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Trudeau Government Minister Says Abortion ‘Empowers Women’

David Krayden Ottawa Bureau Chief
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Canada’s Liberal government just gave another $285,000 to Planned Parenthood’s Ottawa branch because it believes abortion “empowers women and girls,” and that denying abortions is a form of violence against women.

Using the euphemism of “reproductive health rights,” Status of Women Minister Maryam Monsef suggested abortion is about “advancing gender equality.”

“Reproductive health rights in Canada and around the world are critical to advancing gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls,” Monsef said Thursday in an interview with The Canadian Press.

“We’re committed to making sure that women and girls have that choice, because otherwise, this is a form of gender-based violence.”

Monsef, whom the Trudeau government advertised as an Afghan refugee when she first entered the federal government cabinet in 2015, was disgraced last fall when she admitted that she was born in Iran. Trudeau put her in the relatively minor cabinet portfolio of status of women when he shuffled his cabinet in January.

Planned Parenthood will be using the money for a three-year project aimed at removing barriers to abortion.

Canada has unrestricted access to abortion, and has not even had a law governing the practice since 1988, when the Supreme Court of Canada struck down existing legislation.

Trudeau, a self-proclaimed feminist, insists that all Liberal Party candidates in federal elections support abortion on demand and will not tolerate pro-life Liberals in his caucus — unless they were first elected prior to his becoming leader of the party.

The Conservative Party — though open to pro-life candidates and welcoming of pro-lifers in caucus — did not advance a single abortion law during its last nine-year period of government.

However, one of the leading contenders for the Conservative Party leadership says he would allow individual Members of Parliament (MP) to introduce private members bills to restrict abortion. Quebec MP and former Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier told The Daily Caller that social conservatives “have a home in our party” and if “a Member of Parliament wants to introduce a bill on abortion, it is his or her democratic right to do so.”

Last month, Trudeau’s International Development Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau pledged more money for international abortion services, promising to top-up some of the $600 million shortfall created when President Donald Trump cut U.S. funding for offshore abortions.

Bibeau will be elaborating on her plans when she goes to Brussels on March 2 for the “She Decides” conference.

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