Premier William Vander Zalm’s throne speech on March 9, contained promises to reduce abortion, help parents who choose the independent education process for their children and generally cut the costs of government.
Although the Premier promised, “funding to reduce the high rate of abortions,” the speech did not go into details. The Pro-life Society of B.C. submitted a brief to the Vander Zalm government in January and recommended the following:
The Government declares that it will protect the lives of all people in British Columbia from conception to natural death.
The Government instruct all hospital boards that conformity with the present abortion law required that they issue strict guidelines to their TAC, directing these committees to refuse abortion certificates except in those rare cases where the mother’s life or health is endangered, i.e., placed in peril, b continuation of the pregnancy, where the committee has real evidence from the attending doctor in writing, of probable, not possible, medical danger, and only where all life-supporting avenues of treatment have been exhausted. Abortion is not to be authorized for social, financial or eugenic reasons. The committee members are to review the mother’s medical records and form a true medical opinion, not merely rubberstamp an application.
The Ministry of Health should conduct an immediate investigation into abortion practices in our hospitals.
Every medical procedure requires that true informed consent be given by the patient. In the area of abortion, the woman contemplating abortion must be fully informed as to the humanity and development of her child, all possible complications to herself, and all support services available to her.
That conscience clause protection be introduced so doctors, nurses, health care workers, human resource workers, teachers and others will be protected in their right to work in their chosen fields without having to, in any way, agree to participate in the destruction of life.
The policy of the Social Services and Housing Ministry should not be slanted towards recommending abortions.
Medical research, which involves unethical human experimentation or contemplates eugenic abortion, should be denied government funding.
Sex education programmes which do not encourage young people to respect parental values and do not encourage them to practice responsible self control should not be supported by the government.
Textbooks, recommended reading and other curriculum materials in high schools and colleges which present abortion as back-up birth control should be replaced.
The Ministry of Health should conduct research into long-term morbidity of induced abortion considering the accumulating evidence from other countries.
The Ministry of Health should conduct research into the cause of stillbirths and the increasing number of D & Cs.
The Government of B.C. should cease funding of any organization that advocates removal of legal protection for unborn children.
The Government of B.C. should investigate all abortions performed on minors to discover whether, in fact, parental consent was obtained prior to the abortion being performed.
The Government of B.C. should investigate whether public monies are being used to pay for expenses of women traveling to the U.S. or to major centers in B.C. to obtain abortions.
Labour Laws should be amended to permit members of labour unions which support or fund pro-abortion groups to redirect their union dues to charities of their choice.
Control of hospitals should be returned to community elected hospital boards. Government appointees to hospital boards be required to respect all human life and the rule of law.
Provincial government should gather and publish induced abortion statistics.
