This week 87 Conservative MPs voted for a motion that is the first step towards reopening a debate on abortion.
More than half the 166 conservatives in parliament voted for it. That came as a surprise. Four Liberals did the same, but all the NDP and Bloc voted against motion M-312, which was to form a committee to decide when human life begins.
Stephen Harper promised during the last election he would never reopen the abortion issue, but he never said he wouldn't let one of his backbenchers do it.
The plan for the pro-lifers who voted in favor of the motion is to determine first of all exactly when human life begins, and then bring to justice anyone involved in the abortion of a fetus they consider human based on when they have established life begins.
Despite the final vote of 203 to 91 against the motion of the MP Stephen Woodworth, a devout Catholic from Kitchener, Ontario, the pro-life activists MPs perceive the outcome as a victory for God and "unborn children."
We were expecting about 38 to 45 members in favor of the motion. The result was quite surprising.
When half the members in a ruling party vote in favor of something the leader opposes it says something.
In the swords of a great American astronaut: "Houston, We've got trouble! '
Worse for Harper, there were 10 of his ministers and parliamentary secretaries who voted in favor of the motion, including his Minister for the Status of Women, Rona Ambrose.
In Canada, the Supreme Court ruled in 1988 in favor of free choice for women on questions of procreation.
Ambrose later said she would be able to vote against abortion and continue to represent Canadian women because she would be thinking women who abort their baby girls in favor of having baby boys.
There is a widespread demand across Canada today for her resignation.
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