by Hilary White
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FREDERICTON, May 26, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Last week, the Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital in Fredericton announced that it would cease committing abortions as of July 1. This would have put a virtual halt to all publicly funded abortion in New Brunswick until a group of doctors responded positively to New Brunswick Health Minister Brad Green’s request that other doctors take up the practice.
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Green told CBC News yesterday, “We have physicians now in two hospitals who have indicated that they are willing to begin providing these procedures, so our focus now is on continuing to meet with those doctors, with their respective regional health authorities to ensure that there is as seamless a transition as possible at the end of June.”
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The announcement from Chalmers Hospital prompted an abortion activist organization, the National Abortion Federation, (NAF), to demand that the province continue abortion by paying for them at the private Morgentaler abortion facility in Fredericton.
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Vicki Saporta, president of the British Columbia-based NAF sent a letter to Green complaining that “The current funding situation in New Brunswick is inequitable.” Abortion crusader Henry Morgentaler has a lawsuit pending against the province to try to force public funding for his private facility.
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Green told the CBC that the discussions with the doctors were not concluded but that continuing abortion was a high priority for New Brunswick’s Health department. “Our priority was to make certain that access to medically necessary termination of pregnancy procedures remained constant and we’ve been able to achieve that,” he said.
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Peter Ryan, the head of New Brunswick Right to Life said that Green is not respecting the law of New Brunswick in his determination to continue funding abortion.
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“Abortion on demand is against our Medicare law,” said Ryan. “In saying the doctors will provide as much or more abortion access as the Chalmers, which had abortion on demand, the minister is outside the law.
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While in Opposition, Conservative MP, Garry Breitkreuz showed – and Health Canada confirmed – that there is no record of abortion being considered “medically necessary.” The Canada Health Act specifies that only “medically necessary” services must be included in public funding.
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Ryan said Green is also “flouting his moral responsibility: arranging the taking of life is surely not the business of government.”
The names of the doctors have not yet been revealed.
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Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Group Calls upon Ottawa to Investigate Medicare Fraud Over Abortion Funding
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/feb/06022401.html
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To contact Ministry of Health
Carleton Place
P. O. Box 5100
Fredericton, NB
E3B 5G8
Canada
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(506) 457-4800
Fax: (506) 453-5243
Email: [email protected]Â
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Brad Green’s Constituency Office:
Fredericton South
83 Regent Street
Fredericton, NB
E3B 3W3
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Reception: (506) 457-4851
Fax: (506) 457-4904
Email: [email protected]