On June 2, 2021, Members of Parliament voted against Bill C-233, the Sex Selective Abortion Act, preventing it from moving on to the committee stage for further study. Introduced by Saskatchewan MP Cathay Wagantall, the bill would have prohibited physicians from knowingly performing sex selective abortions – a practice that is disproportionately used to target girls.
While the result is obviously disappointing, there is also reason for thankfulness. The vote in the House was 248 – 82, meaning a quarter of Parliamentarians supported it. While the Bloc, Liberal, and NDP parties unanimously opposed the bill, a full two-thirds of the Conservative caucus supported it, as well as Independent MP Derek Sloan.
We Need a Law commends MP Wagantall for bringing the issue of sex selective abortion into the open. We had the opportunity to advance the conversation and see the first abortion bill in 15 years introduced in Parliament. During the debate on this bill, speakers from all parties indicated they opposed the practice of sex selective abortion. They were simply unwilling to take a stand.
Perhaps most encouraging, and proof that this conversation will not end here, is that we saw incredible support for this bill from Canadians across the country. MP Wagantall and her colleagues introduced dozens of petitions with well over ten thousand signatures over the past year in support of Bill C-233. During the lead-up to the debate, MP’s offices were flooded with thousands of empty pink envelopes from Canadians, each one representing a pre-born girl lost to abortion. MPs used these pink envelopes to highlight the issue on their own social media. We also saw pink flag displays and lawn signs pop up around the country in support of this bill.
It was evident in the debates that while Canadians are having ongoing conversations about abortion, elected lawmakers seem unprepared for it. In fact, they seemed angry about having to discuss the issue. Yet most Canadians support common sense abortion restrictions, including a restriction on sex selective abortion.
The debate around sex selective abortion is necessary and will continue. Women’s rights cannot include targeting women before they are born. Sex selective abortion is antithetical to Canada’s commitment to equality and needs to be prohibited as an unacceptable practice. Until MPs have the courage to prohibit this practice, it remains legal and will continue to happen in Canada.
So our political responsibility as pro-life Canadians continues.
Use this opportunity to build a relationship with your Member of Parliament. Find out how they voted and send them a quick email regarding the vote. If you’ve already contacted your MP, let them know you followed the unfolding of this bill, and leave them with a few words of encouragement for their task.
Aitchison, Scott – Nay
Albas, Dan – Nay
Alghabra, Omar – Nay
Alleslev, Leona – Nay
Allison, Dean – Yea
Anand, Anita – Nay
Anandasangaree, Gary – Nay
Angus, Charlie – Nay
Arnold, Mel – Yea
Arseneault, René – Nay
Arya, Chandra – Nay
Ashton, Niki – Nay
Atwin, Jenica – Nay
Bachrach, Taylor – Nay
Badawey, Vance – Nay
Bagnell, Larry – Nay
Bains, Navdeep – Nay
Baker, Yvan – Nay
Baldinelli, Tony – Yea
Barlow, John – Yea
Barrett, Michael – Yea
Barsalou-Duval, Xavier – Nay
Battiste, Jaime – Nay
Beaulieu, Mario – Nay
Beech, Terry – Nay
Bendayan, Rachel – Nay
Bennett, Carolyn – Nay
Benzen, Bob – Yea
Bergen, Candice – Yea
Bergeron, Stéphane – Nay
Berthold, Luc – Nay
Bérubé, Sylvie – Nay
Bessette, Lyne – Nay
Bezan, James – Yea
Bibeau, Marie-Claude – Nay
Bittle, Chris – Nay
Blaikie, Daniel – Nay
Blair, Bill – Nay
Blanchet, Yves-François – Nay
