Immediately following the Supreme Court ruling there were several attempts to introduce a new abortion law. All of these failed, including a piece of legislation that would have criminalized abortion except in a case where the mother’s health was at risk; it passed through the House of Commons, but was defeated in the Senate.
Since then, every government has vowed not to re-open the abortion debate, and each one has stayed true to their word.
There have been individual members who have introduced private member’s motions and private member’s bills dealing with abortion.
In 2007, Ken Epp introduced Bill C-484, the Unborn Victims of Crime Act, which would make it a separate crime to kill a child in the womb while committing a criminal act against the mother. The bill passed second reading, but died when parliament was dissolved due to an election call.
Rod Bruinooge introduced Bill C-510, Roxanne’s Law, which would have made it a criminal offence to coerce a women into proceeding with an abortion. This legislation was defeated on its first vote.
In December 2011, Stephen Woodworth went public with his intentions of putting forward a motion that if passed would require an all-party parliamentary committee to investigate the definition of what is a human being. Motion 312 is making its way through the parliamentary process and the first hour of debate in the House of Commons was April 26, 2012.