Conservatives MPs told to stay silent about draft suggesting Roe vs. Wade could be overturned
Conservatives #Conservatives
OTTAWA — Conservative MPs are being told to stay silent about a leaked draft of a U.S. Supreme Court decision suggesting that nation’s top court is poised to overturn the landmark abortion rights case Roe v. Wade.
A “note to caucus” was sent from Interim Conservative Leader Candice Bergen’s communications staff early Tuesday morning, as the world was abuzz with news of both the contents of the draft ruling and the unprecedented leak itself.
“Good morning,” reads the memo, a copy of which was obtained by the Star.
“Conservatives will not be commenting on draft rulings leaked from the Supreme Court of the United States.”
Such notes to any party’s caucus are not uncommon, as MPs are often provided talking points or lines to give in response to issues of the day.
It’s also not unusual for MPs to be instructed not to comment on international issues that have no immediate implications for Canada.
But the debate over how far the state ought to go to regulate access to abortion is an active one within Canadian Conservative circles.
Conservative MPs routinely introduce private members’ bills that seek to regulate or restrict abortion.
In the last session of Parliament, Saskatchewan MP Cathay Wagantall introduced a bill that would make it a crime to deliberately end a pregnancy due to the sex of the fetus, a practice known as sex-selective abortion.
Eighty of her fellow Conservatives MPs voted in favour of the bill, while 38 voted against it. The Liberals, NDP and Bloc Québécois were all against it, and the bill failed to move ahead in the legislative process.
Meanwhile, the Conservatives are in the midst of a leadership race in which two candidates supported by the anti-abortion group Campaign Life Coalition were told Monday they were not eligible to run, a decision the CLC linked directly to their politics.
The party disputes that allegation.
“Final verification was based on the requirements set out under the rules, not any prospective candidate’s political beliefs,” the party’s executive director Wayne Benson said in a statement late Monday.
Of the six candidates officially in the running for leadership, only Leslyn Lewis has promised to restrict access to abortion in Canada.
If she becomes prime minister, Lewis is promising to ban abortions based on gender, criminalize what she calls coerced abortions, end funding for overseas abortion programs and increase funding for pregnancy centres.
Lewis is the MP for Haldimand-Norfolk, a riding she won last year following her campaign to become leader of the Conservative party in 2020.
Her campaign continues to enjoy the full support of the CLC, which has warned its members not to vote for other candidates in the race because of their past record on social conservative issues — including one they know their membership wants to support.
Just days after Pierre Poilievre launched his leadership bid, CLC put out an email blast saying it had fielded dozens of questions about whether its supporters could back Poilievre, drawn by his record on economic issues and his prowess in the House of Commons.
The answer, the CLC told them, is no.
“Tragically, he abandoned his past pro-life beliefs during the previous leadership race when he was considering running, deciding that the ‘pro-life’ label was no longer useful,” it wrote.
His campaign did not immediately respond to a question from the Star on Tuesday about what actions a Poilievre government might take on abortion issues.
But he’s among the leadership candidates whose positions on social conservative issues have evolved over time.
Poilievre was among the Conservative MPs who voted against same-sex marriage 15 years ago, but has since said he supports LGBTQ rights.
As a Conservative MP, leadership contender Patrick Brown voted in favour of a motion that sought a parliamentary study on when life begins, a vote he later sought defend when he became leader of the Ontario Progressive Conservatives as not being about restricting access to abortion.
As PC leader, he was seen by social conservatives as flipping on his promises to them, in particular one about revoking changes to the province’s sex-education curriculum.
On Tuesday, Brown issued a statement saying a Conservative government under his leadership would not change Canada’s abortion laws, but would seek to ensure women had access to other options including adoption.
“Abortion in Canada should be safe, legal, and, in my personal opinion, rare,” his statement said.
Leadership contender Jean Charest was a cabinet minister in the Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney, which tried and failed to find ways to introduce laws to restrict abortion in the wake of the Supreme Court’s 1988 decision to strike down existing legislation as a violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
As Quebec premier, however, Charest called abortion an “inalienable right” and sparred with the governing federal Conservatives of the day over their refusal to fund abortion services abroad.
His leadership campaign said Tuesday that he is pro-choice, and that a Charest government would never introduce or support legislation restricting reproductive rights.
However, backbench MPs would be allowed to bring forward bills if they chose, Charest’s campaign said.
“While he respects the democratic rights of members of Parliament to bring forward private member’s bills on matters of conscience, he will never vote to support them.”
The draft U.S. Supreme Court decision in a Mississippi abortion case was reported by Politico late Monday.
In effect, it states there is no constitutional right to abortion services, and would allow individual states to more heavily regulate or outright ban the procedure.
It’s unclear if the draft represents the court’s final word on the matter — opinions often change in ways big and small in the drafting process.
With files from the Associated Press
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