Last Updated:Friday - 09/24/2010

Hypocrisy on private clinics

In the recent federal election the Liberal party made great political hay out of its dubious claim that permitting the establishment of private health clinics, whose services would be paid for by medicare, would create a two-tier health-care system. The Liberals argued that they would fight against the establishment of private clinics in order to preserve the integrity of medicare.

It was a questionable argument given that the federal health minister had written to the Alberta government five years ago saying that private clinics with services paid by medicare would not violate the Canada Health Act. It also doesn't square with the federal government turning a blind eye for more than a decade to privately-run abortion clinics in several provinces where abortions were at least partly paid for by medicare.

In any event, during the campaign the Liberals said they didn't like private clinics and would try to prevent their establishment.

It is thus somewhat ironic that Health Minister Allan Rock's first major act after the election is to warn four provinces that they are violating the Canada Health Act by not paying for abortions performed at private clinics. In other words, private clinics must be eradicated, unless they perform abortions, in which case they must be preserved and taxpayers must be forced to foot the bill.

The National Post has accused Rock of employing "a double standard" on this issue. It is couching the truth in too gentle a language. The minister is guilty of gross hypocrisy.

It is worthy of note that one week before the election, Henry Morgentaler, the 77-year-old patriarch of the abortion movement, publicly shifted his allegiance from the NDP to the Liberals. The Liberals had earned Morgentaler's support by Prime Minister Jean Chretien's open support for "the right to choose" as well as by related moves such as the party's adoption of a policy supporting assisted suicide (not yet enacted in legislation). With the NDP more and more out of the picture, Morgentaler knew on what side his bread was buttered and decided to endorse the Liberals.

The federal government says the Canada Health Act requires all abortions to be taxpayer-funded because they are medically necessary. This is a preposterous claim, one overwhelmingly rejected by taxpayers on the few occasions they have had to state their views. In a 1991 referendum in Saskatchewan, electors voted 80 per cent against continuing tax support for abortion. In Alberta, during the campaign against tax-funded abortions four years ago, pollsters found 70 per cent of the population opposed to taxpayers paying the cost of abortions. But although voters in those two provinces don't believe abortions are medically necessary, their provincial governments continue to pay for them anyway.

A closely related issue is that professed Catholics are often leading the increasing pro-abortion militancy of the federal government.

This is a public scandal that has grown in intensity in recent months. The dichotomy between Church teaching and the actions of some Catholic politicians makes it appear that the Church is not serious about its teaching against abortion. Too few are the times when the Canadian Church has spoken out against the actions of politicians who have successfully endeavoured to make abortion more and more accessible.

The latest act of political hypocrisy on private abortion clinics again makes it clear that some Catholic politicians are not even willing to pay lip service to the value of human life. Their agenda and that of the Church are diametrically opposed.

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