The following letter to the Peace Arch News by ARPA member Mike Schouten was published on Dec 20, 2010: On Wednesday, members of Parliament decided not protect a woman’s right to choose, defeating Bill C-510 – Roxanne’s Law – by a margin of 178-97.

This private member’s bill, put forward by Conservative MP Rod Bruinooge (Winnipeg South), would have criminalized the act of coercing a woman into having an abortion.

For decades now, the pro-abortion lobby has been telling us a woman’s right to choose is the paramount consideration. A choice is only a choice if there are multiple options; to be pro-choice must include a woman’s right to keep her child.

How regrettable that our political leadership – Prime Minister Stephen Harper, his cabinet and the leaders of the opposition parties – rejected a woman’s right to a free choice.

On Wednesday, 97 MPs voted in favour of Roxanne’s Law. South Surrey-White Rock-Cloverdale MP Russ Hiebert was among them. These men and women are to be thanked for their support for a woman’s right to choose.

Knowing that passing this law would be an uphill battle, members of the pro-life caucus ought to have supported their colleague Bruinooge more publicly than they did.

If Hiebert and the other pro-life MPs had made this an issue in their ridings, we may have seen a widespread support among Canadians for this common-sense piece of legislation.

Mike Schouten, Surrey

Editor’s note: Schouten is the riding’s Christian Heritage Party candidate.