MP’s abortion comments vilify women: Neville
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/11/2009 (5973 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
OTTAWA — Winnipeg Liberal MP Anita Neville accused the federal Conservatives Wednesday of vilifying women after a Saskatchewan MP linked abortions to breast cancer.
Neville was one of several opposition MPs denouncing the comments made by Conservative MP Maurice Vellacott in a news release last week.
Vellacott was responding to a news story in Saskatoon about women travelling out of the city because of difficulties getting an abortion there. He said the “current abortion regime is conducive to abuse” and said women who have had an abortion have a greater risk of breast cancer.
He also said abortion is part of a “male agenda to have women more sexually available” and that because abortion is widely available, men think they can blame a woman for not having an abortion.
Neville said the comments were “vile” and “completely degrading to women” and demanded the Conservatives reject them.
“His comments show an odious attitude toward women,” she said, comparing him to a “reform party extremist.”
Conservative MP Helena Guergis, the minister of state for the status of women, said Vellacott, like any MP, is allowed to have whatever opinion he’d like.
“It does not mean it represents the government,” she said.
Guergis went on to list a number of achievements for women she said her government had made, including investments in Status of Women Canada with three pillars of focus — economic security, violence against women, and women in leadership roles.
Vellacott was also under fire this week after he sent a flyer into the riding of Nova Scotia NDP MP Peter Stoffer accusing him of being in favour of the national gun registry. Stoffer has always voted against it.
Vellacott issued an apology for the flyer.