Despite besting the provincial Progressive Conservatives by nine percentage points (43 per cent compared to 34) in the Sept. 22 New Brunswick election, the Liberals eked out a bare majority, leading in 27 ridings in the 49-seat provincial legislature. The Tories took 21 and the Green Party won a Fredericton riding.
The focus of the election was, of course, the economy and the environment and how to best create jobs. But unlike many provincial campaigns, abortion became a hot topic.
In the spring, the provincial Liberals vowed to increase abortion access after news broke that the Fredericton Morgentaler abortuary would close later in the year due to a lack of taxpayer funding for the private facility. Liberal leader Brian Gallant has not offered specifics on how he would increase access, only promising a review of Health regulation 84-20, implemented by former Liberal premier Frank McKenna in 1987 and upheld by every government since. Regulation 84-20 requires a second doctor to sign off on an abortion procedure to certify it as medically necessary, a rule supported by the New Brunswick Medical Society which says it is similar to any specialist referral for other procedures.
Gallant also said that the review would find that the current regulation serves no medical benefit and should be overturned. Abortion activists such as Kathleen Pye of Reproductive Justice New Brunswick say the review is unnecessary and have condemned the Liberal leader for not just promising to overturn regulation 84-20.
But Gallant has indicated on several occasions both before and during the campaign that if the Liberal Party is elected it will “swiftly act to find all barriers to abortion and eliminate them.”
The Premier-Elect does not need to bring forth a law to change the regulation and therefore can avoid a debate and vote in the legislative assembly.
Knowing that the media generally ignores the abortion issue during election campaigns, Campaign Life Coalition and the Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform sent staff and volunteers to the province to highlight Gallant’s abortion position. A team of youth from CLC and CCBR distributed an estimated 20,000 postcards that showed a graphic picture of an abortion victim alongside a smiling Gallant, with the words: “A vote for Brian Gallant and the Liberals is a vote for this.”
The pro-life information campaign was widely reported in the media when some homeowners complained about receiving the postcards in their mailboxes. Gallant said he welcomed a debate about abortion but condemned the tactics. He said use of the images were “crossing a line” and called the photos “deeply offensive.”
At a press conference, Gallant said, “there’s no doubt that during a campaign you’ll have many people that will try to influence people’s votes, and that’s normal and that’s something that we certainly accept, but we find it very disappointing and very unfortunate to have such graphic photos going around.”
He said the pamphlets did not advance the abortion debate in a “respectful way.”
CLC Youth coordinator Alissa Golob responded on Twitter to Gallant’s criticism: “If pictures of abortion are horrifying and horrible, would it not follow that abortion is horrifying and horrible.”
Golob told local media, “Mr. Gallant says that it’s okay to have debate and discussion in one breath, and in another says that all candidates running for the Liberal Party are forced to comply with his pro-abortion stance.”
The CLC and CCBR postcard campaign seemed to raise the profile of the abortion issue to the point that a question on the topic was asked during the second leaders’ debate.
The five party leaders, which included NDP leader Dominic Cardy, Green leader David Coon, and People’s Alliance Kris Austin, sparred over abortion, with Cardy claiming the Liberals are using the review to take a middle road approach that insufficiently promoted abortion while Austin tied Gallant to Justin Trudeau’s abortion edict disqualifying pro-lifers from running as candidates and requiring all MPs to vote pro-abortion, which the Liberal leader denied. Gallant retorted that the NDP should be more concerned about PC leader David Alward and Austin, who support the status quo on abortion funding when it is approved by two doctors.
Golob told The Interim that without the activism of CLC and CCBR, abortion would not have become the campaign issue it had, with television, radio, and newspaper coverage of abortion and abortion funding in the final two weeks before election day.
CLC also purchased a half-page ad in the Saint John Telegraph-Journal, the largest daily in the province, on the final weekend of the campaign urging citizens to vote pro-life.
