There’s an interesting reference in Ted Gerk’s new column in this month’s Interim about efforts to exclude pro-life people from some aspects of public life.

Gerk’s argument is that as more and more people discover the truth behind the abortion industry, they will eventually find their way to the pro-life position. In the meantime however, vested pro-abortion interests have upped the stakes, using misinformation, suppression of pro-lifers’ freedom of speech, and legal harassment to maintain their advantage.

There’s a chilling trend in evidence over the last few years that committed pro-life individuals are somehow unfit to participate in public office. How else to explain the efforts by the British Columbia health ministry to “weed out” pro-lifers from participation in community and regional health boards?

The health minister, Joy MacPhail, recently announced that the province will appoint members of the 45 health councils, rather than hold elections. The minister also admitted that in order to be eligible for service on these boards, candidates must fully support the government’s philosophy on health care, including wide-open access to abortion services. So much for diversity!

West coast pro-life people are rightly concerned that such exclusionary thinking could conceivably be applied to other areas of public service, including the justice system. They also see the move as an effort by the government to bypass local input in favor of centralized control.

We realize this is a rabidly pro-choice NDP government behind these desperate tactics. But even NDP supporters should admit that when one’s position on the right to life is grounds for exclusion from even a low order of public life, then something certainly is rotten in Denmark – and in Victoria.

Pro-life groups in B.C. plan to bring the matter before the province’s Human Rights Commission.

Let’s hope that body recognizes this action as blatant discrimination against anyone who dares disagree with the government line on abortion.