The anti-abortion MPs

As I reported last night, there are a group of MPs from only — so far as I can tell — the Conservative and Liberal parties who would push for a vote in the House of Commons on any issue that would lead to the restriction or elimination of abortion access rights in Canada. Some of these MPs are part of a Parliamentary Pro-Life Caucus but we cannot tell you who is a member of that caucus.

Two of its leaders, Liberal Paul Steckle and Conservative Maurice Vellacott, held a press conference yesterday related to abortion and would not say how big the caucus is; who is on it; or whether it includes any members of the Bloc Quebecois or the New Democratic Party. (An NDP caucus spokesman later said there are no NDP members of the Pro-Life Caucus).

Any move to change the status quo so far as abortion access rights goes seems doomed to failure in the current Parliament. For one thing, the Conservative party election platform, making good on a resolution of party grassroots at the March 2005 policy convention, pledged to do nothing to change abortion laws. That means, any push to to change a law will not have the backing of the government.

Secondly, even if there ever was a vote, the numbers in the Commons favour the status quo.

That’s because NDP and Bloc Quebecois MPs would be whipped to support their party’s position to protect abortion access rights and so that, presumably, is 80 votes for the status quo right there (there might be two or three BQ MPs who might defy their leader and either be absent for such a vote or vote to overturn the status quo but, as we shall see, it won’t matter much). The leadership of the Liberals and Conservatives say their MPs would be free to vote their conscience on an abortion vote. Doing a very rough thumbnail estimate, I figure there might be 50 Conservative MPs who would vote to overturn abortion rights and maybe 30 Liberals so that means just 80 votes when 154 are required to win an issue.

The abortion issue, incidentally, was forced on to the policy docket yesterday largely by the 2,200 people (that’s my count, by the way, not an estimate) who arrived on the Hill’s front lawn to push lawmakers to ban abortion.

Several MPs participated in this rally as a speaker or by lending their name to supporters. Presumably, some of the following are members of the Parliamentary Pro-Life Caucus although, as Steckle said yesterday, you’d have to ask each one. Here are the politicians I spotted on the speaker’s platform at the rally:

Conservatives

• Harold Albrecht (Kitchener-Conestoga)
• Norman Doyle (St. John’s East)
• Brian Fitzpatrick (Prince Albert)
• Galipeau, Royal (Ottawa-Orleans)
• Gary Goodyear (Cambridge)
• Jason Kenney (Calgary Southeast)
• Guy Lauzon (Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry)
• Lemieux, Pierre (Glengarry-Prescott-Russell)
• James Lunney (Nanaimo-Alberni)
• Kevin Sorenson (Crowfoot)
• Brad Trost (Saskatoon-Humboldt)
• Maurice Vellacott (Saskatoon-Wanuskewin)
• Mark Warawa (Langley)

Liberals

• Paul Steckle (Huron Bruce)
• Paul Szabo (Mississauga South)
• Tom Wappel (Scarborough Southwest)

Also attending:

Sen. Michael Forrestall (Conservative – Dartmouth and the Eastern Shore)