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FREDERICTON, New Brunswick, June 7, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Social media is pushing the three candidates in the provincial Liberal leadership race to take a public stance on their views on abortion.

The issue surfaced when leadership candidate Michael Murphy said in response to a question on Twitter that he sees abortion as a “non-issue,” though he would allow a free vote if he became premier and his caucus wanted to reopen debate on the issue.

At the 2009 New Brunswick March for Life, Murphy, who was Minister of Health in the Liberal government of the time, told marchers at the legislature that he was “not entirely” comfortable with existing provincial policy for abortion funding, and that, “It is my personal belief that the unborn at any stage from conception on is human life, and I believe in human life.”

On May 29, however, he tweeted to an enquirer that “the law is there” and abortion is a matter between a woman and her doctor.

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The law states that the provincial government will pay for abortions only with the approval of two doctors, and only in designated hospitals. Provincial healthcare does not cover abortions carried out in private abortion clinics.

New Brunswick is the only province in Canada with a private abortion facility owned and operated by arch-abortionist Henry Morgentaler that is not publicly funded. Morgentaler sued the province in 2003 claiming the province’s restrictions were unconstitutional and violated the Canada Health Act because they denied women full access to abortion.

The suit has yet to be resolved, but Peter Ryan, the Executive Director of New Brunswick Right to Life, told LifeSteNews previously that there is little public or political support for a judicial decision to force public funding of Morgentaler’s abortuary.

Another candidate vying for the Liberal leadership, Nick Duivenvoorden, waded into the abortion discussion with a statement similar to Murphy’s, that human life starts at conception but the choice to kill is the mother’s. He added the proviso, however, that he would modify the existing policy that requires the approval of two doctors.

“I reserve the right to believe that life starts at conception, but ultimately the decision to have an abortion must be left to the patient and her doctor hopefully in consultation with her family to make sure all possible alternatives have been explored,” Duivenvoorden said on Twitter, adding, “Not sure of rationale for two docs. So, yes to your question. Hopefully, always the option of last resort.”

A third candidate, Brian Gallant, released a statement on June 4 where he stated “I am pro-choice” and expressed surprise that “other politicians felt compelled to comment on this highly charged and complex issue at this time using Twitter, which only allows 140 characters. However, since other candidates have posted their views on social media, I wanted to inform you of my position.”

Campaign Life Coalition’s national campaign organizer Mary Ellen Douglas said that the communiqué from Gallant is disingenuous.

“He is pro-abortion,” Douglas told LifeSiteNews, “because pro-choice only has one choice – the choice to kill an unborn child. He is hiding behind a euphemism.”

Douglas pointed out the error in Gallant’s statement, when he said, “the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms ensures that a woman has the right to reproductive choice.”

“What we have in Canada is not a right to abortion, but a state of lawlessness. We have no law whatsoever on abortion, one of the few countries in the world in this situation. We’ve never had a right to abortion,” Douglas countered.

In his statement Gallant notes that he wants to “work on reducing the abortion rates” and quotes a source that purports to show that countries with legal abortion have a much lower abortion rate than countries where abortion is outlawed.

“This is nonsense,” said Douglas. “I would really like to see those statistics. In Canada the rate has never gone down, it’s gone up constantly – every year the rate goes up.”

“To say you want to reduce the number of abortions is also nonsense,” Douglas remarked. “You can’t say you are going to open the floodgate of abortion, where all you have to do is ask for one and you get it, but ‘let’s taper off’ … how is he going to do that?”

“Where are you going to find women who will voluntarily say, ‘I want an abortion but I’ll give it up, so abortions can taper off?’”

Elizabeth Crouchman, President of the New Brunswick Right to Life Association, criticized Gallant for saying that politicians should be focusing on “fiscal, economic, and demographic challenges” rather than abortion, pointing out that abortion is directly tied to those issues.

“New Brunswick needs people,” Crouchman said. “If we continue to abort our babies (1000 + per year) then our population will continue to shrink. You will lose taxpayers and voters. Last year there were almost an equal number of deaths and births in our province. (Births: 7,371, Deaths: 6,846) Is that what you support in the way of growth for New Brunswick?”

Crouchman further noted that the rampant spread of sexually transmitted diseases among the province’s teens, and the negative physical and mental health consequences of abortion on women.

“We have a 1 in 5 statistic regarding teen sexually transmitted diseases and infections. Why? Because no one is talking about the effects of casual sex and how as teachers/parents we think condoms are the answer. In fact condoms fail. Now we have seen a startling increase in Gonorrhoea and Syphilis. And we thought those two diseases were gone. More sex, more partners, more diseases. It is that simple,” Crouchman said.

“Yes Mr. Gallant,” Crouchman concluded, “abortion is a divisive issue. And yes we must focus on it. It is a huge social issue. Women, young uninformed women, are suffering from the effects of abortion. Our young people need and deserve the truth.”

“We need courageous men and women who are willing to expose the lies. Will you be one of those?”