A pro-life group has condemned Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s recent election pledge to not introduce or support any laws restricting abortion in Canada.
“I can guarantee you there will be no laws restricting abortion passed when I’m Prime Minister,” Poilievre told reporters at a press conference in St. Catharines, Ontario last week.
The Conservative leader was responding to a question about whether his caucus could revisit the issue if enough MPs supported it. In his remarks, Poilievre emphasized the party’s longstanding stance since 2004 of not legislating on abortion.
“So there will be no laws or other restrictions imposed on a woman’s right to decide to do with her body as she wishes,” he said. “That is something that I’m guaranteeing to you and to all Canadians.”
The Conservative party’s position, Poilievre added, would be “reiterated explicitly” in its upcoming election platform.
However, the Campaign for Life Coalition, a national pro-life advocacy group, condemned the announcement, calling it a betrayal of both Poilievre’s past voting record and the values of millions of Canadians.
“Abortion kills 100,000 innocent human beings every year in Canada. This is a fact. Pierre Poilievre’s ‘guarantee’ is a death sentence for the most vulnerable in the womb,” the group said in a statement.
“He has betrayed his previously solid pro-life voting record and become complicit in the greatest human rights injustice of our time.”
The organization also criticized what it views as a political calculation to avoid controversial social issues, arguing that Canadians are more open to dialogue on abortion than politicians assume.
Citing a 2020 DART & Maru/Blue poll, the organization argued that 84% of Canadians support criminalizing sex-selective abortion—a practice also condemned in the Conservative party’s official policy declaration.
“By offering leadership and a vision on social issues distinct from those of left-wing parties, the Conservatives can reclaim the moral high ground and draw votes of religious and/or new Canadians who aren’t necessarily fiscally conservative, but are largely socially conservative,” the group added.
The Campaign for Life Coalition described Poilievre’s statement as “cruel and inhumane.”
“No political compromise is worth his soul and the lives of the thousands of abortion victims.”
Abortion has been legal in Canada since 1969, and the Supreme Court struck down all remaining restrictions in 1988.