Equal Dignity from Day One
In Canada, abortions are being procured well into the second trimester, continuing into the third trimester.
For example, in 2023/2024, the most recent fiscal year for which stats are available, there were 1,315 abortions committed at greater than 20 weeks' gestation. Those numbers include 150 babies who were born alive after a botched abortion (and later died outside the womb).
This reality underscores Canada’s unique injustice: there are no legal protections for preborn children at any stage of pregnancy.
The Canadian public has a right to know the fact that a significant number of late-term abortions are being committed in our country.
This knowledge is a powerful force moving the consciences of Canadians to abhor the barbaric nature of abortion, because most people can envision a fully-formed baby at those late stages.
However, we must draw a distinction between education and legislation.
Because Canada has no laws pertaining to abortion nor legal protections for the preborn, the practice exists in a legal grey area — neither prohibited by law nor explicitly permitted.
A gestational law which would prohibit abortions after an arbitrary number of weeks would necessarily and explicitly codify abortions before that limit—putting pro-lifers in the indefensible position of regulating which babies live and which ones die.
This means that although such a law would prohibit some abortions, it would legally protect most abortions which occur before, say, the 12-week threshold that is established in some foreign jurisdictions.
As pro-life advocates, we cannot endorse a framework that says a child at 11 weeks may be killed, but a child at 12 weeks must be protected.
Human rights are not negotiable by gestational age.
Canada’s lack of protection for preborn children demands a principled response: restoring full legal protection for all human life, from conception onward.
For further reflection on why gestational abortion limits are both a moral and strategic mistake, please have a look at a post written by CLC Youth Coordinator Kim Headley, "Why Gestational Abortion Limits Are a Moral and Strategic Mistake.” (Click here to read the article.)