In a shocking display earlier this week, Liberal and NDP members of the Status of Women Committee co-opted a meeting meant to focus on the impacts of violent crime against women, trying instead to turn the conversation to abortion rights. After hearing directly from a survivor of sexual assault, Liberal MP Anita Vandenbeld made a motion proposing that the committee instead turn to a different discussion about abortion rights.
Complaining that they hadn’t been given adequate time to find their own witnesses, both Liberal and NDP members of the committee seemed unwilling to acknowledge the stories of the three witnesses presenting to the committee. Two of these witnesses were advocates for women.
Recognizing that they were not being heard and were instead being used in a political maneuver, the witnesses left the meeting upset and frustrated while these leaders who are tasked with improving the status of women in Canada fought amongst themselves.
It is common for Canadian politicians to accuse one another of “reopening the abortion debate,” as though the debate were a closed one. It is especially common for the Liberals to direct this accusation at Conservatives. Yet it is the Liberals who continually raise this issue, using pre-born children as a political wedge at any opportunity.
We know that pregnant women are at a greater risk than any other group of women for intimate partner violence. We know that some women choose abortion out of fear or due to relationship issues. And we know that more than 80 women in recent Canadian history have had their choice to carry a child taken away when they were killed while pregnant. So yes, concerns about abortion could have connected to the committee’s discussion of violent crimes against women. But to turn a conversation about the impacts of violent crime against women to a discussion on the need for abortion was tone deaf. It just shows again how easily women and children are used as a political tool while our leaders avoid steps toward meaningful change.