Hot on the heels of my recent poll, "Does Canada need some kind of abortion law? ", I see that Henry Morgentaler is in the news again.
First the poll results (and I know it isn’t scientific) : 70% of the respondents felt that Canada should have some kind of law regarding abortion. I was watching this poll closely the last few days and the percentages didn’t move much. Frankly, I thought the ‘yes’ side would have a higher margin. 33 respondents is a pitifully small sample though, so I’m not sure how much use that poll really is.
Anyway, now we find out that getting the Order of Canada and having unlimited access to abortion isn’t enough for Morgentaler. He wants the Province of New Brunswick to pay for abortions performed at his Fredericton clinic. This seems to be the last holdout and he is going after it.
Oh, the taxpayers already cover abortions in hospitals right across the country, but Morgentaler wants it all and has now been granted the right to challenge the Liberal government in NB:
New Brunswick Court of Queen’s Bench Judge Paulette Garnett granted Morgentaler "public interest standing" to represent the interests of women in relation to abortion funding.
The article by CP finishes with the following statement:
This is more good news for 84-year-old Morgentaler who was recently awarded the Order of Canada for his years of service in caring for the needs of women.
- The needs of women who manage to get born, that is.
I’d love to hear from New Brunswick residents on this one.
And does anyone know what Morgentaler gets back from his clinics?
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Update: NB Tory Lady : Oh my gawd – Morgentaler strikes my province!
Interesting tidbit here by Paul Schratz from the B.C. Catholic Newspaper:
…As everyone knows, Morgentaler is portrayed with a heroism, nobility and selflessness unseen since Macbeth.
Too bad reality is quite different. According to the Quebec physicians disciplinary committee, which suspended him from practising medicine in the 1970s, Morgentaler was more concerned with "protecting his fees" than with any humanitarian concern.
The committee even faulted him for failing to interview patients before abortions, a behaviour they said "confers a mercenary character on the doctor-patient relationship."
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Links to legal background of abortion in Canada :
- Duhaime: Abortion law in Canada "…A legislative vacuum of sorts was created…"
Jonathan Kay: A cheat sheet with Ben-Ami’s arguments on why Canada needs an abortion policy:
4. Contrary to popular belief, the Supreme Court of Canada never declared that the government had no right to regulate abortion — nor did it claim that a fetus had no rights (though it has claimed that a fetus is not a "person"). All the Supreme Court did, in its 1988 Morgentaler decision, was strike down a regulation system that was unpredictable, badly administered, fragmented and out of date. Nothing in Canadian constitutional law or supreme court jurisprudence would prevent Parliament from creating a new law that outlawed abortions after, say, 14, or 16, or 18 weeks of gestation.
