LifeSiteNews staff
MONCTON, February 23, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A New Brunswick pro-life group is calling upon the federal health minister to investigate possible Medicare fraud by provinces that fund private abortion clinics. NB Right to Life also wants Health Canada to drop its abortion dispute with New Brunswick over that province’s refusal to fund such a clinic.
The group’s executive director, Peter Ryan, says Medicare only covers abortion in cases of medical necessity. He says, “Abortion clinics provide abortion on demand, there is no assessment or demonstration of medical necessity. An unwanted pregnancy is not an automatic criterion of medical necessity, I know of no medical body in this country that would say it is.”
The Right to Life group says that six provinces are violating the Medicare provisions of the Canada Health Act by funding private clinic abortions under the guise of medical necessity. The provinces include Newfoundland, Manitoba, BC, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec.
“In all honesty, these provinces are practising fraud,” says Ryan. “The new Tory government, which promised to end corruption, should not stand for it.” The Canada Health Act authorizes the federal government to penalize provinces for violating the Act.
Ryan added that the federal government should immediately drop its dispute with New Brunswick over the latter’s refusal to fund Henry Morgentaler’s clinic in Fredericton. “That dispute arose under the previous Liberal administration which favored abortion on demand. Unless the new minister, Tony Clement, favors Medicare fraud, he should drop the matter. It is not about being for or against abortion, it is a question of respecting the law.”