Protecting children born alive after failed abortions
In the final days of the Conservative Party of Canada’s leadership race, a candidate has come forward with a solid pro-life policy to protect the lives of children who have survived failed abortions. Brad Trost (Saskatoon-University) says that, if he’s elected as party leader and goes on to become the Prime Minister of Canada, he’ll introduce the “Born Alive Infant Protection Act.” With hopes of building a Culture of Life, Trost says it’s a policy that’s 100 per cent supported by the Criminal Code of Canada, but more than that – it’s the right thing to do. For further details of what Trost is proposing, please read the following email his campaign sent to supporters earlier this week. And, just in case you’re an eligible voter who hasn’t mailed in their ballot yet, there’s still time to send in your leadership vote – click here for more details on how you can still make your voice count in this leadership race.
*********CAMPAIGN ANNOUNCEMENT SENT BY BRAD TROST TO CONSERVATIVE VOTERS MAY 24, 2017********
Dear [ ],
In 2013, my former Conservative Caucus colleagues, Leon Benoit, Maurice Vellacott and Wladyslaw Lizon, wrote the RCMP to ask for an investigation into hundreds of possible homicides being carried out inside Canadian hospitals and abortion facilities.
Their letter read in part:
“From 2000 to 2009 in Canada, there were 491 abortions, of 20 weeks gestation and greater, that resulted in live births. This means that the aborted child died after it was born. These abortions are coded as P96.4 or 'Termination of pregnancy, affecting fetus and newborn.”
My friends were concerned that Statistics Canada data suggested that babies who survived a failed abortion may have been left to die or even killed after live birth.
That should trouble every Canadian since Section 223 of the Criminal Code of Canada very clearly says that “a child becomes a human being . . . when it has completely proceeded, in a living state, from the body of its mother.”
Now, my fellow supporters of the culture of life and I disagree with that definition. We believe that human life begins at conception.
Nonetheless, the Criminal Code makes it clear that children who survive an abortion have legal rights upon birth. That includes the right to life, including the right to medical treatment. Once born, medical staff assisting at a failed abortion have an ethical and legal duty to care for a baby born alive.
The Statistics Canada data cited by the three former MPs suggest that doctors and other medical staff may be violating the Criminal Code protections for babies born alive and who survive an abortion procedure.
That is why I believe we need legislation that undergirds and strengthens the specific, affirmative duty of physicians and medical professionals to provide medical care and treatment to infants born alive at any stage of development.
As Prime Minister, I will introduce a Born Alive Infant Protection Act.
The overwhelming majority of Canadians agree that we must protect a baby’s life after he or she is born, regardless of abortion politics.
This policy is supported overwhelmingly by 89% of grassroots Conservatives. The Born Alive Infant Protection Act was one of the three pro-life policies that were scuttled by our Party elites who interfered with last year’s policy development process leading up to the Vancouver Policy Convention.
This policy finished among the five most popular policies in the EDA level voting process. If Party elites had not interfered with and sabotaged this policy for fear of “reopening the abortion debate,” I am certain it would have passed at Convention, and be official party policy today.
If you haven’t yet voted, I urge you to vote for real leadership on life issues, by marking me, Brad Trost, as 1st Choice on your ballot.
Vote for me. Vote your principles. Vote for a culture of life.
Sincerely,
Brad Trost
Member of Parliament
(Saskatoon--University)