Canada Pro-Abortion Coalition Wants to Increase Abortion Access 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
November 15, 2005
Ottawa, Canada (LifeNews.com) — The newly organized coalition of pro-abortion groups in Canada says it hopes the results of upcoming elections there will help increase access to abortion. Recently abortion advocates came together to form the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada.
"Abortion is often considered a settled issue in Canada, but it is still politicized and that impedes access," the group said in a recent statement.
It points to the fact that even though all Canadian provinces have made abortion a "medically required" procedure covered under the Canada Health Act, the group says some provinces haven’t fully implemented that decision.
The group complains that approximately 9,000 women pay for their own abortions every year. Two provinces, New Brunswick and Quebec, do not use taxpayer funds to pay for abortions at all abortion facilities.
The abortion advocates also lament that just 20 percent of the hospitals in Canada perform abortions, which they claim makes access to abortion difficult for rural and low-income women.
Looking to the elections, the abortion advocates don’t want Canadians to support Conservative Party candidates.
"With a federal election around the corner, the public needs to know that about 70 per cent of the Conservative Party caucus is on public record with an anti-abortion stance,” said Carolyn Egan, a Toronto spokesperson for ARCC.
In comparison, just 12 percent of those affiliated with the Liberal caucus are pro-life and none of the MPs of the Bloc Quebecois or NDP oppose abortion.
"We want to make sure that Conservatives don’t try to impose their anti-choice ideology on all Canadian women,” said Egan. “We must never go back to the old days of unconstitutional restrictions on women’s reproductive freedom."
