On the day that Paul Martin announced former NDP British Columbia premier Ujjal Dosanjh would be the new federal Health Minister, Dosanjh announced he would not tolerate private healthcare in Canada as he examines ways to improve the health system. “What we need to do is stem the tide of privatization in Canada and expand public delivery of healthcare, so that we have a stronger healthcare system for all Canadians.”
Not long ago, however, Dosanjh was the best friend of at least one aspect of private “health care.” In the cabinet of NDP BC premier Glen Clark and then as premier himself, Dosanjh supported private abortion facilities, even going so far as to defend the bubble zone which enabled private abortuaries to operate without interference from pro-life demonstrators and counsellors. In other words, Dosanjh supported the violation of citizens’ civil rights to ensure that nothing would interfere with the business interests of private abortuaries. Considering this history, Campaign Life Coalition BC president John Hof, who clashed often with the former premier, called Dosanjh’s declaration of war on ” the for profit privatization” of health care in Canada “a joke.”
As The Interim often reported during the NDP’s years in power in B.C., Dosanjh promoted and encouraged for profit private abortion facilities. So why is a doctor who uses his medical training in the service of killing human life allowed to profit but a doctor who uses his medical training to provide much-needed MRIs, cataract treatment or rehabilitation services not allowed to operate freely. Not that Dosanjh is alone in his double standard; many politicians and pundits support universal, public healthcare but make an exception for the private provision of abortion. They want to close down private MRI clinics while not merely allowing private abortion clinics to operate but to fund them.
Why do abortionists get special treatment? Is it because advocates of abortion recognize that the procedure is not legitimate medicine, despite their claim that abortion is always medically necessary? Indeed, for some advocates of abortion, killing the child in utero is greater than healthcare; it is a sacrament in the Church of Feminism.
What the double standard illustrates is that abortion is not healthcare, so in a one way Dosanjh and his ilk are not being hypocritical; MRIs, as legitimate medicine would fall under the penumbra of the Canada Health Act and whatever principles govern universal, state-run healthcare, whereas abortion is not and therefore would not. Now if only we could get Dosanjh (and other abortion advocates) to admit as much. If that happened, it would be a step toward a more honest abortion debate and possibly even legislative action. Not being healthcare, abortion could be defunded, so whether the killing is done in a privately owned abortuary or a publicly financed hospital, taxpayers would not be footing the bill. At the very least, then, we hope that Canadians awaken to the double standards which prop up the abortion industry in this country and the realization that Dosanjh’s passion for public provision of healthcare is not as great as his passion for abortion. Then Canadians should ask themselves: do they really share their health minister’s priorities?double standard
