Abortion is a topic that lawmakers and legislative bodies may be reluctant to discuss however the tide is turning in Canada. Canada’s House of Commons will begin to review a law based on a 400 year old definition of a human being. Tory MP Stephen Woodworth, will open debate on the point at which an unborn child becomes a human being this April. Woodworth was given one hour of debate in April and a second hour later this year. He seeks the creation of a committee of legislators to review Section 223 of the Criminal Code that states the child is “a human being . . . when it has completely proceeded, in a living state, from the body of its mother.”
Woodworth is challenging the law as a private member since the government and his political party have insisted they will not reopen the abortion debate. Abortion on demand has been available in Canada since 1988. Woodworth rightly insists the debate is needed and argued, “If a child five minutes before birth can be defined as not a human being, then the question is who’s next?” Science and medicine have come a long way in the past 20 years, not to mention 400 years. In the age of advanced ultra sound technology that provides a window to the womb and in-utero surgical procedures that treat the unborn child as a patient this debate is long overdue.