Alarming lows

Over 100,000 abortions are performed in Canada each year. That's the official statistics. The actual numbers are higher than that since some surgical or chemical abortions are not reported as such. Yet even that is not enough for the NDP Health Critic Penny Priddy and NDP Women's Critic Irene Mathyssen. They complain that many Canadian mothers do not have easy enough access to doctors willing to abort their babies.

Responding to a report provided by an abortion lobby group named "Canadians for choice" the two MPs were outraged with the fact that a percentage of hospitals performing abortions went down from 17.8% to 15.9%. They condemn the governments of PEI, New Brunswick and Manitoba for restricting access to abortions (rather than making them available at any hospital upon demand at the taxpayers' expense), claiming that "abortion access falls to alarming lows".

The NDP press release ends with a statement that "All women in Canada have a right to abortion services under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and within the framework of the Canada Health Act". The truth however is that the Charter does not say anything about a "right to abortion" and that the Canada Health Act does not require provinces to pay for elective injurious procedures such as abortions on demand.

Meanwhile abortion numbers remain above 100,000 a year. Nearly one in three pre-born children in Canada does not live to see daylight. Does that look anything like an "alarming" decline in access to abortion? I'd say it's the NDP and the poor-choice activists that have sunk to alarming lows.