Canada Prime Minister Harper Pledges Not to Reopen Abortion Debate 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
February 27, 2006
Ottawa, Canada (LifeNews.com) — Repeating promises he made during the campaign, newly elected Canadian Prime Minster Stephen Harper says he plans to put an end to the "lie" that members of the Liberal Party are advancing that he plans to re-open the nation’s abortion debate.
In an interview with Maclean’s magazine, Harper blamed members of the opposition party for claiming he and his Conservative government have a "hidden agenda" to make abortion illegal.
"There’s no evidence that it’s true," Harper said.
"And it will become very apparent now that I am prime minister that this argument was a lie. And it will not be me having to explain this next time. It will be the other party, when it engages in misrepresentation," the Prime Minister explained.
During the elections, Harper said he would oppose any attempt to introduce legislation regarding abortions.
“The Conservative government won’t be initiating or supporting abortion legislation, and I’ll use whatever influence I have in Parliament to be sure that such a matter doesn’t come to a vote,” Harper said in published reports. “I will use whatever influence I have to keep that off of the agenda, and I don’t see any likelihood of that in the next Parliament."
Harper also noted that a Tory majority could only exercise limited power in Ottawa because of a Liberal-dominated Senate and a bureaucracy appointed by the Liberal government.
Still, pro-life groups want to see abortions limited and hope the Harper administration will help.
Mary Ellen Douglas, president of the pro-life group Campaign Life, has said her organization would like to end taxpayer funding of abortion and stop the dangerous abortion drug RU-486 that has killed four women in the U.S. and injured almost 700.
Last week, the Supreme Court of Canada decided not to hear a women’s lawsuit seeking to have their abortions paid for with taxpayer dollars.
Two women wanted the province of Manitoba to pay for their abortions even though they had them at private abortion businesses rather than a state-funded health center.
The province pays for abortions at public medical centers as required by Canadian law.
Related web sites:
Campaign Life Coalition – https://www.campaignlifecoalition.com
