The provision of abortion services falls under provincial jurisdiction. If we want to change the status quo provincially, we first need to know what's going on in each of our provinces.
This must begin with reliable statistics on abortion, which we don't currently have, and haven't had for some time. We know that CIHI's yearly reported abortion numbers are low and that it is not legislated that clinics report their abortions.
We also need to know what provincial governments are doing in each of the provinces.
Take Ontario for instance.
The Ontario government has set up an agency called ECHO to look at "women's" issues. Echo is 100% funded with Ontario tax dollars. Their revenues come from government grants ($2,338,423 in 2010, and $1,373,999 in 2009).
One of Echo's three primary targeted areas of focus is sexual and reproductive health. These words should always raise a red flag. In this case the flag is very red and very big.
Echo has only had two years of full operation and already they are making recommendations that may surprise you.
Here are just a few of them (other recommendations are listed at the end):
· Designate hospitals for abortions at 16 weeks’ gestation and over
· Standardize all pregnancy counselling to include all options, including abortion
· All Obstetrical/Gynecology training programs must implement the SOGC curriculum and Abortion/Pregnancy Options and include second trimester abortion training.
· Changing the Physicians and the Ontario Human Rights code policy to specify that physicians must refer women seeking an abortion in a timely manner to a willing abortion provider (and extend this policy to include other sexual and reproductive health services, such as emergency contraception).
· Advocate for the approval of the use of mifepristone (in combination with misoprostol) in Canada. This medication allows medical termination up to nine weeks’ gestation in a safe and effective form that is not currently available in Canada. The lack of available access to this drug means that Canadian women are being served by inferior choices and subject to greater risk. (Note what Andre Lalonde, vicepresident of the SOGC said about medical abortions:
"We believe this will open up the access and make abortion easier. It can be done from a doctor's office, rather than a clinic or hospital. It's more confidential. Antiabortion groups won't know about it.” (emphasis added).
The report's experts didn't bother to solicit the advice of those of us who are not pro-abortion. By their own admission, of those chosen for their "expert panel", none "opposed abortion".
This is what happens when we allow our provincial governments to appoint pro-choice "experts" to look at abortion accessibility in a province. Not really a surprise, since a biased organization will probably yield biased solutions.
In fact, the recommendations didn’t even look at adoptions or crisis pregnancy centres as options to unwanted pregnancies. Instead they want to see all pregnancy counselling include abortion. Certainly this would be the death of the freedom of choice to set up a crisis pregnancy centre that would not promote abortion.
The mandate of this Ontario pro-abortion lobby is to advise the Premier, MPPs, and the Ministry of Health and to "provide input into government policy." Presumably the Ontario government is already considering these recommendations.
Further, recommendations that we need more access to abortion services is even more troubling since a Freedom of Information request submitted to the Ontario Ministry of Long Term care, revealed that Ontario spent 30% more on abortions in 2010 than expected (based on 2009 CIHI numbers, the last year CIHI has reported on).
What if other provinces are also under-reporting their numbers? And by how much? If we extrapolate the 30% across the country, that could mean 122,000 abortions in Canada per year.
There is some good news.
For instance, in Alberta, young pro-lifers from Calgary are petitioning the Alberta government to bring a halt to paying for abortions. The campaign to Defund Abortion in Alberta is a grassroots initiative started by university and college students, mostly from Calgary, seeking to eliminate public funding for abortion and to support conscience rights for taxpayers.
PEI has been in the news as well. The Island does not provide for abortions, although they do pay for abortions PEI women to get in a Halifax hospital with a doctor's referral. There has been activity on both sides of this debate. The latest is that the status quo will remain--for now.
In conclusion, we first need more reliable statistics about abortions in every province in order to put real numbers to abortions performed. We can do this by submitting FOI's in all provinces to discover what doctors actually billed for their abortion services. FOIs could also reveal the hidden number of abortion procedures being done in clinics across the country, as well as the number of medical abortions being performed (CIHI does not currently report medical abortions).
Second, we need to find out what's going on in the provincial Health Ministries’ bureaucracies. What other so-called expert panels are there like Echo, who will recommend more abortion access, later gestation abortions, and take away the medical professions' conscience rights? In other words, are your tax dollars funding abortion advocates to advise your government like in Ontario?
If these Ontario recommendations are implemented, we can only assume other provinces will follow suit.
More details on Echo's recommendations (these were omitted from the print version of this article):
· Designate hospitals for abortions at 16 weeks’ gestation and over as a provincial resource since these procedures are less frequently required, are higher risk.
· Standardize all pregnancy counselling to include all options, including abortion. There are many providers of pregnancy counselling; however, not all providers discuss abortion services as an option. This interferes with women’s ability to determine how to proceed in a timely fashion should she wish to have an abortion.
· Ensure abortion procedures, sexual and reproductive health- related medical ethics are part of core content of sexual and reproductive health curricula in medical, nursing and midwifery education programs.
