Would restrict public access to statistics

and force hospitals to offer abortions

SEEN AS PLOY TO CREATE ELECTION WEDGE ISSUE

TO DIVIDE LIBERALS

Campaign Life Coalition British Columbia president John Hof knew something was in the wind while watching B.C Premier Ujjal Dosanjh in a province-wide television address.

Dosanjh, desperate for an election issue, promised new initiatives in the fight to increase access to abortion in B.C.

Despite the fact that B.C. has one of the highest abortion rates in Canada, Hof knew that the promise would be extreme, and far-reaching.

We knew, given their track record, that the NDP would seek to divide pro-life caucus members in the Legislature, then give the abortion industry whatever they wanted – their basic wish list, if you will.

Hof did not have to wait long for the subsequent announcement. On March 27, education minister Joy MacPhail introduced in the House an 11-point plan described by Hof as the most extremist abortion agenda anywhere in North America.

Among its recommendations:

Increase the amount paid to abortionists (citing the fact they haven’t received a raise since 1982);

Keep funding trials of the French abortion pill, RU-486;

Enact in legislation the names of 35 B.C. hospitals, forcing them to provide abortions;

Lobby Ottawa to make harassment of abortionists a hate crime;

Provide additional money to police forces to spy on pro-life groups; and

Ban the release of any information on abortion, other than provincial or regional statistics.

MacPhail introduced legislation a few days later, known as Bill 21. The bill took two of the provisions in the motion, and enshrined them in law. It received third and final reading on April 4. Forcing hospitals to do abortions, and banning abortion-related information, passed without a hitch.

The original motion did not have the support of the Liberal opposition caucus (by agreed arrangement), but individual Liberals did vote in favor of Bill 21.

Unclear at this time is whether the Liberals, when they take power in an election that is expected to decimate the NDP, will rescind Bill 21.

Hof stated: “Bill 21 was the most extremist piece of abortion-related legislation to ever pass in any legislature anywhere in the western world. Imagine, citizens have now been told by their government that they have no business knowing any information on abortion – we have no idea who in the abortion industry the government is sitting down with and meeting in secret, we have no idea on where babies are being born alive after their abortion – nothing! And what’s more, we are being told these hospitals must commit abortion, or else!”

Wading into the debate was the province’s Information and Privacy Commissioner, David Loukidelis, who stated in a scathing letter to MacPhail: “Bill 21 will, for the first time, specify a subject that is essentially off-limits under the FOI [Freedom of Information] Act.”

He continues: “Many legitimate issues of the accountability of public bodies for their use of public funds cannot, therefore, be addressed through the right of access. Bill 21 simply excludes accountability, by, for all intents and purposes, repealing the right of access in this area.”

Hof added: “The FOI provision in Bill 21 was one request of the wish list of the B.C. Task Force on Access to Contraception and Abortion in the early 1990s. The government has been sitting on this wish for years – and now only had the courage when they knew theyÕd be finished in the upcoming election. They had nothing to lose. Our only hope is that, given their clear stand, the Liberals take the upcoming NDP wipeout as permission to wipe the legislative slate clean of this poor excuse for a law.”