Blanchette-Joncas, Maxime – Nay
Blaney, Steven – Nay
Blaney, Rachel – Nay
Block, Kelly – Yea
Blois, Kody – Nay
Boudrias, Michel – Nay
Boulerice, Alexandre – Nay
Bragdon, Richard – Yea
Brassard, John – Yea
Bratina, Bob – Nay
Brière, Élisabeth – Nay
Brunelle-Duceppe, Alexis – Nay
Calkins, Blaine – Yea
Cannings, Richard – Nay
Carr, Jim – Nay
Carrie, Colin – Yea
Casey, Sean – Nay
Chabot, Louise – Nay
Chagger, Bardish – Nay
Champagne, François-Philippe – Nay
Champoux, Martin – Nay
Charbonneau, Louise – Nay
Chen, Shaun – Nay
Chiu, Kenny – Yea
Chong, Michael – Nay
Cooper, Michael – Yea
Cormier, Serge – Nay
Cumming, James – Nay
Dabrusin, Julie – Nay
Dalton, Marc – Yea
Damoff, Pam – Nay
Dancho, Raquel – Yea
Davidson, Scot – Nay
Davies, Don – Nay
DeBellefeuille, Claude – Nay
Deltell, Gérard – Nay
d’Entremont, Chris – Yea
Desbiens, Caroline – Nay
Desilets, Luc – Nay
Dhaliwal, Sukh – Nay
Dhillon, Anju – Nay
Diotte, Kerry – Yea
Dong, Han – Nay
Dowdall, Terry – Yea
Dreeshen, Earl – Yea
Drouin, Francis – Nay
Dubourg, Emmanuel – Nay
Duclos, Jean-Yves – Nay
Duguid, Terry – Nay
Duncan, Eric – Nay
Duncan, Kirsty – Nay
Duvall, Scott – Nay
Dzerowicz, Julie – Nay
Easter, Wayne – Nay
Ehsassi, Ali – Nay
El-Khoury, Fayçal – Nay
Ellis, Neil – Nay
Epp, Dave – Yea
Erskine-Smith, Nathaniel – Nay
Falk, Ted – Yea
Falk, Rosemarie – Yea
Fast, Ed – Yea
Fergus, Greg – Nay
Fillmore, Andy – Nay
Findlay, Kerry-Lynne – Yea
Finnigan, Pat – Nay
Fisher, Darren – Nay
Fonseca, Peter – Nay
Fortier, Mona – Nay
Fortin, Rhéal – Nay
Fragiskatos, Peter – Nay
Fraser, Sean – Nay
Freeland, Chrystia – Nay
Fry, Hedy – Nay
Gallant, Cheryl – Yea
Garneau, Marc – Nay
Garrison, Randall – Nay
Gaudreau, Marie-Hélène – Nay
Gazan, Leah – Nay
Généreux, Bernard – Nay
Genuis, Garnett – Yea
Gerretsen, Mark – Nay
Gill, Marilène – Nay
Gladu, Marilyn – Yea
Godin, Joël – Nay
Gould, Karina – Nay
Gourde, Jacques – Nay
Gray, Tracy – Yea
Green, Matthew – Nay
Guilbeault, Steven – Nay
Hajdu, Patty – Nay
Hallan, Jasraj Singh – Yea
Harder, Rachael – Yea
Hardie, Ken – Nay
Harris, Jack – Nay
Hoback, Randy – Yea
Holland, Mark – Nay
Housefather, Anthony – Nay
Hughes, Carol – Nay
Hussen, Ahmed – Nay
Hutchings, Gudie – Nay
Iacono, Angelo – Nay
Ien, Marci – Nay
Jaczek, Helena – Nay
Jansen, Tamara – Yea
Jeneroux, Matt – Nay
Johns, Gord – Nay
Joly, Mélanie – Nay
Jones, Yvonne – Nay
Jordan, Bernadette – Nay
Jowhari, Majid – Nay
Julian, Peter – Nay
Kelloway, Mike – Nay
Kelly, Pat – Nay
Kent, Peter – Nay
Khalid, Iqra – Nay
Khera, Kamal – Nay
Kitchen, Robert – Yea
Kmiec, Tom – Yea
Koutrakis, Annie – Nay
Kram, Michael – Yea
Kurek, Damien – Yea
Kusie, Stephanie – Yea
Kusmierczyk, Irek – Nay
Lake, Mike – Yea
Lalonde, Marie-France – Nay
Lambropoulos, Emmanuella – Nay
Lametti, David – Nay
Lamoureux, Kevin – Nay
Larouche, Andréanne – Nay
Lattanzio, Patricia – Nay
Lauzon, Stéphane – Nay
Lawrence, Philip – Yea
LeBlanc, Dominic – Nay
Lebouthillier, Diane – Nay
Lefebvre, Paul – Nay
Lehoux, Richard – Nay
Lemire, Sébastien – Nay
Lewis, Chris – Yea
Liepert, Ron – Nay
Lightbound, Joël – Nay
Lloyd, Dane – Yea
Lobb, Ben – Yea
Long, Wayne – Nay
Longfield, Lloyd – Nay
Louis, Tim – Nay
Lukiwski, Tom – Yea
MacAulay, Lawrence – Nay
MacGregor, Alistair – Nay
MacKenzie, Dave – Yea
MacKinnon, Steven – Nay
Maguire, Larry – Nay
Maloney, James – Nay
Manly, Paul – Nay
Marcil, Simon – Nay
Martel, Richard – Nay
Martinez Ferrada, Soraya – Nay
Masse, Brian – Nay
Mathyssen, Lindsay – Nay
May, Elizabeth – Nay
May, Bryan – Nay
Mazier, Dan – Yea
McCauley, Kelly – Yea
McColeman, Phil – Yea
McCrimmon, Karen – Nay
McDonald, Ken – Nay
McGuinty, David – Nay
McKenna, Catherine – Nay
McKinnon, Ron – Nay
McLean, Greg – Nay