· In particular, it is recommended that: Accreditation bodies must require mandatory sexual and reproductive health curriculum in medical school training; this should include associated elements of medical ethics through use of case studies.
· All Obstetrical/Gynecology training programs must implement the SOGC curriculum and Abortion/Pregnancy Options and include second trimester abortion training.
· Obstetrical/Gynecology residency training. Obstetrical/Gynecology residency programs are encouraged to implement and/or promote the Kenneth J. Ryan Residency Training Program (a privately funded initiative that strives to integrate and enhance family planning training for obstetrics and gynecology residents in the US and Canada).
· Family Medicine training programs should be encouraged to support a 3rd year residency program in Family Medicine for Women’s Care which includes comprehensive abortion training. Support the CPSO in changing the Physicians and the Ontario Human Rights code policy to specify that physicians must refer women seeking an abortion in a timely manner to a willing abortion provider (and extend this policy to include other sexual and reproductive health services, such as emergency contraception).
The report's experts didn't bother to solicit the advice of those of us who are not pro-abortion. By their own admission, of those chosen for their "expert panel", none "opposed abortion".
This is what happens when we allow our provincial governments to appoint pro-choice "experts" to look at abortion accessibility in a province. Not really a surprise, since a biased organization will probably yield biased solutions.
In fact, the recommendations didn’t even look at adoptions or crisis pregnancy centres as options to unwanted pregnancies. Instead they want to see all pregnancy counselling include abortion. Certainly this would be the death of the freedom of choice to set up a crisis pregnancy centre that would not promote abortion.
The mandate of this Ontario pro-abortion lobby is to advise the Premier, MPPs, and the Ministry of Health and to "provide input into government policy." Presumably the Ontario government is already considering these recommendations.
Further, recommendations that we need more access to abortion services is even more troubling since a Freedom of Information request submitted to the Ontario Ministry of Long Term care, revealed that Ontario spent 30% more on abortions in 2010 than expected (based on 2009 CIHI numbers, the last year CIHI has reported on).
What if other provinces are also under-reporting their numbers? And by how much? If we extrapolate the 30% across the country, that could mean 122,000 abortions in Canada per year.
There is some good news.
For instance, in Alberta, young pro-lifers from Calgary are petitioning the Alberta government to bring a halt to paying for abortions. The campaign to Defund Abortion in Alberta is a grassroots initiative started by university and college students, mostly from Calgary, seeking to eliminate public funding for abortion and to support conscience rights for taxpayers.
PEI has been in the news as well. The Island does not provide for abortions, although they do pay for abortions PEI women to get in a Halifax hospital with a doctor's referral. There has been activity on both sides of this debate. The latest is that the status quo will remain--for now.
In conclusion, we first need more reliable statistics about abortions in every province in order to put real numbers to abortions performed. We can do this by submitting FOI's in all provinces to discover what doctors actually billed for their abortion services. FOIs could also reveal the hidden number of abortion procedures being done in clinics across the country, as well as the number of medical abortions being performed (CIHI does not currently report medical abortions).
Second, we need to find out what's going on in the provincial Health Ministries’ bureaucracies. What other so-called expert panels are there like Echo, who will recommend more abortion access, later gestation abortions, and take away the medical professions' conscience rights? In other words, are your tax dollars funding abortion advocates to advise your government like in Ontario?
If these Ontario recommendations are implemented, we can only assume other provinces will follow suit.
More details on Echo's recommendations (these were omitted from the print version of this article):
· Designate hospitals for abortions at 16 weeks’ gestation and over as a provincial resource since these procedures are less frequently required, are higher risk.
· Standardize all pregnancy counselling to include all options, including abortion. There are many providers of pregnancy counselling; however, not all providers discuss abortion services as an option. This interferes with women’s ability to determine how to proceed in a timely fashion should she wish to have an abortion.
· Ensure abortion procedures, sexual and reproductive health- related medical ethics are part of core content of sexual and reproductive health curricula in medical, nursing and midwifery education programs.
· In particular, it is recommended that: Accreditation bodies must require mandatory sexual and reproductive health curriculum in medical school training; this should include associated elements of medical ethics through use of case studies.
· All Obstetrical/Gynecology training programs must implement the SOGC curriculum and Abortion/Pregnancy Options and include second trimester abortion training.
· Obstetrical/Gynecology residency training. Obstetrical/Gynecology residency programs are encouraged to implement and/or promote the Kenneth J. Ryan Residency Training Program (a privately funded initiative that strives to integrate and enhance family planning training for obstetrics and gynecology residents in the US and Canada).
· Family Medicine training programs should be encouraged to support a 3rd year residency program in Family Medicine for Women’s Care which includes comprehensive abortion training. Support the CPSO in changing the Physicians and the Ontario Human Rights code policy to specify that physicians must refer women seeking an abortion in a timely manner to a willing abortion provider (and extend this policy to include other sexual and reproductive health services, such as emergency contraception).
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