Erin O'Toole on conscience rights or lack thereof

I recently received a copy of a letter that a Canadian recently sent to Erin O'Toole. The letter pretty much speaks for itself.

Dear Mr. O'Toole,

I am a pro-life Canadian and have voted for conservative parties for decades. In the past few years, I have been very disappointed in the CPC for becoming more and more like the Liberals in their refusal to allow any protection for children in the womb, let alone a debate on the matter.

So when this election was called, I decided I could no longer vote for your party. However.....

.... I changed my mind recently, based on your comments to protect the conscience rights of doctors and other health care workers. Even though you are pro-choice, I respected that you at least recognized the hypocrisy of supporting a woman's choice when it comes to ending the life of her preborn child without also protecting the choice of the doctor whose conscience does not allow them to participate, in any way, in ending a child's life.

And then Justin Trudeau came out with this line that proved, once and for all, (although I already knew this, but now it came out loud and clear from his own mouth) that he is not actually pro-choice, but pro-abortion: "Pro-choice doesn't mean the freedom of doctors to choose. It means the freedom of women to choose. Leaders have to be unequivocal on that." (https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/erin-otoole-pro-choice-conscience-rights-1.6146200).

And I thought to myself, "this is gold for the Conservatives!" I could see the headlnes: "Justin Trudeau admits he is not pro-choice!"

Mr. Trudeau can't have it both ways. If he's pro-choice then he has to support choice for both. To support the choice to have an abortion, but not the choice to refuse to facilitate an abortion, is, logically, and by the common sense definition of "choice," not pro-choice.  He is pro-choice only in one case, anti-choice in the other. So, clearly, choice is not the issue for Mr. Trudeau; abortion is the issue. And when the two choices come into conflict, he chooses the choice of abortion. Hence, he is pro-abortion.

When Mr. Trudeau criticized your definition of "pro-choice," Mr. O'Toole, I was even more firm in my conviction to vote for you because you were showing true leadership by not being intimidated by Mr. Trudeau's bullying and fear mongering and holding firm in your support for freedom of conscience and the actual meaning of words, eschewing hypocrisy (as well as an Orwellian use of the English language).

But that all ended shortly thereafter. You reversed your stance on freedom of conscience, and adopted the same policy as the Liberals,  requiring doctors to give "effective referrals" for a procedure that ends a human life.

You could have shown courage and leadership by using Mr. Trudeau's words against him, exposing his hypocrisy. Instead you retreated and let the same old and tired pro-abortion rhetoric of the Liberals define the terms and frame the narrative, throwing conscientious doctors under the bus.

Please, Mr. Toole, it's not too late to reverse your position...again...and do the right and just thing: please support the freedom of doctors not to make "effective referrals" for procedures that end the life of another human being.

Coercing doctors to violate their consciences will not bode well for the medical profession, nor their patients. 

It never has, and it never will.

Sincerely,