A motion to protest sex-selective abortions, drafted by Langley’s MP, is seeing opposition from the NDP in the House of Commons.

MP Mark Warawa put forward Motion 408, a motion to condemn the selective abortion of girls due to discrimination.

Some families don’t want a girl, and will use ultrasounds that identify the sex of a child, then abort girls.

The practice is thought to be very rare in Canada, but is so common in parts of India and China that it is causing an imbalance in genders.

Warawa drafted the bill starting in the early summer, after all parties in the House had spoken out against sex-selective abortions.

Now the NDP leader Thomas Mulcair has said the New Democrats will vote against the motion.

Mulcair said the motion was an attempt to reopen the abortion debate using motions from backbenchers.

“Disappointed but not surprised,” said Warawa in reaction.

When he put together Motion 408, Warawa said he used some of the statements made by members of all the major parties in the House.

“It would be powerful if we all said the same things in the same voice,” Warawa said.

The motion won’t change the laws or ban sex-selective abortions, but would only condemn the practice.

But Warawa’s motion follows not long after Stephen Woodworth, another Tory MP, put forward a motion aimed at defining the start of human life.

That motion was seen as an overt attempt to start a debate on abortion laws in Canada.

Warawa said he has said since he began discussing his motion that it is about discrimination against girls.

“Did they open the abortion debate?” he said of the NDP. “That was not my intent.”

Warawa has always said in interviews that he is pro-life.

- with files from the Vancouver Sun