By Liz Townsend
In an attempt to save money that now is used to send women to the United States for abortions after 22 weeks, Quebec health officials said September 10 they are looking for someone to perform late abortions in the province, Canadian Press (CP) reported. Quebec currently spends about $5,000 for each of these abortions.
Every abortion clinic now operating in Canada refuses to perform abortions beyond 22 weeks, which is about the beginning of the sixth month. However, the Quebec government is encouraging a newly trained abortionist to open a clinic next year that will include such "services," according to CP.
"The right to an abortion is well-recognized in Quebec and Canada," Cathy Rouleau, a spokeswoman for Quebec Health Minister Philippe Couillard, told CP. "We have an obligation to get a patient the help that she needs."
In 2003, Quebec sent 30 women to the U.S. for such abortions. Many were sent to the Wichita, Kansas, clinic of notorious abortionist George Tiller, according to Canadian Physicians for Life.
Officials attempted to justify these abortions by saying they were medically necessary. However, Couillard admitted to CBC Radio that late abortions are often "related to congenital malformations but also sometimes for other reasons."
"Quebec babies on the way to George Tiller's clinic in Wichita won't be coming home ever again," said Canadian Physicians for Life president Will Johnston, M.D.
The provinces of British Columbia and Ontario also send women to the U.S. for these abortions, CP reported. Canada has no national law on abortion since the Supreme Court declared its regulations unconstitutional in 1988. Each province has its own laws that govern abortion.
Pro-life groups and Catholic Church officials condemned the provincial governments for paying for these babies' deaths.
"It's easy to see it's an abomination when someone reaches a certain number of months, we can see it's killing a human being," Msgr. Marc Ouellet, bishop of the Quebec City archdiocese, told CP. "But why do we draw such subtle distinctions? The whole thing is unacceptable."
Even infamous Ontario abortionist Henry Morgentaler, who is well-known in Canada for challenging abortion regulations and forcing governments to fund them, offered criticism.
"Around 24 weeks I have ethical problems doing that," Morgentaler told CP. "What we do at our clinics is if we have a problem like that we usually counsel the woman to continue the pregnancy and put it up for adoption if she is unable to care for it."
"Regulating late-term abortions should be a centrepiece in [prime minister] Paul Martin's fall legislative agenda," wrote columnist Nigel Hannaford in the Calgary Herald. "If Morgentaler thinks they're too much, they are."