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Media Advisory
For Immediate Release
June
8, 2004
BC Coalition of Women’s Centres Calls for Action on Conservative Agenda on Women’s Reproductive Rights
BC - The BC Coalition of Women’s Centres calls on women across the
province to force federal Conservative Party candidates to reveal their
real agenda on women’s reproductive rights. The Conservatives
have been dodging too many questions on the issue of access to abortion
and women have a right to know the truth.
Stephen Harper has said that his party will not table legislation on
the issue in its first term, but what about its second or third
terms? To further confuse the matter, Harper has stated that if a
private member’s bill was introduced, that he would allow Conservative
MPs a free vote.
The Conservative Party has also said that a “third party” opinion
should be included in a woman’s decision to have an abortion – making
it the only medical procedure to require third party consultation. This
paternalistic, patriarchal thinking only serves to turn the clock back
on women’s rights in Canada.
Access to abortion is currently non-existent or restricted in far too
many regions of the country and across the province of BC. Women
in rural and remote communities still have no local access to this
medical service. The BC Coalition of Women’s Centres believes
that access must be increased, not dismantled, and is outraged that the
Conservative Party is planning to open the floodgates on decreasing
access.
The BC Coalition of Women’s Centres is calling on women to stand
together to protect women’s access to abortion. We need to have
the pro-choice voice of Canadian women heard in this election.
This issue is a basic right and fundamental to women’s equality.
The Coalition suggests that women ask Conservative candidates in every
riding about how they would vote, as a Member of Parliament, on the
issue of access to abortion.
The BC Coalition is also calling on the Conservatives to be upfront and
truthful on the matter, to put out their agenda and stop the
rhetoric.
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