OTTAWA—Abortion will never be eliminated and anti-abortion activists should stop trying to impose their will on others by trying to make it illegal, a senior Conservative MP says.

Government whip Gordon O’Connor delivered a stridently pro-choice message Thursday night in response to a private member’s bill from a Tory MP seen by many as an effort to reopen the abortion debate.

“Whether one accepts it or not, abortion is and always will be part of society. There will always be dire situations where some women may have to choose the option of abortion,” O’Connor said. “It cannot be eliminated.

“I cannot understand why those adamantly opposed to abortion want to impose their belief on others by way of the Criminal Code,” he said.

The prime minister’s office declined to say whether O’Connor was speaking for the government or as an individual.

But as he is a senior member of the Tory caucus, whose pro-choice speech was the Conservatives’ first response on the issue, it suggests it was a deliberate effort by the government to send a clear, strong signal to Canadians and even restless Tory MPs that the abortion issue will not be reopened.

“The decision whether or not to terminate a pregnancy is essentially a moral decision and in a free and democratic society, the conscience of the individual must be paramount to that of the state,” O’Connor said.

“I do not want women to go back to the previous era where some were forced to obtain abortions from illegal and medically dangerous sources. This should not happen in a civilized society,” he said.

O’Connor said the bill sponsored by Conservative MP Stephen Woodworth (Kitchener Centre) would “turn back the clock,” adding that, “society has moved on.

“The ultimate intention of this motion is to restrict abortions,” he said.

Woodworth’s bill would strike a Commons’ committee to review section 223 (1) of the Criminal Code, which declares that a child becomes a human being only at the moment of birth.

Woodworth says that definition is “dishonest” and outdated.

He wants MPs to study the legal consequences of the current definitions and review medical evidence “to demonstrate that a child is or is not a human being before the moment of complete birth.”

But Woodworth faced opposition from every corner.

NDP MP Françoise Boivin called Woodworth’s bill “a full frontal assault on a woman’s right to choose.”

Liberal MP Hedy Fry (Vancouver Centre) said her party would oppose the measure, saying the Conservatives were attempting to outlaw abortion by the “backdoor.”

“This is shameful. This government is being disingenuous,” said Fry, calling the proposal “totally untenable and unconstitutional.”

In the Commons earlier Thursday, NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair took aim at Stephen Harper for even allowing Woodworth’s motion to be debated.

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“Could the prime minister tell Canadians why he allowed his Conservative MPs to reopen the debate on abortion?” Mulcair said in question period.

But Harper said an all-party committee decided that Woodworth’s bill could proceed to debate, a move he called “unfortunate.”

“In my case, I will be voting against the motion,” Harper said.

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