Letters to the editor

Minister Ambrose’s excuse that she was concerned about sex-selective abortion amounts to a straightforward acknowledgement that this motion was not about asking for a “study” or a “dialogue,” or trying to update an old law.

Nor was it about examining the medical evidence as to when a fetus becomes human.  It was about finding a way to define fetuses as legal persons so that abortion could be re-criminalized.

I notice that two of our three MPs in the Okanagan Valley, Ron Cannan (Kelowna-Lake Country) and Colin Mayes (Okanagan-Shuswap), likewise voted to turn back the clock on women’s rights to 1869, when the state thought women were unable to make the right decisions about themselves, their families and their fetuses.

It’s only Dan Albas (Okanagan-Coquihalla) who put aside his personal convictions and stood in the House of Commons with those who had sent him there to represent them: his constituents, who had made clear during the 2011 election that they did not want the abortion debate to be revisited.

That debate occurred in the 60s, 70s and 80s in this country, and was settled in 1988 when the Supreme Court ruled that women's Charter-protected liberty rights include the right to make choices about their reproductive lives, and their freedoms include freedom from state interference with their bodies.

Canadian women will not allow the clock to be turned back.

Dianne Varga