bill C-484, the unborn victims bill, received a 147 to 133 second reading vote in early March.

Now the all party justice committee will examine the bill and its sponsor, Conservative MP Ken Epp, is hopeful that it will get a debate and vote towards the end of the month.

The committee will decide whether the House of Commons should approve the measure and allow it to pass on third reading.

Epp told Today’s Family News there's no reason why legislators should vote against a common sense bill that holds criminals accountable for two crimes when they kill or injure a mother and her unborn child in a violent attack.

“I don’t see how anybody could vote against it,” Epp said.

“Saying this attacker should go free and the family of this woman should grieve the loss of her unborn child without any recognition of it in law at all – I don’t see how people can be for that," he added.

But Epp understands Canadian abortion advocates are heavily lobbying MPs and making the bill appear as if it would ban abortions.

“It has nothing to do with anything other than a woman who is pregnant who has chosen to have her child . . . and who has had that choice and her wanted child taken away from her without her consent, against her will,” EPP told TFN in response.

Epp is encouraged about the prospects for the bill because of a recent poll showing a strong majority of Canadians across the country support it.

The Vancouver-based Angus Reid Strategies conducted the poll and found 70 percent of Canadians support it while just 19 percent of the people in Canada oppose the measure.

The survey found 44 percent of Canadians strongly support the bill while 26 percent moderately support it. Another 11 percent are undecided.

Residents of the Atlantic provinces were most likely (82%) to support the bill along with those living in Alberta (79%) and Manitoba and Saskatchewan (79%).

Canadian citizens in Quebec and (63%) and British Columbia (64%) were less likely to support the bill but still felt Parliament should approve it.

Epp concluded, “People out there recognize that there’s a huge difference between a woman who says, ‘I’m pregnant and I don’t want to be,’ and a woman who’s being attacked and who’s screaming and yelling for her life and the life of her unborn child that she wants.”

Epp hopes more Canadians will contact their MPs and urge strong support for Bill C-484.

ACTION: Use this web site to contact your member of parliament and express support for the bill.

Related web sites:
MP Ken Epp - http://www.kenepp.com