B.C. Premier William Vander Zalm has decided his province will not pay for induced abortions. Thus B.C. becomes the first province to affirm that the taxpayer should not be held responsible for abortion on demand.
Liberal leader John Turner and NDP health critic Marion Dewar have called upon Health Minister Jake Epp to cut off federal health funding ($700 million) to punish British Columbia. Committed to the view that a woman has the right to kill her unborn baby, Turner and Dewar don’t mind threatening pro-life efforts. They favour the Ontario scheme, launched in October 1987 by the Peterson government. The extensive provincial programme promotes government-financed and government-supported abortions.
The B.C. decisions reflects the original argument of the 1960s that abortions would be private and not involved anyone opposed to them. Pro-life people across the country are now urging their provincial premiers to follow the B.C. example and cut government financing of abortion once and for all. The move comes at the right time, now that costs of provincial health insurance schemes are skyrocketing.
