OTTAWA, Jan 11, 2001 (LSN.ca) – The Canadian Council of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) organization has sent a letter to federal Health Minister Allan Rock saying it is “deeply disturbed” over the Minister’s intentions to penalize certain provinces for refusing to pay for abortions at private clinics. Educating the health minister on the fact that the Canada Health Act only governs procedures deemed to be “medically necessary,” the bishops organization explained “it is up to the provinces to determine which services are insurable as medically necessary.” It added that “there is no evidence to support your Ministry’s apparent assumption that every abortion is medically necessary.”
The CCCB letter points out that the courts have not pronounced abortion as a constitutional right but have left the lawmaking to parliament – leaving abortion decisions to be made between women and doctors. “It is more than disappointing that your Government’s only response has been to approve clinical trials of the abortion drug RU-486 and to challenge the funding approach of the provincial governments to abortion clinics,” says the letter. “We deplore this failure to protect the unborn child who is so vulnerable and in need of our care.”
The organization also points out the government’s hypocrisy saying, “It is also surprising that your Ministry has objected to the funding of private clinics for other procedures but now appears to insist on the funding of private abortion clinics.” The letter is signed by Most Rev. Bertrand Blanchet, Archbishop of Rimouski and Chairman of the Catholic Organization for Life and Family.
For the full CCCB letter see the CCCB website at: https://www.cccb.ca/english/fullpublice.asp?ID=65