FREDERICTON, New Brunswick, April 29, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A U.S. abortion crusader with ties to convicted abortion criminal Kermit Gosnell appears to have targeted New Brunswick in an all-out campaign to change provincial laws on abortion funding and access.
Vicky Saporta, president and CEO of the National Abortion Federation (NAF) in the U.S. and in Canada wrote in the The Telegraph-Journal on Saturday that the New Brunswick government has a “clear duty” to make abortion a “publicly funded medical procedure.”
Saporta made news last year after she called Gosnell, who was convicted last May of murdering three of babies, a “rogue” abortion provider and “extreme outlier” who preyed on vulnerable women. It came to light, however, that Gosnell worked one day a week at an NAF-certified abortion facility in Delaware.
In her article titled “On abortion, New Brunswick must change,” Saporta called the requirement that a woman obtain the approval of two doctors for her abortion to be publicly funded in provincial hospitals “archaic and unsound.”
The Morgentaler Clinic in Fredericton announced earlier this month that it will be closing its doors in July due to financial reasons.
Local pro-life leader Peter Ryan suspects the move to be a ploy to garner sympathy for public funding: “I’ll believe the clinic is closing when I see the ‘for sale’ sign go up,” he said.
While abortion is covered at taxpayers’ expense in two of the province’s hospitals, it is not covered at the province’s single private Morgentaler Clinic, where aborting an unborn baby up to 16 weeks gestation would cost a mother about $850.
Ryan, who is the executive director of the New Brunswick Right to Life Association, said he believes international abortion advocates have targeted the province for take-down.
“We are likely dealing the money/power of the North American abortion industry. They have targeted New Brunswick for take-down. I suspect Ms. Saporta is running the show,” he said to LifeSiteNews.
“Is the Morgentaler establishment here really going to close? In all likelihood, that, too, is a lie, calculated very cleverly to arouse hysteria and send shock waves leading to everything people like Vicky Saporta really want – full abortion on demand, fully funded, in both hospitals and private clinics. That’s the game. That’s the dice they may well have rolled in announcing the clinic closing.”
Ryan said that abortion advocates are running “quite a show.”
“There is a tremendous barrage of pro-abortion propaganda in the media here the last two weeks. And politicians have been getting in line to dance to the tune,” he said.
New Brunswick’s Liberal Party approved a resolution calling for taxpayer-funded abortion at private facilities this weekend, flip-flopping on its previous policy on abortion.
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Ryan compared the ramped-up abortion campaign in his province to what he called the “media hoopla” that ushered in legalized abortion to Ireland last year after the 2012 death of Savita Halappanavar, who was later found to have died from failure in basic care, not because of the country’s then-law prohibiting abortion.
“In the last two weeks we’ve seen the university community at both St. Thomas U. (petition in favor of clinic funding) and University of New Brunswick (op-ed from many UNB professors) chime in for abortion,” he said. “We’ve had editorials in three daily papers for abortion.”
“We’ve had the leaders of the Liberal, NDP and Green Party come out for abortion. NDP members federally have gotten involved. A pro-abortion rally was held at the Legislature last week. [Weekend] rallies were held in Ottawa and Montreal. We fully expect Ms. Saporta has other tricks up her sleeve,” he said.
Ryan said that pro-lifers province-wide are ramping up their own campaign with prayer, petitions, and plans for the upcoming provincial March for Life on May 15 in Fredericton, in front of the Legislature.
Stephanie Cormier, who had an abortion at the Morgentaler Clinic and who came to regret it, will speak of her experience at the event.
“The march is a chance to raise our voice for babies and mothers. You can be sure the government is listening. They are under great pressure to move in a pro-abortion direction,” Ryan said.