Thursday November 4, 2010
New Brunswick Pro-Aborts Take Funding Campaign to Human Rights Commission
By Patrick B. Craine
FREDERICTON, New Brunswick, November 3, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Unsuccessful in the provincial legislature and held up by the courts, the New Brunswick pro-abortion lobby has taken their campaign to gain funding for Morgentaler’s private abortion facility to the province’s human rights commission (HRC). Chairman Randy Dickinson announced this week that the commission is launching an investigation into the province’s abortion policy.
“This is the last thing that mothers and babies need in New Brunswick, another case against them,” said Peter Ryan, executive director of New Brunswick Right to Life. “The pro-abortionists keep trying to take our province down. This is another phase, another angle. … Maybe it’s a sign of desperation that they feel they have to resort to this other channel, which is the least democratic of all.”
Dickinson confirmed on Tuesday that the commission has been considering a complaint against New Brunswick’s Medical Services Payment Act, the legislation covering payments for abortion. The complaint alleges that the restrictions on abortion funding in the Act discriminate based on sex.
Contrary to the practice in the rest of Canada, New Brunswick only pays for abortions that are conducted in hospitals, which require a referral from two doctors who must deem the abortion “medically necessary.”
Pro-abortion activists claim the policy is too restrictive, forcing women to pay out of pocket at Morgentaler’s facility, the only private option. “Women are being denied a basic right to have a medical procedure covered by the health-care system,” Carolyn Egan of the Ontario Coalition of Abortion Clinics told the National Post.
However, Mary Ellen Douglas, national organizer for Campaign Life Coalition, said, “I wish the human rights commission would start looking into the human rights of the child in the womb, rather than the rights of the people who want to take away their life.”
The HRC’s announcement comes as arch-abortionist Henry Morgentaler prepares for trial in his court campaign to force the province into paying him for his abortion facility in Fredericton. Morgentaler launched his lawsuit in 2003, but the case has been held up on preliminary issues. The province had argued that he did not have standing to launch the suit, but the Court of Appeal disagreed in 2009.
Dickinson said the complaint process is well underway, having completed mediation, but he refused to give details such as who submitted the complaint. Through their investigation, the commission determined that “there is sufficient evidence to send it to an official board of inquiry,” he told the Telegraph-Journal. The board has not yet been appointed, nor has a date been set.
The inquiry may be done privately, he said, “in order to protect the privacy and security of the participants involved or it may be a public inquiry.” He said, however, that whether it is private or public, they will not hold hearings or invite submissions from the public. The final written decision of the board will be made available.
“It’s worrying because this is not going to be an open process,” noted Ryan. He said that he’s not confident the province’s new government is committed “to defending our legislation vigorously.”
“As always, the babies have no one there to defend them,” he added.
Despite the policy in the province that abortions are only to be done where “medically necessary,” Ryan said the truth is that the province essentially has “abortion-on-demand.” “It’s really fraudulent what’s going on,” he explained. “Doctors are defrauding the Medicare system by reporting that these cases are medically necessary when everybody knows they are not.”
He criticized media reports on this issue for spreading the “myth” that abortions are only done in New Brunswick hospitals up to 12 weeks. “That is not true. … It’s been around for several years. I keep trying to correct it in the media,” he said. “It just adds to the myth of how strict New Brunswick supposedly is.”
“The pro-aborts never stop trying, and they never seem to get enough of death,” said Douglas. “We have to make sure that we never get tired of trying to save these babies. We have to stay on top of everything that’s happening to be a voice for those who don’t have a voice.”
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
New Brunswick Government Continues to Oppose Morgentaler Abortion Funding
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/oct/10100407.html