Two Northern B.C. parliamentarians have been listed as anti-choice for their support of two private members bills that on the surface may have seemed like worthwhile measures, but according to a pro-choice advocacy group, amounted to a thin edge of a legal wedge.
In October 2016, MPs Todd Doherty (Cariboo-Prince George) and Bob Zimmer (Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies) voted in favour of Bill C-225 to make injuring or killing a "pre-born child" while committing an offence against a pregnant woman a crime of its own.
And in June 2021, they voted in the affirmative for Bill C-233 to make "sex-selective abortions" a criminal offence carrying a sentence of up to five years in jail for a medical practitioner who knowingly performs one.
Both of the bills were introduced by their fellow Conservative MP Cathay Wagantall (Yorkton-Melville in Saskatchewan) and both went down to defeat.
Doherty's and Zimmer's decisions to vote in favour of the bills have earned them a placing on the list of sitting MPs who are anti-choice as compiled by the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada.
The list has recently made the rounds on social media in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and end nearly 50 years of constitutionally-protected abortion in that country.
And in position papers posted on the group's website, ARCC sets out why it sees ulterior motives behind Wagantall's two bills.
"Anti-choice MPs would use this law as a springboard to introduce more bans, with the eventual goal of recriminalizing abortion completely," ARCC says in reference to Bill C-233.
As for Bill C-255, ARCC says it is almost identical to a bill that reached second reading in 2008 but went no further and was "widely criticized as a sneak attack on abortion rights."
Along with the worry that the bills risk opening a door it prefers remain closed, ARCC lists several other concerns.
For one, they see Bill C-255 as redundant.
"In Canada today, judges already have the discretion to take into account aggravating factors such as pregnancy," ARCC notes.
Bill C-255 was also known as Cassie and Molly's Law in memory of Cassandra Kaake who was seven months pregnant when she was found dead at the scene of an arson in Windsor, Ont., in 2014. She had planned to name her child Molly.
Her killer, Matthew Brush, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and arson and in 2017 was sentenced to life in prison without eligibility to apply for parole for 22 years - three years shy of the maximum available under Canadian law.
On Bill C-233, the bill to ban sex-selection abortion, ARCC argues, in part, that the bill is the wrong solution to concern that fetuses shown to be female on ultrasound are being aborted.
"We know that laws against sex selection abortion don't work because of the examples of India and Nepal, where many women avoid the healthcare system as a result, and risk their health and lives by resorting to unsafe abortion," ARCC said.
The real problem, says ARCC, is the devaluing of girls and women and the answer lies in raising their status over the long term.
"The symptom of sex selective abortion of female fetuses will stop if families feel confident that their daughters will have equal opportunities in life and bring just as much benefit to their families as sons."
Notably, five Conservative MPs - including now former leader Erin O'Toole and current front runner to become the party's next leader, Pierre Polievre, voted against Wagantall's 2021 private member's Bill C-233. However, they remain on the list due to their support for the 2016 Bill C-225.
ARCC also lists three Liberals as anti-choice but 19 Conservatives as pro-choice.
Doherty's comments on abortion have been rare but during a 2019 all-candidates forum he did provide and answer when candidates were asked if abortion is murder, replying that it was an unfair question and we “should not punish those who are in crisis or are hurting,”
In 2012, Zimmer and then Cariboo-Prince George MP Dick Harris both voted in favour of a private member's bill that called for the appointment of a 12-member committee to study the definition of human being. The Criminal Code currently considers a child a human being when it emerges alive from the mother's womb.
Zimmer said he voted in favour because he's a "pro-life person" but also because a large number of his constituents also supported the motion. He said the idea would have been to come up with a definition more in line with the rest of the developed world.
Neither Doherty nor Zimmer returned requests for comment this week.
