Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that he is withholding health care funding to New Brunswick if the province does not cave to pressure to fund private abortion facilities.
According to Global News Canada, when wrapping up a vaccine-related press conference on Tuesday, Trudeau replied to a question from a reporter about whether he would keep his 2019 promise to fund “out-of-hospital” abortions. The prime minister said that he would, adding that his government would “impress strongly upon the government of New Brunswick” that it needs to pay for more abortions. He added that the Canadian government would continue to withhold health care funding from New Brunswick until the province complies. According to Silas Brown, a journalist for Global New Brunswick, the province was already stripped of $140,216 in funding this year, though Trudeau had stated that number was in the millions.
“Making sure that every woman across this country has access to reliable reproductive services is extremely important to us, and that’s why we’ve continued… to impress strongly upon the government of New Brunswick how it needs to keep up its obligations under the Canada Health Act,” said Trudeau.
READ: Canada cancels elective surgeries, but abortion businesses keep doors open
Yet, according to Canada.ca, under the Canada Health Act, a “number of services provided by hospitals and physicians are not considered medically necessary, and are not insured by provincial and territorial health insurance plans.” The site also states that provinces and territories “have considerable leeway in determining how to finance health insurance plans.”
“Justin Trudeau is such an extremist on the abortion issue, he would rather withhold taxpayer dollars (without taxpayer consent) during a pandemic, than follow the Canada Health Act and let provinces decide funding decisions themselves,” RightNow co-founder Alissa Golog told True North.
Abortion is not medically necessary at any point in pregnancy and New Brunswick has the ability to determine which services it will or won’t cover. Some of the services not covered in provinces include private nursing, prescription renewals by telephone, and cosmetic services. Yet, Trudeau is focused solely on forcing New Brunswick to fund abortions at a private abortion business.
“In Trudeau’s twisted mind, killing children supersedes life-threatening medical conditions. Let that sink in,” said Golog.
Global News Canada states that New Brunswick is the only province that does not fund abortions that occur outside of hospitals. Currently, there are three hospitals that receive funding for abortions in New Brunswick. Abortions also occur at Clinic 554 in the capital of Fredericton, but the government does not provide the facility with funding to cover the costs of abortion. Clinic 554 is considered a private family practice that commits abortions; however, its website states that its focus is “on reproductive, trans, LGBT/Queer, and HIV Care.”
In 2019, Clinic 554 threatened to close its doors unless the provincial government gave it money to cover the cost of abortion for women. “[W]e can’t keep providing free abortions,” Dr. Adrian Edgar of Clinic 554 said at the time. In January 2021, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association filed a constitutional challenge in Court of Queen’s Bench in Fredericton in an attempt to strike down a portion of New Brunswick’s Regulation 84-20, which states certain services will not be covered by medicare — including out-of-hospital abortions. In June, a judge allowed that case to move forward.
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