If there is (and there is) a seamless garment of death, one of the principal knitters is Gaetan Barrette, Quebec’s Health Minister.
NRL News Today readers probably recall his role in actively promoting assisted suicide and taking aim at conscience protections for pro-life physicians.
Quebec legalized what it euphemistically called “aid in dying”– which, as Wesley J. Smith explained “in the context of the law requires a doctor-administered lethal jab”–well before the Supreme Court of Canada imposed euthanasia on the entire country. He has been busy ever since doing his best to squelch the right of physicians not to be involved at all.
But abortion has always been his first love. This week he announced that by the end of this fall Quebec plans to provide the “abortion pill” (the two-drug RU-486 abortion technique) free of charge through RAMQ, the Quebec health insurance board.
Called Mifegymiso in Canada, it is made by Linepharma International Limited, distributed by Celopharma Inc, and currently costs about $300. Health Canada authorized its use in July 2015.
According to reporter Amy Luft, “In April, New Brunswick became the first province to offer the abortion pill for free. Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario are also following suit with free access.”
“It is currently only available with a doctor’s prescription in Canada, though some countries have opted to allow the drug to be dispensed by pharmacies,” Luft explained.
“This is good news for all Quebecers who want to use it rather than using traditional abortion services,” said Barrette. He said that “not only will it save the province money, but Quebec women deserve to have access to it.”
“We’ve always been in favour of women having the right to decide for themselves,” he added. “The abortion pill is an additional option, among the methods for voluntarily ending a pregnancy that has certain advantages for women.”
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For now at least, Barrette said its use would be limited to the first seven weeks of pregnancy. That was initially the case in the United States but pro-abortionists routinely began to prescribe its use up to nine weeks.
Naturally, the stories in the pro-abortion Canadian press trivialized what happens and omitted all references to the dangers to women of the two drugs. Luft reported today
Mifegymiso is made up of two oral medications: mifepristone and misoprostol. Prescribed together, the first causes the lining of the uterus to break down, and the second, taken 24 to 48 hours later, induces contractions that are similar to a miscarriage. This ends the pregnancy within two days.
In reality, breaking down the “lining of the uterus” results in the starvation of the unborn child. And it is not like what happens during a woman’s menstrual period, no matter how many times they make this bogus and grossly dehumanizing analogy.
With one exception there have been unfortunately, no new numbers that I am aware of since 2011 about the number of deaths and “adverse events.” At that juncture, 14 women had died in the United States alone and there had been 2,209 “adverse events” reported to the FDA.
That exception is a commentary earlier this year in the New England Journal of Medicine which matter of factly said that the deaths of 19 women had been reported to the FDA. But that 19 figure may include 5 deaths overseas.
Adverse events is a blanket term that covers everything from the need for blood transfusions to endometritis, pelvic inflammatory disease, and pelvic infections with sepsis (“a serious systemic infection that has spread beyond the reproductive organs,” according to the FDA).
And whatever limitations there are on the use of Mifegymiso in Canada, if what has happened in the US is any guide, pro-abortionists will work assiduously to eliminate them.
For example, a year ago, the FDA eased restrictions on the use of RU-486, reducing required dosages, extending the cutoff time, reducing office visits, and loosening the qualifications for prescribers. It was not enough for the abortion lobby which wants them all watered down or eliminated.
LifeNews.com Note: Dave Andrusko is the editor of National Right to Life News and an author and editor of several books on abortion topics. This post originally appeared in at National Right to Life News Today —- an online column on pro-life issues.
