“There really are bigger issues in Canada today than abortion,” said the Kitchener, Ont., MP at the May 30 event.
Woodworth said that ensuring equality and dignity for all Canadians should be a legislative priority.
“We must enshrine in Canadian law the inherent dignity and worth of every human being,” he said. “These issues of equality and dignity are much, much wider than the issue of abortion and really more important.”
Woodworth emboldened the pro-life cause a year ago with a motion, subsequently defeated, to have a parliamentary committee study when life begins. He sought to address the question of whether a child in the womb is a human being and therefore entitled to the protection of the law before birth.
Despite the motion’s defeat, Woodworth believes few Canadians genuinely believe a child only becomes a human being at the moment of birth.
“People know that is not true,” he said. “Not too many Canadians believe there is a magical moment of transformation at the moment of complete birth when the little toe pops out of the birth canal where somehow one magically transforms from a non-human entity to a human being.”
Woodworth believes his motion failed because of a preoccupation with the word abortion, which critics eagerly attached to his motion.
“It really was not about abortion,” said Woodworth. “It was about whether we should enshrine in Canadian law the inherent and equal worth and dignity of every human being. In Canada we do not recognize the dignity and equality and worth of children before birth who are clearly human beings.”
Woodworth, who acknowledges that he feels abortion is wrong, said the pro-life movement has much to learn from his motion’s failure and it starts with distancing the movement from the word abortion.
“Preoccupation with abortion is actually preventing us from starting with the notions of human equality and dignity,” he said. “If you cannot convince someone that every human being has equal worth and dignity then you are not likely to convince them that there is anything wrong with abortion. If you cannot convince someone that a child actually is a human being at some point before the moment of complete birth then you will not likely convince them about abortion.”
Patrick Willson, a 22-year-old part-time employee of Toronto Right For Life, said the pro-life movement should heed Woodworth’s advice and focus on the inherent worth, dignity and equality of all humans.
“That’s the place that we have to start and that’s the place where we should get all Canadians on board,” said Willson. “We need to have a more open position instead of this closed-minded anti-abortion or anti-choice kind of thing. This isn’t so much an issue of abortion as it is an issue of human equality and that is something that we lost when the abortion law got overturned.”
By changing the movement’s language to the terms used by Woodworth, Willson believes pro-lifers will garner greater support.
“Framing it like that will change more minds and hearts to the matter,” said Willson. “The next step I think is just going grassroots. It’s going to be slow, it’s going to be tough politically, but we just need to get more Canadians on board in the sense of getting the issue of equality out in the mainstream.”
Woodworth plans to keep applying pressure in the House of Commons.
“I have proposed and hope to table a motion in Parliament which will not be votable because I’ve had my shot at a votable motion in the Parliament but I’m going to table it anyway,” said the MP. “It will effectively call on Parliament to resolve and to declare that every Canadian law ought to be interpreted so as to protect to the equal worth and dignity of every human being based on their own nature as a human being.”