Pay no mind to the recriminalization of abortion; the important thing is that you had a good time. (UPDATED X3)

***3 Updates follow***

So, like Ken Epp's fetus-personhood-granting Bill passed 2nd Reading in the HoC on Wednesday evening, 147-132.

What's that? Didn't hear a peep about this on the news, last night? JJ and Birth Pangs were all over this story since last November, when C-484 was but a glimmer in Epps' eye. Here's what JJ said, Nov 23, 2007:

The UVOC [Unborn Victims of Crime] bill would "protect a mother's choice to give birth", making it a crime to cause the injury or death of a fetus in the commission of violence against the mother.

Don't get excited. Nothing "anti-abortion" to see here, noooooo, just move along. Why, the UVOC bill is just about protecting "choice" -- the mother's choice to carry a pregnancy to term and have it culminate on Day 273 as a baked-to-perfection babycake. And anyone who wields a knife or baseball bat (or scalpel?) and stops that from happening would be committing murder, as surely as it would be murder to kill the mother. Fetus? Hell, never mind that, this bill would protect embryos... zygotes, even. "At any stage of development before birth"

And for a while there, it even looked like a lot of our elected representatives "got it:" this Bill offered nothing in the way of added protection for pregnant women; it was merely a vector for introducing anti-abortion legislation through the backdoor. Heck, even Raymond Gravel (BQ), a Roman Catholic priest, knew that enacting C-484 would set us all back many, many years:

“I’m against abortion, but this is no way to solve the problem of abortion. It’s through education, through outreach, through helping women who have undesired pregnancies I think that’s how to solve the problem of abortion. But not recriminalizing abortion, I don’t ever want to see that happen.”

Speaking in French, Gravel acknowledged that the murder of a pregnant woman is abominable. “But,” he added, “at the same time when the fetus is still in the mother they’re just one being. Its only when the fetus is born is when it becomes another being, when it becomes a human being.”

So they had their first round of debate about it on Dec 13, 2007, with 2nd round scheduled for Feb 29--Sadie Hawkins Day! Birth Pangs and Joyce Arthur (ARCC) issued alerts and exhorted anyone who would listen to post/write/call/fax/carrier-pigeon their MPs to vote against this Bill. We even caught a break, and got an extension of sorts when the debate was post-poned till March 3rd--even more time to contact recalcitrant MPs! Meanwhile, Joyce and Carolyn of the ARCC stuck their necks out and hit the airwaves for us: Joyce, going up against the likes of John Hof (Campaign for Life Coalition, BC), and Carolyn against Ken Epp AND Mary Talbot (the mother of Olivia, who was murdered when she was 27 weeks pregnant).

A lot of us did the quick "parliamentary fetus fetishizer" arithmetic and grew worried: could this thing really pass? Here's what I posted last week:

Ok. There are a total of 308 seats in the HoC, and only 90 anti-choice MPs. But here's the problem: if you add the 65 undeclared MPs to the 90 anti-choicers, you get a potential maximum of 155 votes for Ken Epp's backdoor anti-choice bill. That's 50.3%.

[...] Given that the Bloc and NDP will probably whip their respective caucuses to vote NO on C-484, we don't have to worry about them. Nope, the disquieting 'sect' is the Liberal caucus: Dion has not said that he will whip his group, so we have no assurances that those anti-choice or undeclared Liberals will vote against this Bill.

And here we are. Our worst-case-scenario is reality: too many Liberals voted for this Bill. A freaking Dipper even voted for this thing (I'm lookin at YOU, Peter Stoffer!). But you wannu know what really takes the cake?

Cake!!! Dion was MIA for the vote because he was hosting a party at Stornoway for...*drumroll*...International Women's Day. Susan Delacourt explains (h/t Antonia & matttbastard):

Liberals and New Democrats also are unleashing a raft of women-friendly events this week in Ottawa and beyond. Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion, for instance, will spend International Women's Day in Toronto on Saturday, while his wife Janine Krieber is speaking in Montreal.

Female journalists on Parliament Hill are invited tonight [March 5] to a reception hosted by Krieber at Stornoway, the official opposition residence, and female MPs and Liberal candidates have various events scheduled for the weekend.

Ok, I haven't even BEGUN to unleash my fury at these people for rolling the dice on this one. Thought it wouldn't pass? Fuck you: it passed. And now it's onto Committee. Go visit JJ for the Cmte member list, and see how each MP voted on the Bill. JJ's also posted the full HoC shitlist--all the 'yeas.'

Save that shitlist, folks. We're gonna need it for the days and weeks ahead. I wonder if eVite has a template for this kinda thing? Hmm...I wonder if Dion can give us the name of a good caterer?

More on this:

• Birth Pangs
• matttbastard
• JJ
• pale (A Creative Revolution) & another post here
• Berlynn
• Blast Furnace
• Kuri
• April Reign
• Dave (Galloping Beaver)
• Cathie from Canada

***Cathie found a doozy of a post on a so-con blog: "... the momentum is clearly moving in our direction. If not this time, it will happen in the future. It’s inevitable now."

Here it comes. Here it fucking comes.

Update: Bene Diction Blogs On and Red Tory have more to add. Red Tory actually has the complete list of Liberals who voted FOR this fetus-personhood Bill, along with an equally important list of those who were MIA (including the aforementioned Dion!):

Voting For: Raymond Bonin; Gord Brown; John Cannis; Hon. Raymond Chan; Hon. Roy Cullen; Sukh Dhaliwal; Hon. Albina Guarnieri; Hon. Charles Hubbard; Hon. Jim Karygiannis Derek Lee; Hon. Lawrence MacAulay; Hon. Gurbax Malhi; Hon. John McKay; Hon. Joe McGuire; Hon. Dan McTeague; Hon. Shawn Murphy; Massimo Pacetti; Francis Scarpaleggia; Hon. Raymond Simard; Lloyd St. Amand; Paul Steckle; Paul Szabo; Hon. Robert Thibault; Alan Tonks; Roger Valley; Tom Wappel; Borys Wrzesnewskyj

Absent: Stéphane Dion; Bryon Wilfert; Joe Volpe; Scott Simms; Nancy Karetak-Lindell; Hon. Mark Eyking; Ujjal Dosanjh; Denis Coderre; Brenda Chamberlain; Gerry Byrne.

Update: More reactions from:

• Birth Pangs (new)
• Daev at Designated Protest Zone
• Chet Scoville
• Accidental Deliberations
• Alison at Creekside (and again, here)
• prole (A Creative Revolution)
• Sean in Saskatchewan
• Pretty Shaved Ape
• Zorpheous (Wingnuterer)
• The Bored Bureaucrat
• James Calder (Progressive Right)
• Galloping Beaver (new one from Dave)
• Scott in Montreal (Tattered Sleeve)
• laura k (We Move to Canada), and again here

Update: More reactions from:

• Mike (Rational Reasons)
• Miss Vicky
• skdadl (pogge.ca)