As You Were, Troops

To no one's surprise, the Expoiting Grief to Attack Abortion Rights Bill was defefeated yesterday by a vote of 76 for, 209 against. No Liberals voted for it.

Of the Conniving Party leader hopefuls, Scheer, Trost and O'Toole voted in favour of it, as did the usual Fetus Fetishists like Warawa, Albrecht, Genuis, and Viersen the Dominionist. Bernier, Leitch and Obhrai were not present. Chong and Kent voted against, and Rempel abstained (?).

By weird or karmic coincidence, just before that vote there was a vote on another human rights bill, C-16, An Act to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code on transgender rights.

It passed handily, with 248 in favour, 40 against.

When one compares the MPs who voted "no" to transgender rights and "yes" to fetal rights, another unsurprising parallel emerges.

Anti-choicers voted overwhelmingly to deny human rights to transgender people.

Fetuses good, gender-benders bad.

I know, you're gobsmacked.

But the main take-away for fans of reproductive rights is that the menace on the political front has been beaten back again and is unlikely to arise again any time soon, if at all.

We can relax for a while.

And concentrate on improving abortion access and on impeding the work of fake clinics.

And all the other things we have yet to do to get abortion settled in Canada once and for all.

Wolf in Sheep's Clothing Bill: The E-Petition

In December last year, Canada's government acknowledged the power of the Intertoobz and started allowing e-petitions. They need to be sponsored by an MP and if they get 500 signatures, can be tabled in Parliament.

Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada yesterday initiated an e-petition against Bill C225 (full text of bill), "An Act to amend the Criminal Code (injuring or causing the death of a preborn child while committing an offence)," with its glurgy nickname, "Cassie and Molly's Law."

Or as we call it: the Wolf in Sheep's Clothing (WISC) bill.

English version

French version

PDF backgrounder on ARCC's reasons for opposing C225.

The main reason to oppose it is the usual: it is yet another backdoor attempt to restrict abortion, with the ultimate goal of putting pregnant people under the microscope of the law. Such laws elsewhere have had the effect of criminalizing pregnancy -- in the US, sending dozens of women, largely poor and people of colour, to prison for the crimes of miscarriage, attempted suicide, or substance abuse while pregnant.

It is also a "personhood" law, conferring on a fetus rights that WILL compete with those of the incubator, er, pregnant person.

And if you need further evidence of its intended narsty effects, ALL the fetus freak groups support it.

At ARCC, there is also a resources page listing other actions to take, like signing a paper petition, a sample letter to your MP, and a list of groups opposed to C225.

On March 22, fetus freaks started an e-petition in support of WISC. It currently has 4402 signatures, 31 from "other countries."

The ARCC petition now has 88 signatures, broken down by province/territory. There are none yet from any of the territories or from PEI.

Let's get on this, digital citizens. It's fast and easy. Please sign, then tweet, Facebook, and generally promote it on social media.

Here's the link again in plain text for easy copying:
https://petitions.parl.gc.ca/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-381



Previous DJ! posts on the Wolf in Sheep's Clothing bill:
Dead as a Door Nail

Exploiting Grief to Attack Abortion Rights

Vengeance Drives "Unborn Victims" Law

It's Baaaack: Unborn Victims Bill C484 Redux

Nope, This "Pre-born Victims Bill Won't Pass Either