A Global News report has revealed that each year, despite the fact that Canada has no restrictions on abortion, dozens of Canadian women are crossing the border to undergo late-term abortions in the United States. The reasons women are leaving the pro-abortion country to undergo abortions include long waiting periods, a lack of abortion facilities, and a lack of doctors willing to commit abortion after 20 weeks.
“People who access abortion care, especially for later-term abortion care, they have to travel to the United States to do that,” Frederique Chabot, director of health promotion at Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights told Global News. “People go and seek them in the United States so if these services are not offered in the United States anymore, we’re going to see, effectively, a reduction in abortion access for Canadian people as well.”
Only one province – Ontario – was able to provide Global News with details about how many women from that province travel to the U.S. for abortion. Since 2014, more than 100 women have been referred from Ontario to the United States for abortions, according to the Global News report. The total cost of those abortions was US$1.5 million. Global News reports that Canadian providences do cover the cost of the abortions obtained in the U.S. because abortion is considered health care which falls under provincial jurisdiction.
“That means Canadian women face a patchwork of different provincial availability even for early-stage abortions, with several provinces still refusing to cover the cost of the abortion pill Mifegymiso,” reported Global News. “That can lead to a domino effect where women unable to access early abortions must seek out more difficult-to-access, later-stage abortions, in which case they often get referred to the U.S.”
Effectively, this means that by restricting abortion in the United States, not only are the lives of viable American children being saved but the lives of viable Canadian children as well.
Quebec Premier Francois Legault told La Presse that he wants women to be able to access late-term abortions in Quebec rather than the U.S. and is in talks with a hospital that may be willing to commit the abortions. However, saying he needed “to avoid spooking the provider into backing down from providing” abortions, he declined to provide further details.
Pro-abortion Prime Minister Justin Trudeau met with Vice President Mike Pence about the NAFTA ratification process on Thursday and they discussed the abortion issue. According to CNN, Trudeau said that he made Pence aware that Canadians are concerned about the new abortion restrictions in the U.S. and how that will affect them.
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