EDITION: Final

SECTION: Opinion

PAGE: A12

BYLINE: Garry Breitkreuz

SOURCE: Calgary Herald

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Pro-life priority

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Re: "The Christian factor in the election," July 4.

I wish to compliment Joe Woodard for his excellent article. I was active in the pro-life cause before I got into politics, and it has been one of my top priorities for the 10 years I have been in Ottawa. I disagree with the view expressed by Canada Family Action Coalition director Brian Rushfeldt that abortion is "a divisive issue, there's no public consensus on it."

If there's no consensus on abortion, it's because politicians, pollsters and the media haven't been asking the right questions.

A poll conducted by Leger Marketing for Life Canada in October showed 69 per cent of Canadians favoured informed-consent legislation on abortion, 63 per cent favoured legal protection of human life before birth, 68 per cent said abortions should either be privately funded or funded only in emergencies and 70 per cent disagreed with using embryos for stem cell research.

As Christians, our goal during elections should be to say exactly what we stand for, what we are going to do about it, and be steadfast in defending what we know is right and good.

Thanks to Woodard and the Herald for reminding us all of this fact.

Garry Breitkreuz

Ottawa

Garry Breitkreuz is MP for Yorkton-Melville.