Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer was pressed to re-state his party’s position on abortion, after federal Liberals accused the opposition party of looking to restrict access to women.
“I’ve made it very, very clear Canadians can have absolute confidence that the Conservative government -- after the election in October -- will not re-open this issue,” Scheer told reporters in Ottawa on Friday.
On Thursday, Liberals sent a fundraising email blast alleging the Conservatives would reignite the debate on abortion access in Canada.
The email contain whole sections of text from a letter sent by Gender Equality Minister Maryam Monsef to the 12 Conservative MPs who attended an anti-abortion rally in Ottawa last week.
Scheer called the fundraising email “typical, Liberal-desperation politics to distract from their levels of failure and ongoing scandals.”
He said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Liberals were “inventing issues to try and fearmonger and divide Canadians.”
The Liberals’ accusations also come in the backdrop of Alabama passing a restrictive law that would ban all abortions. The only exclusions would be cases where the mother’s life was in danger.
It’s widely considered the most restrictive abortion legislation in the United States. Doctors who perform an abortion at any state of pregnancy could face life in prison.
The law is expected to go into effect in six months and people have taken to Twitter to open up about their own abortion stories, using the hashtag, YouKnowMe.
Hundreds have responded including actors Busy Phillips, Milla Jovovich, "Dear White People" star Logan Browning and "Game of Thrones" actor Lena Headey.
Trudeau has called the Alabama law a “backsliding of women’s rights.”
Last summer, when the Conservative Party convention was held for members to discuss their party platform, a group of self-described “grassroots” members pushed for several resolutions involving abortion, euthanasia and gender identity.
Arguably, the most high-profile proposal -- which was narrowly voted down -- aimed to remove reference to a future Conservative government regulating abortion.
At the time, Scheer and other MPs said they weren’t worried about the apparent rifts in the party.