Unborn Victims of Violence
Bill C-484, the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, seeks to amend the Criminal Code so as to include as an indictable offense, any harm cause to the unborn child while an offense is being committed against the mother. On March 5, 2008 the Bill passed Second Reading in the Canadian House of Commons, with 147 voting in favour, and 132 voting against.
Of interest to me, is how Father Raymond Gravel, a Roman Catholic priest and Bloc Quebecois Member of Parliament, has dealt with this issue. Father Gravel, who, during his days as a parish priest, gained a reputation as a ‘dissenting’ priest, promised that when he took public office he would not take positions that countered those of the Roman Catholic Church, which as a priest he represents.
When discussing the issue, Fr. Gravel transformed the debate into one about abortion. On December 13, 2007 he stated in the Commons "I am against abortion, but I do not believe that [criminalization of it] is how we deal with the problem of abortion." He recently redeclared his opposition to abortion, this time on March 3, 2008, again in the Commons saying "I am against abortion. I regard human life as sacred and abortion as always being a tragedy in our society," and "I believe that human life starts at conception," as well as "I disagree with [the Supreme Court which has declared that a child becomes a human when it has completely proceeded, in a living state, from the body of its mother…"
In light of Fr. Gravel’s previously being seen as a supporter of abortion, this is indeed a nice development. However, Fr. Gravel’s opposition to this Bill confuses me. Gravel is against the decriminalization of abortion because he believes that it would not actually solve anything. He believes that pregnant mothers seeking an abortion would then simply identify alternate, and potentially more dangerous solutions (the famous ‘back-alley abortions’). He suggests that instead it is through education, teaching values, fighting poverty, ensuring respect and dignity for people, and equality between the sexes, and support for pregnant mothers, that the root reasons for mothers normally seeking abortions are neutered. This is how to deal with abortion, Fr. Gravel suggests.
I have never doubted Fr. Gravel’s sincerity, and I don’t disagree with his desire to neuter the reasons those have for seeking an abortion (after all, Crisis Pregnancy Centres seek to do the same), and his concern about the safety of mothers who feel forced to experience an ‘illegal abortion’ is not one I wish to undermine, however, decriminalizing abortion, while it certainly would not wipe abortion out of existence, would significantly lessen it, and with a significantly smaller number of women seeking abortions, preventatives that Gravel suggests (education…) would have a realistic chance of providing potential mothers with real alternatives to abortion. Would this not be the better way to reduce the number of abortions, to combine legislative initiatives with social support?
We digress though because technically this Bill isn’t even about abortion (technically). It is about criminal offenses committed against a pregnant woman that come to bring harm against the unborn child. And yet in a vote of 279 Canadian parliamentarians, 132 (47%) including a Roman Catholic priest, oppose?
K.
"When a pregnant woman is assaulted or killed and her fetus is killed at the same time, I completely agree that it is an abominable crime…" Father Raymond Gravel, MP, December 13, 2007.
While the House wasn’t full on the day of the vote congratulations to New Democrat Peter Stoffer, and Liberals Ray Bonin, John Cannis, Raymond Chan, Roy Cullen, Sukh Dhaliwal, Albina Guarnieri, Charles Hubbard, Jim Karygiannis, Derek Lee, Lawrence MacAuley, Gurbax Mahli, John Maloney, Joe McGuire, John McKay, Dan McTeague, Shawn Murphy, Massimo Pacetti, Francis Scarpeleggia, Raymond Simard, Lloyd St. Amand, Paul Steckle, Paul Szabo, Robert Thibault, Alan Tonks, Roger Valley, Tom Wappel, and Borys Wrzesnewskyj, as well as all but four of the Conservatives who made the right decision.
