More than 100 pro-choice and pro-life advocates demonstrated in front of the Nova Scotia legislature to air their views on a federal bill.
Labelled the “Unborn Victims of Crime Act,” Bill C-484 would allow homicide charges to be laid in the death of a fetus when a pregnant woman is attacked.
Susan LeForte, an advocate with the Halifax Coalition for Choice, argues the legislation is a step backward in a woman’s right to control her own body.
“They’re taking away women’s rights in a backdoor way. So, if a woman has an abortion, what’s stopping the one who performs the abortion and the woman herself to be subject to criminal charges?” LeForte said.
Ellen Chesal, with the Campaign Life Coalition, says her group is concerned with the wider issue.
“We are memorializing an event — it was 39 years ago in May that the abortion law was struck down by the Trudeau government,” Chesal said. “We are here to challenge the government because it is our tax dollars that are paying for these abortions, and with the shortage of workers and schools closing, abortion is killing our future.”
Both sides chanted and waved signs, but there was no physical confrontation.
