Several thousand anti-abortion activists rallied on Parliament Hill Thursday to call on Stephen Harper's government to restrict abortion.

Demonstrators at the annual March for Life called for a new law limiting access to abortion.

But Conservative backbench MPs who favour such a controversial move say it's unlikely to happen any time soon, if at all.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper campaigned on a platform to not change Canada's abortion laws, and the Prime Minister's Office Thursday said it has no plan to reopen the issue.

More than a dozen Conservative and Liberal backbench MPs, along with several senators, spoke at Thursday's rally, urging the crowd to keep up their fight.

Conservative MP Maurice Vellacott and Liberal MP Tom Wappel told CTV's Mike Duffy Live the issue should be reopened and laws should be rewritten.

"I think there is a growing concern, and I think it comes around the fact that there are a lot of women stepping forward now," Vellacott said Thursday, a day after resigning as chairman of the Commons aboriginal affairs committee for remarks he made about judges and natives.

"These are women that have actually had abortions and they feel they really had no choice, they were not properly informed. There is a growing awareness of unwanted abortions in the country, wherein men harass, badger, coerce ... it might be a boyfriend, partner, husband, employer, doctor, friend, family members, but a lot of the abortions that I gather women have had in the country are not so much by their own volition insofar as that they feel pressured by other circumstances."

Wappel said Canada is behind on abortion legislation in comparison to other countries.

"We're the only western democracy that has absolutely no law whatsoever when it comes to protecting the unborn child," he said.

Wappel said abortion is a "taboo" subject among politicians, many of whom won't publicly give their opinion on the subject.

"Even the former prime minister didn't really want to raise the issue," he said.

"It's just an odd thing. You can talk about seals, you can talk about whales, you can talk about the environment, you can talk about anything, but you can't talk about unborn children being killed. I find it fascinating."

Wappel, however, said he has never felt pressure for bringing forward a private member's bill.