Conservative MLA Dorothy Shephard tried to get new permissive abortion regulations debated.
On Dec. 18, the New Brunswick legislature did not debate a motion put forward by Progressive Conservative MLA and status of women critic Dorothy Shephard (Saint John Lancaster), calling on the government to delay implementing “any changes to abortion services” until they could be debated in the provincial House.
The motion was seconded by PC MLA Jody Carr (Oromocto) and aimed at Premier Brian Gallant’s scrapping of previous regulations that allowed for abortions to be paid for by taxpayer dollars only when they were approved by a second physician as medically necessary and carried out in hospitals. The new regulations also permit any doctor to carry out abortions.
But an amendment by Liberal MLA Bill Fraser (Miramichi-Bay du Vin) scuttled the motion. The amendment stated in effect that the government would accept the motion only if all members unanimously agreed that all remaining time in the current sitting in the Legislature be devoted to debating the issue. N.B. Right to Life president Peter Ryan said the amendment’s “whole purpose was designed to kibosh any meaningful debate.” Ryan also told LifeSiteNews that Fraser was considered a pro-life Liberal who told the province’s March for Life last year that he would not let Gallant impose the party leader’s pro-abortion views upon himself or the caucus.
Because the Progressive Conservative motion to delay implementation was not discussed and voted upon, Gallant’s permissive abortion regulations came into effect Jan. 1.
Meanwhile, Health Minister Victor Boudreau has said that the new regulations will cost taxpayers between $500,000 and $700,000 more per year even though he does not expect the total number of abortions to increase as a result of the more permissive abortion rules. There were about 1,000 abortions committed annually in the province, with 60 per cent of them paid for privately.
N.B. Right to Life disputes both claims. Ryan predicts that relaxing the rules to permit abortion-on-demand and making it free across the board will increase the number of abortions carried out in the province. He also said that the cost estimates by the Health Minister do not take into account the expense of added operating room staff or dealing with post-abortion complications, let alone the long-term physical and psychological complications of the procedure.
Four hospitals that do not currently carry out abortions will begin the procedure in April, joining the Dr. Georges L. Dumont Regional Hospital in Moncton and the Bathurst Chaleur Regional Hospital as hospitals that will kill preborn children in the womb.
