Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to present these petitions. These individuals have indicated that sex-selection abortion is legal in Canada because we have no restrictions to date, in spite of the fact that 84% of Canadians believe it should be illegal to have an abortion simply when the sex of the child is not favoured.
International organizations, including the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women and the United Nations Children's Fund, have identified unequal sex ratios at birth as a growing problem internationally, and our medical associations have indicated that in Canada as well. The petitioners are calling on the government to bring forward a Criminal Code prohibition on sex-selective abortion.