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BC
Coalition of Women’s Centres Calls for Action on
Conservative Agenda on Women’s Reproductive Rights
BC
Coalition of Women’s Centres
Media
Advisory
For Immediate Release
June 8, 2004
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.
Source: BC
Coalition of Women’s Centres
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