One of the leading opponents to a woman’s right to choose in Harper’s cabinet is Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Jason Kenney.

Long before he entered Parliament, Kenney has campaigned widely to restrict choice. As a student at the University of San Francisco in 1990, Kenney objected to the right of pro-choice students to distribute information about abortion on campus. When the administration refused to ban them, Kenney launched a petition to the Archbishop of San Francisco to revoke the university’s right to describe itself as “Catholic.”

His petition even equated support for choice and gay rights with racism: “Organizations whose objectives are antithetical to the gospel, including racist, pro-abortion, and homosexual groups, could soon be using facilities and resources that have been consecrated to the promotion of justice and human dignity.”

One of the closest MPs to Harper, Kenney backed Stephen Woodworth’s private member’s bill to “study” the point at which a fetus becomes a person—the most recent attempt by the Tories to recriminalize abortion. The support of such a high-profile minister for Woodworth’s motion undermines Harper’s claim this his government will not re-open the abortion debate in Canada.