Condemn Discrimination Against Girls by Supporting M-408
Dear Member of Parliament,
Today is International Women’s Day. Today is a global day to celebrate the “economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future.” It is a day that “honours the work of the suffragettes, celebrates women's success, and reminds of inequities still to be redressed.”
Inequity continues to exist in Canada. Before girls and women even have an opportunity to go to school, to vote, to choose if and where they will study and work, if and with whom they will fall in love and spend their lives with, they are being aborted simply because of their gender.
A 2012 study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal identified evidence of sex-selection abortions taking place in Canada. A June 2012 CBC investigation reported the same. The reality is that there are Canadians who currently value the lives of male children over the lives of females. As such we are experiencing skewed sex ratios in some communities similar to those being experienced in China and India. Before baby girls have a chance to breathe, sex discrimination means they are being aborted in the hope that a future pregnancy will result in a male child.
This is discrimination. This is gendercide. And this is unacceptable in Canada.
Our country is one that values equality and human dignity. To abort Canadian baby girls because of their gender is inconsistent with our values and our national identity. Gendercide is contrary to our understanding of human rights; and, is rooted in contempt for women.
Therefore today, on International Women’s Day, The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada urges you to commit support to Member of Parliament Mark Warawa’s Motion M-408. The motion reads: “That the House condemn discrimination against females occurring through sex-selective pregnancy termination.”
This motion will not change abortion law in Canada and it won’t prevent sex-selective abortions from taking place. It will communicate across the nation and to the global community that Canadian citizens and our elected representatives condemn this atrocious practice and that it has no place in our country.
Already, representatives from all national political parties and the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada have condemned the practice. Please join your voice with the chorus of those who have already spoken.
Sincerely,
Faye Sonier
Legal Counsel
The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada