The Minister responsible for the Status of Women, Martine Biron, denies having canceled an interview about abortion with feminist groups. Rather, she wants to meet them in September, assures her cabinet.
“No meeting has been cancelled. They have been postponed, ”said Catherine Pouliot, political adviser to Ms.me Biron.
In recent days, women’s groups have said the minister is turning a deaf ear to their concerns about possible abortion protection legislation. In an open letter he published Thursday in The dutythe Group of Thirteen (G13) — in fact made up of some twenty feminist organizations — accuses Ms.me Biron for having canceled a meeting which was to take place on Thursday.
To read their open letter
“If you hadn’t canceled our scheduled meeting with you this week, you would know that the many feminist groups that make up the G13 strongly oppose any abortion bill,” the group writes.
However, there is no question of not hearing the point of view of this group, assures the team of Martine Biron. “It was also very clear in the email sent with the mention ‘postponement of the meeting’ and ‘a new invitation should be sent to you soon'”, underlined Mr.me Pouliot.
She apologized for any communication problems that may have arisen and indicated in passing that the views of the opposition parties were also solicited by the minister.
“Real disconnect”
In its open letter, the G13 reiterates its fears about the will of Mme Biron to legislate to protect the right to abortion. “Your project to include an explicit mention of abortion in the law testifies to a real disconnect with the demands made by the main groups of women in Quebec for decades,” writes the group.
Like the Bar, the G13 believes that such a move would do more harm than good. “Because of the division of powers between the provincial and the federal, such an intervention would be of no use in protecting Quebec women against a possible attack on the right to abortion,” underlines the group.
“On the contrary, it could only make the situation worse by providing an opportunity for anti-choice groups to mobilize and by opening the door to possible legislative restrictions,” continues the G13.
Wednesday, M.me Biron hinted that she could finally give up the legislative route to make her wish come true. “What I’m doing is talking to those groups to try to find the strongest path, the best path to protect women’s right to choose abortion,” she said. She reiterated that her goal was to “protect women’s rights.”