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No, the title is not a joke.

Eliminating taxpayer funding for abortions that are not medically necessary is a political position that’s more popular amongst Ontarians than is the Liberal Party, the NDP or Tim Hudak’s PCs.   So says a recent AngusReid opinion poll. 

AngusReid released its latest abortion opinion poll results on January 28, 2013, timed to coincide with the 25th “anniversary” of the Morgentaler ruling which threw out Canada’s previous abortion law.

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When the poll results were released, mainstream media headlines focused almost exclusively on the topic of whether Canadians want to “reopen the abortion debate”. That particular question found that 59% of Canadians “think there is no point in re-opening a debate about abortion in Canada right now”. I think that high figure is unreliable for a number of reasons which I won’t get into for the purposes of this blog.

Instead, I want to focus on a finding in the survey that was virtually ignored by the media, i.e. high public support for eliminating taxpayer funding of abortion, in every province.  Due to the upcoming Defund Abortion Rally in Ontario, this article will focus there.

Forty-two percent of Ontario respondents told Angus Reid that “The health care system should only fund abortions in the event of medical emergencies”.  Another 9% responded “The Health care system should not fund abortions at all”.  Only 38% of Ontarians wanted abortions to be funded whenever they are requested.

Overall, that means 51% of Ontarians oppose the status quo of forcing taxpayers to finance all abortions, for any reason. See chart below.

Wow! How did the media miss sharing that little gem with us? It’s quite a significant finding that more than half of Ontarians feel taxpayer should not be forced to pay for abortions that are not medically necessary. 

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Meanwhile, an Abacus Data Poll conducted from Feb 6 – 8, 2013 found that the Tories, NDP and Liberal parties have only 33%, 31% and 30% support, respectively. See chart below.

It seems to me that the position of defunding elective abortions is more popular than Hudak, Horwath or Premier Wynne! That’s something political leaders currently choose to ignore, although with the right approach, and a certain amount of oratory skill, this could be a tremendously winning issue.

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On Tuesday March 19, an event will take place that I believe is going to help raise that 51% figure even higher.  A major Defund Abortion Rally has been organized at Queens Park, between 12 noon to 2pm, by Campaign Life Coalition’s Youth division.

Taxpayers will rally outside the legislature to demand that MPPs remove abortion from the list of services covered by OHIP.  It’s my sincere belief that this rally, and CLCY’s ongoing Defund Abortion campaign, will help move the percentage of Ontarians who oppose taxpayer funding of elective abortions to a level that politicians won’t be able to ignore. 

When the people lead, politicians must eventually follow. If you live in Ontario, please help us make the politicians take note.  Come to the rally yourself!

Learn more about Ontario’s Defund Abortion Rally here.

To view the full table from Angus Reid's poll showing Canadian views on forced taxpayer funding of abortion, by province, click here.

Jack Fonseca is project manager for Campaign Life Coalition. Follow him on Twitter here.