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Former House of Commons speaker Andrew Scheer can thank anti-abortionists for helping him become leader of the Official Opposition.

The "political pro-life" group RightNow claims to have sold thousands of memberships during the Conservative leadership campaign. And it has just issued a news release congratulating Scheer on his win.

"Andrew has always been a strong pro-life candidate that has defended the rights of members of Parliament to freely vote on these issues as well as bring them up in Parliament," RightNow cofounder Alissa Golob said in the news release.

Today, Scheer won an extremely narrow victory in the Conservative leadership race over libertarian Maxime Bernier.

RightNow states on its website that it's "committed to nominating and electing pro-life candidates".

It also declares that when there is "a majority of pro-life politicians in our legislatures...we’ll see pro-life legislation passed in our country".

"Andrew is a leader we are excited to work with because of his voting record, positive pro-life policies and his goal to unite the party and accept that social conservatives need to be part of the conversation," another RightNow cofounder, Scott Hayward, said in the news release.

The federal Liberals released a statement after Scheer's victory highlighting his opposition to women having the right to choose whether they want to have an abortion.