McLeod, Cathy – Nay
McLeod, Michael – Nay
McPherson, Heather – Nay
Melillo, Eric – Nay
Mendès, Alexandra – Nay
Mendicino, Marco – Nay
Michaud, Kristina – Nay
Miller, Marc – Nay
Monsef, Maryam – Nay
Moore, Rob – Yea
Morantz, Marty – Nay
Morrison, Rob – Nay
Morrissey, Robert – Nay
Motz, Glen – Yea
Murray, Joyce – Nay
Nater, John – Nay
Ng, Mary – Nay
Normandin, Christine – Nay
O’Connell, Jennifer – Nay
Oliphant, Robert – Nay
O’Regan, Seamus – Nay
O’Toole, Erin – Nay
Patzer, Jeremy – Yea
Paul-Hus, Pierre – Nay
Pauzé, Monique – Nay
Perron, Yves – Nay
Petitpas Taylor, Ginette – Nay
Plamondon, Louis – Nay
Poilievre, Pierre – Nay
Powlowski, Marcus – Nay
Qaqqaq, Mumilaaq – Nay
Qualtrough, Carla – Nay
Ratansi, Yasmin – Nay
Rayes, Alain – Nay
Redekopp, Brad – Yea
Regan, Geoff – Nay
Rempel Garner, Michelle – Nay
Richards, Blake – Nay
Robillard, Yves – Nay
Rodriguez, Pablo – Nay
Rogers, Churence – Nay
Romanado, Sherry – Nay
Rood, Lianne – Yea
Ruff, Alex – Nay
Sahota, Ruby – Nay
Sahota, Jag – Nay
Saini, Raj – Nay
Sajjan, Harjit S. – Nay
Saks, Ya’ara – Nay
Samson, Darrell – Nay
Sangha, Ramesh – Nay
Sarai, Randeep – Nay
Saroya, Bob – Yea
Savard-Tremblay, Simon-Pierre – Nay
Scarpaleggia, Francis – Nay
Scheer, Andrew – Yea
Schiefke, Peter – Nay
Schmale, Jamie – Yea
Schulte, Deb – Nay
Seeback, Kyle – Yea
Serré, Marc – Nay
Sgro, Judy A. – Nay
Shanahan, Brenda – Nay
Sheehan, Terry – Nay
Shields, Martin – Yea
Shin, Nelly – Yea
Shipley, Doug – Nay
Sidhu, Maninder – Nay
Sidhu, Sonia – Nay
Simard, Mario – Nay
Simms, Scott – Nay
Sloan, Derek – Yea
Sorbara, Francesco – Nay
Soroka, Gerald – Yea
Spengemann, Sven – Nay
Stanton, Bruce – Nay
Steinley, Warren – Yea
Ste-Marie, Gabriel – Nay
Strahl, Mark – Yea
Stubbs, Shannon – Yea
Sweet, David – Yea
Tabbara, Marwan – Nay
Tassi, Filomena – Nay
Therrien, Alain – Nay
Tochor, Corey – Yea
Trudeau, Justin – Nay
Trudel, Denis – Nay
Turnbull, Ryan – Nay
Uppal, Tim – Yea
Van Bynen, Tony – Nay
van Koeverden, Adam – Nay
Van Popta, Tako – Yea
Vandal, Dan – Nay
Vandenbeld, Anita – Nay
Vaughan, Adam – Nay
Vecchio, Karen – Nay
Vidal, Gary – Yea
Viersen, Arnold – Yea
Vignola, Julie – Nay
Virani, Arif – Nay
Vis, Brad – Yea
Wagantall, Cathay – Yea
Warkentin, Chris – Yea
Waugh, Kevin – Yea
Webber, Len – Nay
Weiler, Patrick – Nay
Wilkinson, Jonathan – Nay
Williamson, John – Yea
Wilson-Raybould, Jody – Nay
Wong, Alice – Yea
Yip, Jean – Nay
Young, Kate – Nay
Yurdiga, David – Yea
Zahid, Salma – Nay
Zann, Lenore – Nay
Zimmer, Bob – Yea
Zuberi, Sameer – Nay
Sample 1: Yea vote
Thank you for voting in favour of Bill C-233. I am grateful to have an MP who is willing to take a stand against sex selective abortion. While I’m disappointed the bill did not pass, I hope similar legislation can be reintroduced soon by you or one of your colleagues.
I wish you continued strength for your work and look forward to future engagement on a variety of issues.
With appreciation for your service to our community and our country,
Sample 2: Nay vote
I was disappointed to see that you voted against Bill C-233 this week. The sex selective abortion act would have been a great step in recognizing that the majority of Canadians, including me, support some restrictions on abortion. It is time our country got in line with every other democratic country in the world by finding ways to protect pre-born children at some stage. If the opportunity to support a similar bill ever arises again, I hope you will reconsider your stance.
In the meantime, I continue to wish you all the best in your work and thank you for the time you give to serve our community and our country.
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