OTTAWA—A Conservative MP says Parliament should consider extending human rights to unborn children, something seen as an attempt to reopen the contentious debate around abortion laws.

“Canadian law provides no human rights protection whatsoever for children before the moment of complete birth,” Stephen Woodworth said in a statement emailed to reporters Wednesday.

“This means that in Canada a child is legally considered to be sub-human while his or her little toe remains in the birth canal, even if he or she is breathing.”

Woodworth doesn’t explicitly mention the word abortion, but he gently suggests that it is time to “examine” the question of granting human rights protections to unborn children.

“Parliament has a responsibility to lead that examination,” he wrote.

It won’t likely have the opportunity to do so.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper vowed in the last election to stamp out any debate and defeat any private member’s bills that might arise from members of his caucus on abortion.

That came after another backbencher from Saskatchewan, Brad Trost, claimed at a pro-life rally to have helped cut off funding to Planned Parenthood, which provides sexual and reproductive health programs around the world. The pro-choice group ended up being funded under a federal program to improve child and maternal health — though only for work in countries where abortion is illegal.

The Tory position on having a new debate on abortion laws does not appear to have softened since last spring.

“As our government has always said, we will not open the debate on this issue,” Sara MacIntyre, Harper’s press secretary, wrote in an email Wednesday.

Woodworth’s interest in the issue of fetal rights is longstanding.

In 2009, he presented two petitions to the House of Commons calling on MPs to protect human rights “from the time of conception, fertilization until natural death.”

He rose again in 2010 to speak on the matter, calling it a “noble” question.

“My belief is that they deserve noble answers and a respectful dialogue among parliamentarians to reconcile, not divide Canadians,” he said.

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One possibility would be to have the issue taken up at the House of Commons justice and human rights committee, of which Woodworth is a member and the Conservative party has the majority of members.

But even that’s not certain to succeed given that the government keeps tight control over parliamentary committees and not all Tory MPs are sure to support the initiative.