Who'da thunk? Those anti-choice nitwits are suddenly all about choice. And today they have cause to rejoice about choice, because finally it brought a little government attention their way.The latest jeans-creaming dream come true for Gileadean fetus-fanatics is a private member's bill tabled today by Alberta MP Ken Epp, the "Unborn Victims of Crime" bill. The UVOC bill would "protect a mother's choice to give birth", making it a crime to cause the injury or death of a fetus in the commission of violence against the mother.
Don't get excited. Nothing "anti-abortion" to see here, noooooo, just move along. Why, the UVOC bill is just about protecting "choice" -- the mother's choice to carry a pregnancy to term and have it culminate on Day 273 as a baked-to-perfection babycake. And anyone who wields a knife or baseball bat (or scalpel?) and stops that from happening would be committing murder, as surely as it would be murder to kill the mother. Fetus? Hell, never mind that, this bill would protect embryos... zygotes, even. "At any stage of development before birth":
238.1 (1) Every person who, directly or indirectly, causes the death of a child during birth or at any stage of development before birth while committing or attempting to commit an offence against the mother of the child, who the person knows or ought to know is pregnant,A little class-action traction for petri dish plaintiffs? Tsk. Speaking of dead things...
Although ostensibly in response to the tragic murders of pregnant women recently, the UVOC bill or variants of it have been hanging around being studiously ignored for awhile. Last year MP Leon Benoit tried to get a similar measure tabled and was shut down by his own Conservative party -- to a brand New™ Government, it wasn't a politically-expedient issue. But with a new year and impending election, a revved-up Law and Order Conservative Government is reaching out to its base by hinting at all manner of the kind of petty meanness that makes socons wet themselves. The whispers are barely audible but the message is clear: "Give us a majority and we'll bring back the death penalty. Give us a majority and we'll ban abortion."
So while moronic little wastes of time and taxpayer dollars like the UVOC bill bear keeping an eye on, this one won't be going anywhere. It's really just a subtle Pavlovian reminder to the base to vote Conservative, early and often.
Update: Birth Pangs has the goods on a new poll that seems to support the concept of an UVOC bill... NOT.
(h/t RedTory)
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