It appears the pro-abortion Liberal Party has won yesterday’s New Brunswick provincial election, despite an electronic vote-counting debacle that has made official results impossible until Friday. The ousted Progressive Conservative Party conceded defeat this afternoon while demanding the votes be manually recounted.
Unofficial results from the New Brunswick Elections website put the Liberals at 27 seats compared to the PC’s 21. The Green Party picked up one seat while the NDP maintained its status quo of no seats. The vote counting ambiguity was allegedly caused by memory cards and discrepancies with the vote-counting machines.
Local pro-abortion forces are calling the results a win.
“Everyone wave goodbye to @DaveAlward. And say hello to abortion rights!” tweeted Kathleen Pye, chairwoman of Reproductive Justice NB, an abortion activist group formed in May after the province’s only private abortion facility in Fredericton announced it would be closing its doors due to not receiving public funding.
National reports say voters rejected the PC’s bid to revitalize the economy by expanding the shale gas industry while favoring the Liberal’s job-creation plan of upgrading infrastructure by paving roads and repairing bridges.
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Abortion took center stage in the Liberal’s election campaign in April in response to the announced closure of the province’s Morgentaler abortion facility. The party approved a resolution at that time calling for taxpayer-funded abortion in private facilities, reversing longstanding policy on the issue. The reigning conservatives said they would maintain the status quo of funding medically required abortions in hospitals.
Since that point Liberal leader Brian Gallant has indicated on numerous occasions that once elected, his party will “swiftly act to find all barriers to abortion and eliminate them.” Following the lead of federal Liberal leader Justin Trudeau, Gallant has stated that only pro-abortion candidates can run for his party.
Jim Hughes, national president of Campaign Life Coalition, told LifeSiteNews that no matter who won the election, it is a loss for the pre-born since there was nobody on the Conservative side “beating the drum for protection for children before birth” and the Liberal side was clearly pro-abortion.
“It’s a shame that a province like New Brunswick which should be very strong on this issue has not spoken out politically. You sort of wonder, is there any social conscience at all?”
Hughes said that if current laws are repealed and private abortion clinics receive public funding then the province can expect an uptick in abortion rates. He also speculated that federal Liberal leader Justin Trudeau, who is adamantly pro-abortion and will not let MPs into his party who do not share his views, will take the Liberal win as an indicator of what is to come in the national election next year.
Peter Ryan, executive director of New Brunswick Right to Life Association, said he is “greatly concerned” that the province’s current restrictions on abortion will be removed as a result of the election.
“While our organization is non-partisan politically, the prospect of a changed policy that could greatly increase New Brunswick’s abortion rate worries us.”
Ryan said funding private abortion clinics could make annual abortion rates in the province soar to levels seen in other provinces where the procedure is funded.
“That would mean 2,000 less children born each year because of abortion – hardly a positive direction for our under-populated province, or what women in crisis really need.”
“If we end up with publicly funded abortion on demand, it will be an unspeakable tragedy for so many families,” he said.
