Trudeau clarifies: pro-life incumbent MPs must vote pro-choice on abortion

OTTAWA – Justin Trudeau says incumbent Liberal MPs who are opposed to abortion will be required to support a woman’s right to choose in any vote on the subject.

The Liberal leader is clarifying his decree that anyone who wants to run for his party in the next election must be willing to vote pro-choice should the issue come up in the House of Commons.

When he first disclosed that position last month, Trudeau said incumbent MPs would be “grandfathered” and their beliefs “respected to a certain extent.”

He hedged when pushed to say whether three pro-life incumbents — Toronto MP John McKay, P.E.I.’s Lawrence MacAulay and Winnipeg MP Kevin Lamoureux — would be allowed to vote freely on the issue.

MacAulay this week told the Charlottetown Guardian newspaper that he took Trudeau’s comments to mean he could continue to vote how he chooses.

However, Trudeau now says the “grandfathering” of incumbents applies only to the vetting process the party conducts for anyone seeking to run for a Liberal nomination.