The resurgence of the abortion debate in the US worries Canada

In the land of Margaret Atwood, author of the novel that became a TV series The Scarlet Maida feminist dystopia in which women are reduced to the role of surrogate mothers, and the possible questioning of Rowe’s rule against. Wade in the United States caused a shock wave. Across Canada, radio, television and newspapers have seized on the possibility of repealing the right to abortion in the American neighbor to question the contagion’s potential impact. The day after the revelation by the site Politico From the initial draft of the United States Supreme Court evoking the end of this forty-nine-year constitutional right, the debate was also promptly invited to the House of Commons in Ottawa.

“One moment of inattention can set us back decades”Christine Normandin, MP for the Quebecoa (Independence) bloc, warned Tuesday, May 3rd. “The government is committed to protecting women’s basic right to choose.”Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland responded to the thunderous applause. Absent from parliamentary circles, Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau posted at the same time Twitter message : “The right to choose is a woman’s right. Period.”

On the other hand, the question of a possible questioning of abortion has plunged the Conservative Party of Canada into embarrassment. In an email sent to its members a few hours after the revelation of PoliticoThe party communications team instructed them not to do so Comment on the leak.. “What happens in the US happens in the US, it’s an issue that has been settled for decades in Canada and that’s a good thing”he tried to dodge conservative MP Gerard Deltel.

This topic has divided the Canadian right for decades, which, especially in the prairie provinces, in the west of the country, has a hard-line religious base staunchly opposed to free choice. Conservative governments led by Brian Mulroney (1984-1993) and Stephen Harper (2006-2015) have attempted on several occasions to restrict access to abortion. without result. Since then, successive leaders of the Conservative Party have been regularly suspected of wanting to reopen the debate. Even if, among the six candidates vying for his leadership today, has been vacant since February, only Leslyn Lewis, the only woman in the race, says she is openly against abortion. She received enthusiastic support from the Campaign Life Coalition, a powerful anti-abortion Canadian organization.

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