NDP fights back anti-choice movement, pledges to expand access

MONTREAL — The NDP will use its next opposition day to force the House of Commons to debate and vote on a motion to push back the creep of anti-choice bills, petitions and threats in Canada, and improve access to abortion.

NDP leader Jagmeet Singh and NDP critic for Women and Gender Equality Leah Gazan (Winnipeg Centre) made the announcement in Montreal Thursday.

“It’s your body, your life and your choice,” said Singh. “But access has been eroded just as Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has allowed an increasing number of anti-choice bills and petitions from his circle of MPs. Abortion is health care, and people should not have to worry about accessing care, facing barriers to care, or having to pay for care. They should be able to access it where and when they need it.”

Gazan said making the motion the subject of a designated opposition day shows the party is prioritizing the issue.

“Women, gender-diverse people and our allies have seen anti-choice movements emboldened by the American reversal of Roe v. Wade, and we’re worried,” said Gazan. “Justin Trudeau let us down by letting access to abortion care be chipped away at, and refusing to enforce the Canada Health Act. Too many people have to drive hours or wait weeks to exercise their right to choose. When Conservative premiers attack, he does nothing — even in the face of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s plan to hand hospitals over to a private organization that will not allow abortion care.

“Pierre Poilievre says he’s pro-choice, but the anti-choice movement is calling the shots with the Conservatives. He allows his caucus to attack the right to choose again and again, and with swaths of Poilievre’s Conservative caucus blatantly anti-choice, how could Canadians trust them with policy and funding decisions?”

A 2024 Conservative MP's petition demanding restrictions on abortion access claims derisively that 98 per cent of all abortions are for “social or personal convenience”.

In 2023, Conservative Michael Cooper used $597 of taxpayer money for anti-choice training from Canadian Physicians for Life, which praised the reversal of Roe v. Wade and called Canada “a lawless state of fetal killing.”

In 2023 the Conservatives tried to pass a bill to embed in the criminal code that life starts at conception.

In 2021, the Conservatives tried to obtain a ban on abortion by falsely claiming Canadians are regularly terminating pregnancies because they dislike the gender of the fetus.

Conservative MPs Cathay Wagantall, Rosemarie Falk, Jeremy Patzer and Arnold Viersen have all used their MP budgets to pay the Campaign Life Coalition for advertising.

Poilievre himself voted for these attempts to take away the right to choose five times — and has said he'll let his caucus keep up the attacks.

BACKGROUND
Motion text:

Whereas the Liberal government has had nine years to expand access to abortion services in Canada, but failed to do so;

Whereas Conservative MPs have repeatedly brought forward anti-choice legislation that would limit reproductive freedoms and rights;

And whereas abortion is health care;

This House calls on the government to enforce the Canada Health Act and ensure equal access to publicly funded abortion care across all provinces and territories.
Five times Pierre Poilievre voted against the right to choose:

• 2008, Bill C-484
• 2010, Bill C-510
• 2012, M-312
• 2016, Bill C-225
• 2023, Bill C-311