Interim staff 

A Reform party MP is calling for a binding national referendum on government funding for medically unnecessary abortions.

Garry Breitkreuz (Reform, Yorkton-Melville), reintroduced his Bill M-268 November 20, partly in response to the release of the latest abortion statistics which showed there are nearly 30 abortions committed for every 100 live births in Canada. 

The call was part a series of petitions introduced by the Saskatchewan MP to mark National Child Day. "This day reminds us government's duty to children is a combination of defending parental rights and liberties, enforcing parental responsibilities and providing special safeguards, care and legal protection for the most vulnerable in society," Breitkreuz said in a statement. 

Breitkreuz also drew fellow MPs' attention to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child which calls for legal protection for children before and after birth. 

Although Private Member bills have little chance of becoming law, Breitkreuz hopes his effort will generate more debate about the rights of unborn child. He said there is widespread support for a national binding referendum on abortion funding, adding that the federal  government to date has chosen to ignore calls for legal protection of unborn children. 

This is not the first time a call has gone forward to end taxpayer support of abortion. A similar initiative was launched in 1995 in Alberta by the Committee to End Tax Funded Abortions (CETFA). The effort failed, but it showed widespread oppostion to abortion funding.