Red Deer-Lacombe PPC candidate Laura-Lynn Thompson is joined by Red Deer-Mountain View PPC candidate Paul Mitchell during a news conference in Red Deer Wednesday to announce the pair's Private Member's Bill seeking to end late term abortion in Canada.

By Sheldon Spackman

Limiting Abortion

Local PPC candidates seek end to late-term abortion in Canada

Aug 7, 2019 | 4:37 PM

A pair of local candidates with the People’s Party of Canada (PPC) want to see an end to late-term abortions in Canada.

Red Deer-Lacombe candidate Laura-Lynn Thompson and Red Deer-Mountain View candidate Paul Mitchell say they’ve written a Private Member’s Bill that, should they be elected this fall, they plan to present in Parliament.

The bill sets 24 weeks of pregnancy as the latest an abortion could be legally carried out in Canada.

Mitchell says it’s time Canada joins other democratic nations around the world in limiting access to abortion.

“Thirty years ago, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the previous abortion law in Canada and every single Supreme Court Justice at that time said that the State has a compelling interest in defending the unborn,” he pointed out. “Yet Parliament for 30 years has hidden away from this issue because it’s a taboo topic, it’s controversial, it’s polarizing. Politicians decided that they were just going to avoid it. But unfortunately, Canadians really care about this issue, so it’s time for us to bring it forward.”

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Mitchell feels the proposed Protection of Preborn Children Act is a compromise that can be supported by all.

“We don’t want to do it in a totally partisan way, we want to try and get as many candidates on board from any political party,” he declared. “That’s why we’ve started this website www.preborn.ca and it will allow Canadians to track the progress of how many candidates or sitting members of Parliament will support our bill across this country.

“We’re very hopeful that because of the way we’ve written the bill, we’ve tried to have it very reasonable that we can get a lot of people on board, even including some people that sort of view themselves as pro-choice.”

Mitchell hopes the bill can make its way to Parliament and find broad support amongst Canadians.

“Abortion will still be legal, it will be legal up to 24 weeks,” he explains. “It also has exceptions for if there has been rape or if the woman is in jeopardy, her health or her life is in jeopardy, if the baby is not a viable baby. So for example, if it has a lethal abnormality or no brain function of course would also be an exemption.

“What we’re talking about here is viable babies that can live outside the mother and being protected.”

Mitchell noted local Conservative MPs Earl Dreeshen and Blaine Calkins have been invited to support their Private Member’s Bill but have not yet done so.

Mitchell concluded by saying it’s very important to bring up the abortion issue during an election campaign as that’s when a politician’s feet are held to the fire.

“We do not want a situation where we wait until after the election is over and then all of the politicians go running for their offices and slam the doors closed,” he exclaims. “If we get this going right now and we start to build a wide coalition across the country where a lot of candidates are supporting what we’re doing, now candidates are going to be asked the question and they’re going to have to say what they believe. They will either have to be for it or against it.”

PPC officials note that the proposed bill to end late-term abortion is a Private Member’s Bill and is not part of the party’s official election platform.