Members of Parliament visit display commemorating the victims of sex selective abortion

24/09/2020 / Press Releases 

September 24, 2020

For immediate release

Ottawa, ON – Today, Members of Parliament visited a pink flag display near Parliament commemorating the victims of sex selective abortion. The pink flags surrounded the Human Rights Monument in downtown Ottawa and volunteers stood with signs that said, “Sex Selective Abortion is Wrong,” pointing people to the website DefendGirls.com. MP Cathay Wagantall (Yorkton—Melville) who attended the flag display, put forward a private member’s bill earlier this year to criminalize the discriminatory practice of sex selective abortion. Other MPs who visited the display included Damien Kurek (Battle River—Crowfoot), Jeremy Patzer (Cypress Hills—Grasslands), Tako Van Popta (Langley—Aldergrove), Arnold Viersen (Peace River—Westlock), Marc Dalton (Pitt Meadows—Maple Ridge), and Derek Sloan (Hastings—Lennox and Addington). We Need a Law, a pro-life organization advocating for laws restricting abortion, is grateful for the support shown by these MPs for Wagantall’s proposed Sex Selective Abortion Act.

Tabitha Ewert, legal counsel for We Need a Law, hopes the display and the bill will draw attention to an injustice facing girls in Canada. “The most common reaction from those walking by was surprise that sex selective abortion is legal in Canada. The reality is that abortion is legal in Canada for any reason, including the reason that parents don’t like the sex of the child. If we want to be serious about gender equality this has to start with opposing discrimination at the earliest stages of life.”

Pedestrians stopped to talk to volunteers and sign the petition in support of MP Wagantall’s bill. “Most of the people we interacted with today were supportive of what we were doing. I talked to pro-choice and pro-life individuals who believed that sex selective abortion is unacceptable and supported a law banning it,” said Ewert. “We hope to see this important bill debated and passed by Parliament this fall.”

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For further comment or interviews, please contact Tabitha Ewert (EDT) at 1-866-410-9625 // [email protected]

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