by Patrick B. Craine
Green Party candidate Roger Benham
TERRACE, British Columbia, April 27, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A British Columbia Green party candidate in Canada’s upcoming federal election said he’s glad he decided to “get rid of” his unborn child and appeared to imply that pregnant women look “like the back end of a bus.”
“I am sick to death about hearing murdering babies,” said Roger Benham, Green candidate for Skeena-Bulkley Valley, in a candidates’ debate April 20th. He told the audience that he had conceived a child with a woman when he was 25. “Thank God we decided to get rid of it,” he said, according to the Terrace Standard.
Still speaking on abortion, Benham said: “Really, we do silly things when we’re young. ... and I’m sorry, but a lot of us men are bloody selfish when it comes to having sex. “
“We think it’s nice enough to have a condom on and lo and behold ... we get with a woman who looks like the back end of a bus,” he added.
Benham’s support for abortion aligns with the Green party’s policy, which states that they “oppose any possible government move to diminish the right of a woman to a safe, legal abortion.”
The party is also committed to ensuring that Canada’s maternal health programs “do not limit access to any form of family planning and primary health care, including access to safe, legal abortions.”
The party’s position was reinforced earlier this month by Green party leader Elizabeth May, who said that she was anxious to correct the false impression that she’s anything less than fully supportive of abortion. Insisting she’s “very militant” in promoting access to abortion, May told the Georgia Straight that there is “no room for going backwards” on abortion.
“A women has a right to make that choice, and it’s not a morally wrong decision by any means,” she said.
LifeSiteNews.com did not hear back from Benham or May by press time.
Benham’s comments sparked a firm rebuke from Rod Taylor, candidate for the Christian Heritage Party (CHP). “No human being is the back end of a bus, and that includes the unborn child in the womb,” Taylor said, according to the Terrace Standard.
“We need to show compassion to the young and we need to teach them good choices,” he added.
The CHP is Canada’s only federal party dedicated to promoting the right to life of the unborn and reinstating the true definition of marriage.
While the Green party expects its candidates to uphold its position on abortion, Saskatoon-Wanuskewin Green candidate Mark Bigland-Pritchard told Campaign Life Coalition that the party does allow “conscientious dissent.” In a written response to CLC’s election questionnaire, Bigland-Pritchard said he believes that life begins at conception and that despite his disagreement with their policy the Green party allowed him to run.
Bigland-Pritchard added, however, that he opposes the criminalization of abortion, maintaining that such a law couldn’t be enforced and abortions would continue under “substantially less safe conditions (for the mother).” He said he would instead strive to eliminate the reasons that lead to women choosing abortion, naming “inadequate sex education” and, particularly, poverty.
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