Quebec Refuses Appeal on Massive Abortion Payout

By Hilary White
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  MONTREAL, September 15, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The province of Quebec has announced that it will not appeal a court order to repay Cdn $13 million in costs to nearly 45,000 women who had to pay for their own abortions. The court ruled that the province had “misinterpreted” its own laws when charging women $200-$300 extra over the coverage by the province’s public health system.
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  The suit was brought by the pro-abortion activist association known as the Association for Access to Abortion. The judgment covers abortions performed between 1999 and 2005.
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  The strongly pro-abortion government of Jean Charest has decided not to appeal the ruling. Charest said at the time his government was “very committed” to providing abortions free of charge to women. “We feel very strongly that Quebec must continue to have a publicly accessible health-care system where medical care that is medically required is accessible to all citizens.”Â
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  Jim Hughes, National President of Campaign Life Coalition told LifeSiteNews.com, the Quebec government’s capitulation is “astonishing.”
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“I thought I had heard it all, when I learned a few years ago that the province of Quebec was sending pregnant women with late term pregnancies to George Tiller of Wichita for abortions at massive cost,” Hughes said.
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  One of the lawyers in the case told the Globe and Mail that the ruling could have a “spillover” effect on private abortion facilities. The New Brunswick government is still locked in a court battle with Henry Morgentaler and the federal government over funding for his private abortion facility in Fredericton.