DON’T PLAY WITH WOMEN’S RIGHTS!
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PAN-CANADIAN DAY OF PROTEST AGAINST BILL C-484
SEPTEMBER 28th:
PARC LAHAIE (Metro Laurier), 1:30 PM
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For more information: http://contrec484.qc.ca/
Join us on SEPTEMBER 28th, 2008 to demonstrate for women’s equality and reproductive rights. Stop the attack on abortion! Say no to bill C-484!
Women’s reproductive rights are under threat. Before Parliament was dissolved, a private member’s bill called The “Unborn Victims of Crime Act” (C-484), passed Second Reading in Parliament on March 5. Last spring, all but four Conservative MPs voted in favour of C-484, a bill that would amend the Criminal Code to allow separate homicide charges to be laid in the death of a fetus when a pregnant woman is attacked, in effect granting the fetus a degree of personhood or rights as a citizen. If passed, this bill could be a key step towards re-criminalizing abortion.
*Bill C-484 separates a woman from her pregnancy. In counting one attack against a woman as two counts of crime, the anti-abortion movement is redefining the fetus as a citizen with rights equal or
greater than the rights of living people.
*Bill C-484 does nothing to address issues of domestic violence, sexism, and unequal health care access.
*Bill C-484 is an attack on women’s health care and autonomy.
* All women, pregnant or not, deserve to live lives free from violence. The Criminal Code already recognizes spousal violence and pregnancy as aggravating factors and allows harsher sentences for such crimes.
* Giving legal rights to the fetus is contrary to Canadian law. Legally, a child becomes a human being once it is born and has emerged living from its mother’s body.
*In addition to Bill C-484, three other bills (C-338, C-537 and C-543) have been put forward that could threaten a woman’s right to opt for an abortion.
Days of Action are currently planned in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver, Regina, Wiinipeg and Edmonton. For all of these activities and for more information, please go to the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada website at: http://www.arcc-cdac.ca/c484.htm