ST. JOHN, July 18, 2001 (LSN.ca) – Health Minister Alan Rock has confirmed that his Ministry is having on-going discussions with the province of New Brunswick over the public funding of abortions in private abortuaries. An article in today’s New Brunswick Telegraph Journal says that officials from Health Canada and the provincial Department of Health and Wellness have initiated discussions but that the province maintains its position against such funding since it already funds abortions performed in hospitals.
When Rock first ordered several provinces to cough up the money for the private abortionists early this year, he faced a flurry of criticism from both the provinces and Catholic Church leaders. Notably, Ottawa Archbishop Marcel Gervais soundly rebuked the “Catholic” Health Minister. In a statement which garnered front page media coverage, the archbishop said Rock’s actions to promote the funding of abortion “make my blood boil,” and urged Catholic voters to “raise a stink” about the funding of abortion. “The fact that we do not have a law to protect the rights of the unborn … should not lead us to quietly accept abortion as a right, as a medically necessary procedure. Life is at issue here,” Gervais said.
New Brunswick federal Tory MP Elsie Wayne praised her provincial colleague, NB Premier Bernard Lord for standing against the pressure to give abortionist Henry Morgentaler more government funds for the abortions performed in his private “clinic”. “You know the province of New Brunswick still will not pay Morgentaler, and I give Bernard Lord full marks for that. [He] does not want to have Morgentaler there killing babies every day,” Wayne said during this year’s March for Life.